The Wild Side - Killer Koalas

Fierce sharks, ferocious lions, monstrous hippos, but the most terrifying was the killer koalas. The past few days we have seen it all.

Aiden and I were lucky enough (Aiden considered himself extremely lucky because he got to miss three days of school) to be able to accompany Sean into Melbourne for his Parks Victoria Ranger induction. Our plan was to take in some sightseeing around central Melbourne. Melbourne is built up around the Yarra River and a number of its tourist attractions are located around its central core. Aiden and I made a deal before going that as long as he gave me an hour or so of wandering through the Queen Victoria market, he could decide where we went the rest of the time.

On the top of Aiden’s list was the Aquarium, so that was the first thing we hit when we arrived. I must say it was a stressful adventure trying to figure out public transportation in an unfamiliar city, with a five year old in tow, but it was well worth the effort. The Melbourne Aquarium boasts that it has Australia’s largest fish bowl. On the lowest level there is an Oceanarium that is a vast underwater world, where huge Grey Nurse and  Sevengill Sharks along with a number of Stingrays and many other fish species swim around you. We were lucky enough to see the divers in the tank feeding the sharks and stingrays. Aiden was impressed although a little intimidated by the sharks and stingrays as they swam overhead in the tunnel sections. Besides the sharks his favourite part was looking at all the amazing and strange aquatic animals in the coral reef tank. He was thrilled to see clown fish.

The second day was lower key and we ended up walking to the Queen Victoria market in the morning and spending the afternoon at the hotel pool. Aiden did extremely well both days. The Queen Victoria market is a huge market that has been around for over a century and has almost 1000 traders selling everything from fruits and  vegetables, meat and gourmet food to hardware, clothing, jewelry and souvenirs.

Sean took the Friday off and we stayed in Melbourne Thursday night and met up with some friends, Joe and Tina, we made back in 1995 when we went to Europe. We picked up pizza and had a picnic in the Carlton Gardens where Aiden and their two boys, Joshua (9) and Anthony (6) had a great time kicking a ball around and playing on the playground.

Friday we went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo where we saw hippos, lions, giraffes, zebras and rhinos to name a few while on the safari tour. It was nice to be able to see the animals roaming out in the open rather then penned up in cages. The hippos were fabulous; there was a pair of them and they gave us quite a show.

After spending the afternoon at the zoo we headed to Anglesea, a town along the Great Ocean Road. Another one of the Canadian exchangees, Scott, lives there and we spent two nights at his place. We pretty much spent Saturday hanging out on one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen and Sunday we headed for home along the Great Ocean Road. On Sunday we actually saw koalas in the wild. That was pretty neat.

In 1993 when we were camping near Wilson’s Prom we had an interesting chat with the locals about Canadian and Australian stereotyping. Canadians are generalized as mushing their sled dogs to work and living in igloos and Australians ride kangaroos. To mix things up a bit they told us that it was a favourite Aussie pastime to tell tourists about the killer koalas. Their sharp dagger like claws were effective tools for shredding naïve people standing below them using their slow movements as a ploy to lure people in thinking that they are just cute cuddly animals. The drop bears then use their elevated position to their advantage when launching their attack. The truth of it being that koala bears really are just cute cuddly slow moving creatures with large claws to hang onto trees and the danger of standing beneath them relates more to raining fertilizer.

While we are exposing truth, perhaps we should fess up about the other dangerous wildlife in Australia. While Australians do suffer with some strange, exotic, dangerous creatures, they live longer on average than Canadians, only a couple of people a year die from snake bite (primarily drunken males), no one has died from a spider bite since the 70’s. Salt water crocodiles, sharks and box jelly fish kill way more people but combined it is a small fraction of the mortality due to bee sting, dog bite or any other less interesting risk in modern life. By far the most dangerous thing we will do here is drive.

Picking up your comfortable life and moving to a foreign country for this length of time creates a lot of unknowns and with that fear. It is pretty easy and seductive to slip into a safe life where nothing ever happens to us. Life is too short to squander that way. It was only when we realized that we were participating in this adventure and the fear set in, that we had been sliding down that slippery slope for a while. The healthy fear and excitement of this new world has already revitalized us in ways we couldn’t imagine. Our exploring spirit has been rekindled and life has more colour than ever before.



The meaning of life is simple really: make life meaningful. Or in scrapbooking terms, fill the pages with fun.