The Easter Bilby

Happy Easter!

Cadbury chocolate Easter Bilby
(source: Woolworths)

While in Australia, you come across some peculiar animals that exist nowhere else in the world. There is a whole species of marsupials (mammals with a pouch), that are indigenous to the country. One of the lesser known ones is the Greater Bilby, a small rabbit/mouse-like mammal that lives predominantly in central Australia. These poor buggers are on the verge of extinction. The main reasons for the decline in bilby population are habitat loss, competition from feral rabbits and deaths to non-native predators such as cats and foxes, particularily when bilbies range further from their homes during bushfire events.

The Greater Bilby - Macrotis lagotis (photo: Queensland
Department of Environment and Heritage)

Popularized through the story Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby that was written by an Australian woman when she was 9 years old, the Easter Bilby became an icon and sparked several bilby campaigns. For example, in an attempt to raise public awareness to their endangered state chocolate easter bilbies were sold instead of regular easter bunnies (see image). Unfortunately, they are hardly sold anymore. However, there are breeding programs in place and maybe one day the bilby will make a glorious return to the stage of Australian wildlife. In that sense, happy bilby easter everybody!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

Meeting the Twelve Apostels - Victorian style

G'day folks!

Once again I'd like to share a few pictures with you, this time around from the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The GOR is an over 200km long coast strip situated west of Melbourne, which has been listed as an Australian National Heritage. Many interesting rock formations adorn this continent border, including a group of limestone stacks known as The Twelve Apostels. These rocks were not always so popular amongst sightseers because they were originally known as Sow and Piglets. Soon after being renamed with a much more myth-enshrouded name involving the disciples of a certain god's son popularity of the sight grew drastically. Nowadays the twelve apostels represent one of the geological highlights of the state.

There is an interesting story about a three tourists who once were walking across a natural bridge which existed between two of these apostels. As luck would have it, just as the group crossed the bridge to the outlying limestone formation the bridge collapsed behind them leaving the tourists trapped. A driver who was passing by the place called for help. The only way to save the isolated married couple and the single man was to evacuate them via helicopter. The nearest available gyroplane belonged to a TV news crew who did not want this opportunity of action news slip by. So when they picked up the three stranded tourists naturally they wanted to interview them. Oddly enough the people behaved very camera shy and reluctant to allow interviews. The reason for this was revealed later. As it turned out, none of them were supposed to be out there that day. The single man was supposed to be at work but had taken the day off being reported as sick. As for the couple, although married, they were not married with each other. Naturally national publicity was the least thing these three people had hoped for that fateful day. Talk about karma!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

See you later Aligator!

G'Day to all of you!

So the day of departure finally arrived last Friday, and thus my ~30 hours journey to the Southern Hemisphere began. Almost 12h of flight to the city-state Singapur, a 4h break at Airport, 7 more hours to Sydney, where every outsider (and locals alike) needs to pass thorough quarantine checks until allowed to proceed his or her jouney, 4 more hours of wait before the final flight to Melboune (short hop of 2h). When travelling to Australia its best not to bring anything organic beside yourself, otherwhise fines can be charged up to AUD $1000 and in severe cases you might be put into jail. So it is probably for the best to leave those muddy shoes and the original Rembrandt with the fancy wooden picture frame at home (foreign wood worms are considered a threat to the Australian ecosystem).

Although well into the fall season, to be greeted by 25 degrees Celsius and sunshine in Mid March is not too uncommon in Melbourne. Too bad I literally fell straight into bed as soon as arriving at the hostel, but no need to hurry, as Melbourne can be found on the same latitude as Santa Cruz County (California). Anyhow, as this small blog entry concludes, I'd like to my best wishes to all of you, especially to the ones I hadn't had the chance to see off in person. Take care and hopefully you'll stick around, as there are more entries on their way. Cheers!

-Jan

Era of the kangaroos

Welcome back everyone!

It's been quite some time since I last blogged here. But the radio silence is about to end, as I will be travelling to the Australian continent in the foreseeable future. More infos will follow soon, so stay tuned! :D

-Jan