The kangaroos are being driven crazy at present with some sort of bitey insects. They are choosing to lie in any dusty spots, which are mainly on the track, where their swishing tails sweep it smooth. This male grey kangaroo was ‘caught short’ by the horse flies or fleas or whatever they are, just inside [...]
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My eyes did a double-take as I saw that my favourite rock seemed to have attracted an echoing rounded hump — spiky rather than spotty. The lighter echidna, whom I’ve been calling Blondie, looked gingery-red this time, but I am not so intimate with these extraordinary creatures that I can be sure if it’s the [...]
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This wallaby joey is at the very cute spindly-legged, big-eyed stage. It is only starting to spend time out of Mum’s pouch — and that’s a nervous time. It’s learning to care for itself, like de-fleaing and scratching in awkward places. But the minute something new occcurs, so does panic, and it’s a headfirst scramble [...]
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The echidnas who poke about my yard seem to cope with any terrain, as I’ve shown you before — climbing fence stays, banks, logs, rocks and steps with ease. They look awkward as they lumber along on their sturdy legs, but seem to have great balance, as you can see by the way this one [...]
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Strong winds find weak branches on mountainside trees like mine, and I am always wary on wild days. This time I heard the crack from inside the cabin, and crossed my fingers it hadn’t landed on the track. It had, but only the tops of the branches, so easily chainsaw-able. Except, as they were springy [...]
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Early mornings are a good time for wallaby viewing as they move into the yard to catch the sun and start their day. Warming up and washing are essential first steps. This mother and joey are combining the two as the sun rises above my eastern treeline. They looked like they were hugging but as [...]
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This mother and joey have claimed the bank outside my spare bedroom window as their patch. Mum lies there a lot in the warmth of the Autumn days, and the little one lounges inside, sometimes with its head out and one bent arm over the edge of the pouch, for all the world like a [...]
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I can’t recall how Pooh Bear’s macropod mother and child were allotted the names of Kanga and Roo, but here they are. I saw this rather awkward drinking session on the bank outside a bedroom window. It went on and on and on; he was a big and very thirsty Eastern Grey joey. The mother [...]
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About to walk back up the steps with an armful of wood, I had to look twice to believe what I saw: the little echidna suspended from my verandah edge. Why on earth was it there and how did it get there? I quickly opened the flimsy wallaby gate and saw that, although it was [...]
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Having opened my house yard gates over a year ago, I never expected to have to mow grass again. Given that I was sacrificing so many garden plants and shrubs to the apparently omni-herbivorous marsupials who took up the occupancy offer… I should have known better. They don’t like long grass, tussocks or certain introduced [...]
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As you may know, snakes have a certain effect on me that I have not yet overcome. However this one, found under a log by a visitor, I can cope with. In fact I can say I almost find it cute. It’s a Common Eastern Blind Snake — sometimes called Worm Snakes for obvious reasons. [...]
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On one common lemon tree in my yard — and I have raised many, never wanting to be short of lemons — I have discovered a busy metropolis of green creatures. This bejewelled and banded, spotted and spiked emerald caterpillar is one of about a similar six that I could easily see — the inquisitive [...]
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Here's the cover of my new book — Rich Land, Wasteland — How coal is killing Australia — which is now in bookshops.
A candid meander through my life up here on my remote mountain wildlife refuge, answering the oft-asked question 'Why do you live way out there?'
Stories about the wild things who allow me to share their living space — and a plea to look after them before it's too late.
