God's Own Two

God's Own Country Two

When Willhem de Vlamingh sailed down the South coast of what is now called Australia he wasn't particularly impressed. What he saw was an empty , uninhabited land covered with small trees and bushes.

The first sight he saw of land animals was on an Island off the coast, which seemed to be populated by giant rats. Not at all what he was looking for; he named that island Rotte Neste; the Dutch name for Rat's Nest.  He sailed on and eventually he found a large river which he decided to investigate. He sailed several miles up this meandering river and the only thing of interest that he found was Black Swans.

Eventually he captured a Swan and took it back to Holland, but the Swan died before he got home. Fame and fortune he expected, derision and accusations of chicanery was what he got. The Dutch scientific society wouldn't, or couldn't, imagine such a bird as a Black Swan. Vlamingh was accused of adding crows feathers to a swan's skeleton, and his reputation was ruined.

 In fact Black Swans are common in Western Australia, and are in fact the States Fauna Emblem, and feature prominently on the State Flag. Vlamingh did give the name to the river that wanders through Perth; he named it the Schwanne River. We call it the Swan.

The name Rote Neste became anglicised to Rottnest, and is now one of the most popular holiday spots in Western Australia. Each day in Summer thousands of holiday makers take take the boat to Rottnest Island, for a day or an extended trip.

 As for Vlamingh's giant rats, they're actually small kangaroos called Quokas.They are small marsupials, reaching to a man's knee height, and are found only on Rottnest Island.  But on Rottnest they roam wherever they like. There no cars on Rottnest, so traffic is not a problem for them, but they can be a problem for campers.

They are not afraid of humans, and don't mind stealing food from tents.

Of course there are snakes on Rottnest, but if you stay on the roads you're safe. The trees on the island are small gums and wattles which can stand the salty air and the force of the gales.

There lots of bays and inlets suitable for safe swimming, and the sea is awash with all sorts of fish including the occassional shark.

On the mainland beaches around Perth the beaches are used for fishing, surfing and whale watching. 

Once  a year the Humpback and Southern Right Whales make the long journey from Antarctica to the northern Australian coast to breed, and then back with their pups to Antarctica again.

And this migration also takes place on the east coast of Australia

Australia no longer hunts whales, so now you can see the massive animals from the beaches of Perth; or if youwant a closer look you can out on a 'Whale Watching' cruise. West Australia makes more money from whale watching than it ever did from whaling, and I reckon that the whales prefer things the way they are.

Of course more whales mean more sharks, but apparently sharks don't like the taste of humans, and its been a long time we have had a shark kill anyone in Perth. A few people (one or two a year) do get some serious injuries, but it's not really a problem.

Bottle nosed Dolphins abound in the seas, and in two sites along the coast they can be hand fed. Usually though you see them chasing herring along just off  the beach, and they also venture quite a long way up the Swan River.  

Cormorants are more of a nuisance for fishermen, they often get hooked while trying to steal fishermen's bait. Then you have to bring them to the bank to free them. And I can tell you from personal experience that they're an ungrateful and unforgiving bird, and they put up quite a fight. They may only be big birds, but their beaks hurt when they bite, and they're not averse to hitting you with a wing or a foot.

Gulls also steal your bait, but as they're not diving birds they rarely get hooked. But you must keep your bait bucket tightly sealed or the gulls will steal the lot. 

Parrots and Cockatoos fly around and eat all the fruit they can get, so orchardists have to put nets over all their fruit trees if they want to have any fruit themselves.

The most common parrots are the Twenty - Eight and the Galah. The Twenty-Eight is more correctly named the Port Lincoln Parrot, it's blow-in from South Australia. A large beautifully coloured bird, mostly green, and with a golden necklace. they sing as they fly around; twentyeight, twentyeight; hence their more common name. They're protected birds, and every orchardist's number one enemy.

If they weren't protected they'd have been blasted out of existence years ago. Nowadays we tolerate them and hope they never learn to chew holes in the netting.

The Galah is a grey and pink parrot, and feeds mainly on grain. They're tolerated by farmers, but not liked; left alone the can do immense damage to a wheat crop. We in the southwest have two black cockatoos, the red tail and the white tail. They also eat fruit and nuts, and they can strip a tree in a very short time.

They're also protected birds, but due to past actions they are much rarer than the previously mentioned birds. Black Cockatoos are tree dwellers, and much of their habitat has been destroyrd by logging and farm creation.

There still a few around, and they sit in the top of trees and squawk loudly. There are lots of birds around, from the tiny wrens to the golden eagle, and they're almost all protected.

Kookaburras are not native to WA, but they've colonised the area, and they are definitely not protected.

They are nest robbers, and they kill the fairy wrens and other birds. They are a beautiful bird with a famous call, but they're not wanted in WA.

Emu's wander around  the south west forests, and have no fear of humans; and not much intelligence. They will knock down a section of fence to gain entrance to a paddock, and knock down another section to leave the paddock.

Both Kangaroos and Emus cause damage to farms, but the biggest danger is road accidents. A six foot kangaroo can make a hell of a mess of a small car if they collide. Often the car will be wrecked, and the'roo just get bruised. Sometimes the 'roo is propelled through the cars windscreen and onto the drivers lap.

So at dawn and dusk it pays to drive carefully in Australia; particularly in the country.

The state of Western Australia covers about one third of the Australian Continent, and the flora and fauna is truly amazing. From the tropics in the North to the temperate areas in the South the country is alive with fauna, a lot of it unique and confimed to small areas, and others Australia wide.

Australia is one of the driest countries in the world; any animal that survives here deserves our admiration.

There were some excesses in the past, and some of our native animals were almost destroyed, in fact we Aussies have made more animals extinct than any other country.

But all that's changing, and now most animals are protected.

However there three introduced animals that are causing trouble; for we humans and the native animals. These are rabbits, foxes and cane toads.

Other introduced animals that cause problems for the environment are of course dogs and cats.

With foxes, rabbits and cane toad we are waging war, and we're not winning, at least not yet. But we're poisioning rabbits; shooting and poisoning foxes; and trying to find a solution to the cane toad problem. 

We can contain foxes and rabbits, but as of this moment we have found no way to contain the cane toads, and they're spreading all over the country.

Western Australia has no cane toads, but they're expected soon. All we can do is keep trying. Cane toads have no known predators, and they are covered by poison sacs, whatever eats a cane toad usually dies. Their existence threatens all our native fauna, with a few exceptions.

But having brought many animals back from the brink of extinction, including salt water crocodiles and Humpbacked Whales, we're not about to alllow an introduced pest beat us.

The only successful non - destructive introduced animal in Australia is the camel.

Let loose by their handlers in the late 19^th century they are still thriving in Australia's desert areas, and some of them have been caught and sold to Saudi Arabia.

It's a crazy world, isn't it.