Hangin' in Stawell

With the car in the shop for service, I found myself having to spend the day in Stawell. We are lucky to have a recommended and reputable mechanic in Stawell where we took our car for an oil change and a tune-up. Stawell is 26 km from Halls Gap and is where I do most of our shopping. It also has a fabulous library that Aiden and I visit weekly.

With about three hours to kill, I spent my time wondering around Main Street. With a population of approximately 7000, a magnificent mountain view, and a unique gold heritage, Stawell is the picturesque service centre to the Grampians. For a small town, Stawell has a lot going for it and generally you can find most anything you might need. It has specialty kitchen stores, quaint cafes, a couple of supermarkets, and plenty of shops of all sorts.

Right along the main street is the historical town hall, with its animated clock and Westminster Chimes. They have a beautiful sound to them. Next to the Town hall is the Holy Trinity Church of England (1872) and behind that is the St Matthew's United Church, built in 1868.

But the town’s greatest claim to international fame is the annual Easter Stawell Gift - the world’s richest and one of the most enduring professional footraces in the world. Professional sprinters come from across the globe to contest huge prize money in the 130-yard (118.9m) dash and thousands of people flock to the town to watch and gamble on the race. It is Australia's best-known, richest and oldest professional foot-race, drawing up to 20 000 spectators each year. We will be avoiding Stawell this Easter.

Stawell is also renowned for it Leisure complex. The complex has an indoor heated pool, outdoor pool with water slides, climbing wall, indoor cricket, and a number of sport courts. This is all hearsay as we have yet to visit it but it is on our list.

At the end of Main Street is Big Hill. At the top you are captivated by 360 degree views of the surrounding country landscape. Situated under the hill is the longest working gold mine in Victoria. Gold was discovered in 1853 and continues to be mined.

By 1:30 pm the car was done and I wandered back to the auto shop to get it. It received a clean bill of health and we should be set until we return in the fall. It was a relaxing and enjoyable day just hanging out in Stawell.

Phillip Island

Sean finished work early. Well, not really, days he does a transect he is supposed to finish around 2 – 2:30 pm but is rarely home then. However, today he was home before Aiden was done school so we packed up the car to head to Phillip Island. Me, being the dutiful wife that I am, had everything ready to go. We picked Aiden up from school and headed out.

Instead of heading directly to Phillip Island, we went to Lorne to meet Scott (one of the current Canadian exchangees) and Aaron (an Australian exchangee that was at RMNP) for drinks. Both Sean and I were a little weary about Aiden being in a pub but Aaron assured us that it would be all right. Aiden was more then content to sit and draw while watching all the foolish adults. Scott and Aaron work for the same park operations unit and all the staff were out celebrating a birthday. We took Scott up on his offer to stay at his place and headed there after about an hour.

We were up and at it early on Saturday. We caught the ferry at Queenscliff over the Sorrento. It ‘cost a bomb’ but Aiden enjoyed it and let us avoid the city traffic. Oops, now that I’ve said “bomb” national security will be watching this. We reached Phillip Island shortly after lunch. Phillip Island is a busy hollie destination, however a forecast of bad weather meant we were almost alone on the island! Great! Our first stop was a chocolate factory. Yummmm, great chocolate!!

A-maze-n-things was our destination for the afternoon. Sean and I stopped here when we were in Oz in ’93 and remembered it as one of our favourite places. It didn’t let us down. It was all we remembered it to be and better. We got lost in it! Well not really but did get caught up in all the fun of it. They have expanded it and added a fabulous mirror maze, where we reflected on the best way to get through. Hate to be the poor bloke that has to clean them. In the new illusions room, we defied gravity, had our heads on a platter and had to put our thinking caps on to solve the gate puzzles for a treasure. We also played a round of mini golf. It was an elaborate and challenging course. A very recommended and enjoyable way to spend the day if you are puzzle minded. The afternoon quickly disappeared and we reluctantly had to leave and head to Cowes in search of evening tea.

After pizza we made our way out to the south-west side of the island to the Penguin Parade visitor centre. Not very busy as the weather was cool and it was threatening to rain. The VC was full of interesting facts and displays about the little penguins. There were six view holes into real penguin burrows. One molting penguin was all that was home. We were allowed to walk down to the beach about 45 minutes before dusk. It is quite touristy but needs to be in order to protect the penguins and their habitat. There is a boardwalk that goes down to the beach where there are concrete steps that double as bleachers. We settled down with about 1000 terrorists/tourists (this is a quite night, they can have over 3000 a night in the summer) and waited. Waited for what? Well, dusk and then the Little Penguins coming home from a day or week of fishing. They arrive at the waters edge in small groups of 3 or 4 and wait there until the raft grows to a least 10 or more. When everyone in the group feels comfortable they make a break and waddle up the beach to the safety of their burrows in the grasses. Depending on the time of year, 1000 or so can come home in a night. February/March is molting season and sees around 500 each night. Yes there are actually rangers out on the beach counting them all as they return home. Numbers for the night were 567.

Of course waiting for the raft to feel confident enough is no small feat. There are many false starts as the raft waddles off and the last guy loses his courage and drops back, his buddy next to him notices this and drops back as well and soon the entire raft is returning to the shoreline. It can take 4 or 5 attempts before they gain enough confidence and cross the beach. It is quite cute to see them, especially the chubby ones getting ready to molt, however you can't help but feel for the little creatures and their quest for safety. Apparently several hundred noisy humans in concrete stands with spotlights on the beach do not add to their anxiety. I find that hard to believe.

A heavy rain shower about 20 minutes in left us almost alone on the beach. The walk back up to the VC gave a better view of the penguins. A number of burrows are within sight of the boardwalk and many penguins waddle along beside the boardwalk to get back home. We were even able to see a few chicks out waiting to be fed.

The next morning found us at the Koala Conservation Centre.  These critters are the flip side of the energy of the penguins. They eat the leaves of the eucalyptus tree and the energy from them is so minimal that it leaves them with little energy, so they spend most of their lives sleeping.
We saw several up in the trees, mostly nestled asleep. Along one of the treetop boardwalks we were treated to four in one area. Many of the koalas were inactive except this young one. He scratched, halfheartedly reached for a fresh branch of leaves, munched on it a little then searched for another and looked at us. Way too cute!

Next we headed to Churchill Island heritage farm. It was part of the three park deal so figured we should stop and check it out. In the advertisement for the 3-park pass there is a picture of a person by a penguin, by a koala and one by a horse. We had seen the penguins and the koalas so Aiden set off on his mission to find the horse. It was like a step back in time. The entire island is a historical working farm with the original cottage and house that have been restored to their 19th century condition and charm.

It was deemed necessary to stop at the chocolate factory for lunch and to stock up on chocolate for the drive home through the city. We made good time even through the city and made it home around 7:30 pm.

We had a fabulous and fun filled weekend. Thanks again Jody, Shereen, Brandon and Brett for the awesome Christmas gift.

The days are full!

I too have been getting asked lately how I fill my days so I thought I should enlighten everyone. As you can see from the number of entries on this blog, all my time is not spent updating this. Sorry about that; I have been neglecting this. Sean reckons that there has been too much reading and scrapbooking going on. There may be some truth in that.

So lets take today for example, I started the day off with a list of things to accomplish and a firm agenda. Most mornings Sean is up way ahead of Aiden and me so I don’t need to worry about getting him off to work, but of course I need to get Aiden up and off to school. Aiden is usually up around seven and by 8:30 we are out the door. Aiden rides his bike while I walk/jog/run to keep up. Being a Monday morning it was a slower pace today. I then enjoy a leisurely 20-minute walk back home.

Being away for the weekend has added to my list. First things first though, I sit and enjoy a cup of cappuccino while I formulate a plan for the day and gaze out at the kangaroos in the yard enjoying their breakfast. Onto the more mundane activities like laundry, dishes and tiding up the kitchen but they can wait for a bit – I do have all day. I am good at multitasking so I throw in a load of laundry and I sit down to check the weather (looks like a cool week ahead of us, only highs of 23°) and emails and think about writing a blog. No use starting a blog quite yet – I do have all day. It is cool in the house this morning so I head out to the patio to read for a while. I have just started reading ‘Jessica’ by Bryce Courtenay.

Before I know it, it's lunchtime! But before I sit down for a quick lunch, I hang out the laundry. Might as well multitask while eating lunch. I enjoy a lite meal while browsing through a scrapbook magazine looking for inspiration for my next masterpiece. As I put my dishes by the sink I do think about doing them up but I still have lots of time. I head to my scrapbooking desk and pull out some pictures and paper to work on a layout that caught my eye earlier. Before long I realize that I only have about an hour until I have to go and pick up Aiden so now it is down to the crunch. In Australia it is called a Nana Nap, but whether it is that or a seista, or a power nap it is not happening today. I have just enough time to finish up the dishes, bring in the laundry and then off to get Aiden. The blog will have to wait for now. Maybe tomorrow.

Of little significance I know, but I didn't want everyone thinking it was all exotic wildlife and wild and exciting adventures down here. During the week, things are fairly quiet and we have settled into somewhat of a routine. The life of leisure is quite enjoyable and has been a nice change. Well, at least for me, Sean and Aiden are kept fairly busy.

All play and no work... counting kangaroos

Well, some people might say that for a 'work' exchange there doesn't seem to be much work going on in these blog pages. My excuse is that I've been too busy at work to provide an update on all the play... I mean hard work that I get to do for Parks Victoria. Actually I have been assigned a fantastic project while I am in the Grampians, monitoring kangaroos and wallabies (macropods: large feet). It is the main project I am meant to accomplish while I am here, but I am also helping out with the natural values management team when and where I can. There are a number of exciting projects on the go here, which I will provide more detail about in future blogs.

I am fortunate to be following in the footsteps of Jeff Weir who on the inaugural exchange with the Grampians not only helped fight a fire that burned half of the park, but established 250 km of macropod monitoring transects in five gorgeous regions of the park. Jeff's forte is experimental design and monitoring technique, while my strengths are in data management, field data collection and spatial analysis, so our collective effort thus far has been a perfect fit for the project.

The monitoring program uses a technique called distance sampling, where you walk along a track or road (transect) and record the distance and angle to every kangaroo or wallaby you see. The idea is that if you get enough sightings in different regions or vegetation classes then you can figure out how far away from the transect you are effectively counting animals and through some interesting statistical analysis you can determine the density of each species in different vegetation, inside and outside the park, and in burned versus un-burned areas. This information feeds into a bigger project that is looking at the impact of grazing animals within the Grampians. With the introduction of rabbits, hares, red deer and foxes thrown in the mix with other marsupials and emus there have been dramatic impacts on some endemic vegetation communities.
Here's some evidence of me actually working. That isn't me up at the top left, just in case you were wondering, it is one of the summer rangers, Emily, who was brave enough to illustrate the proper technique for sighting a compass bearing to the animal. A number of summer rangers and international volunteers have been interested in the project as well so they have been helping out with the monitoring. I'm using the range finder to determine the distance and recording the GPS point and data in a PDA. Fortunately kangaroos and wallabies are only active in the early morning or late evening when the temperature is below 20°C so I generally start work at 5:30 am which gives me time to put a bike at the end point and get to the start point of a transect. Most transects range between 3 - 9 km in length and depending on the number of observations take between 2 - 4 hours to complete. Tracks in the Grampians are rarely flat, so needless to say I'm getting fairly fit. Once all the field work is done, I can take the data back in and have the computer plot the points in MapInfo to see if there has been any errors in collection. Below is an example of a transect with observations along it, with the different coloured dots representing different species.


The light blue dots are eastern grey kangaroos, who as you can see like open areas and are quite common in agricultural lands. The red dots are red-necked wallabies who like the forest edge or open woodlands. Brown are western grey kangaroos who tend to stay in smaller groups and use a variety of habitats and the black dots are black swamp wallabies who you rarely see together at all but are peppered across the forested landscape usually near drainages or wetlands.

Here's a bit of a Grampians field guide to the four species of macropods.



At any rate, I feel very fortunate to be able to do some meaningful work in this beautiful park. The people here are hard working and get the job done, with obvious pride in what they accomplish. Given their very meager human and financial resources, what they do is impressive.
If you think counting kangaroos is a push over easy job, then check out the image below. It makes counting sheep look easy.

Golton Gorge

The Pirates of the Grampians strike again. TC, Netti and Jack joined us on today’s pirate adventure. We headed out in search of gold in the Golton Gorge. The temp was supposed to climb over 35° but according to TC and Sean it was an easy trek so we’d be right. Netti and I had our doubts. We found out that it only rated the highest rank of hard on the hiking guide.

Off we go with Aiden and Jack leading the way. The first 400 m of the track was steep with lots of loose rocks. The original pirates must have had some difficulty lugging up the treasure chest since we found a few gold coins along the way. After a bit of an arduous climb we made it to the top for some 'specky’ (spectacular: in Canadian) views.

Jack took the helm of the GPS to lead us to a geocache and then we rounded the top of the bend for the return ‘easy’ loop down the gorge. On a bit of the relatively flat track, Aiden decides to do a skip-hop-run combo that goes a bit off the rails and ended up scraping his knee. He starts to pick himself up and dust himself off when he realizes that his ‘blood is coming out’. Blood curdling screams resound through the valley as if he was looking at the bloody stump of a missing limb. Some patchwork first aid with a couple of band-aids seem to do the trick but when they fail to stick shortly down the track, the wailing begins again with increased intensity. Fortunately Netti has some first aid supplies and employs some nursing skill to the situation. Although the emotional scarring may be deep the physical injury has, as Grandpa Ray would say, ‘healed up and haired over’. After packing Aiden down a most interesting, beautiful and rugged route, we enjoyed a warm lunch crouched under a meager bit of shade at the picnic area.

Another adventure burned into the memories of the intrepid explorers.

After lunch we were more than glad to climb into an air-conditioned vehicle and head to Vicki and Al’s so Tony could take some measurements of Whatzit in hopes to identify him. After studying the measurements and a hair sample to test, it looks like Whatzit may be a western brush wallaby or just a unique swamp wallaby.

We ended a wonderful day by returning home, having evening tea and sharing a few drinks together.

Wartook Valley to the Emu Holiday Park

After the pool party, we headed off to the Wartook Valley to spend the night at the Emu Holiday Park. Friends, Al and Vicki, own this lovely piece of paradise located about ½ hour west of us. They also run a wildlife shelter at the same location.

We arrived shortly after 8 pm. After having a nap, Aiden was well rested when we arrived and ready to check out the baby wallabies. We sat around visiting for a couple of hours with Vicki and Al, enjoying their hospitality and the young wallabies. Aiden was allowed to hold a young wallaby that was brought in a few weeks ago. One of the reasons we headed out to Vicki and Al’s was so Sean could get a look at this wallaby. Al and Vicki had been unable to identify it and Sean was curious to have a look at it. Since it hadn’t been named yet, Vicki let us name it. The only restrictions were we could not name it Joey (Aiden’s first suggestion), Skippy or Lucky (isn’t it “lucky” to have survived). We decided on the name “Whatzit”.

Aiden was quite taken by him. It was a thrill for him to hold the baby wallaby and wasn’t even too concerned when Whatzit tried to kiss him. He liked the way Whatzit nuzzled in under his arm. He thought it would be a great idea to learn how to care for wallabies so we could care for a young one. We all agreed that they would make wonderful pets but decided that it was best if they were raised so they learned the skills they would need to survive on their own.

Aiden was also allowed to feed a slightly older wallaby, Jake. Jake is a swamp wallaby and about 8 months old. He was brought in to Alan on Sean’s first morning at work, so their first task that day was to transport young hairless Jake to the shelter. At this stage he still sleeps in a pillow case in the house but during the day is free to wander around as he pleases. He comes back to the house every 4 –5 hours looking for a bottle. Unfortunately it was too dark to get the pictures I wanted but I guess that just means we will have to visit again.

Here Aiden is with Peg, a 18 month-old kangaroo. Peg is old enough to be out on her own but suffered a set back when another kangaroo she was raised with died from disease.


Saturday morning was a treat for me. Sean got up with Aiden and left the cabin allowing me to sleep in. I have been fighting off a cold so it was most welcome. Aiden and Sean spent an hour exploring the place. Wallabies just outside the cabin greeted them. They fed the chooks, checked out an old fire truck, and explored one of the dried up dugouts.

After a quick breakfast it was up to Al and Vicki’s house to say good-bye and thanks for their great hospitality. Vicki was busy painting the terradome, accommodation they have that is built into the side of a hill. It doubles as a fire shelter in the event of wildfire.

From there it was off to Horsham to see about buying Aiden a bike. Several inquires around town and a few garage sale stops had not yet yielded a bike so we figured it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new one. So off to the handy Kmart we went. Not only did we find a bike for Aiden but Sean ended up purchasing one as well. He has been using one that was left at the house from when Jeff and Teresa were here. It has been great for commuting to and from work but Sean has also been using it at work to save himself the walk back to the ute when he is doing transects. This was taking its toll on the bike and in protest, Sean ended up with a flat tire on Friday. Kmart had a good deal on bikes so we came home with two and a number of parts to fix up the other one.

Saturday night found us out at Rod, Jill, Henry and Eugene’s place for a BBQ. Both Rod and Jill work for Parks Vic. Henry is a year older then Aiden and Eugene is three months younger. The boys had a blast playing together and Aiden was thrilled to have company and play with some new toys.