Tuesday, September 27, 2005

March of the Penguins

We've arrived in Port Phillip, Victoria after a whirlwind couple of days along the Gippsland Coast. Earlier today, we reached the Australian mainland's southernmost point (get out the atlas) at Wilson's Promontory, a large national park encompassing coastline, swamp and vale. We hiked down to Picnic Beach and -- you guessed it -- had a picnic. Our wildlife spotting has been excellent this trip, all the major Australian icons have been checked off the list. Today alone, we saw emu, echidna, wombat, kangaroo, wallaby and llama. To be fair, some of those animals were in fact roadkill, but they were still moving. Slightly.


Yesterday, however, was a banner day for Peggy and I. We took a short, 300 meter ferry ride from Paynesville over to Raymond Island, which lies very near the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Raymond Island contains one Australia's largest populations of wild Koala, concentrated in this relatively small island. Walking around during the afternoon, we would see these clumps perched high amongst the Eukkie trees, looking initially like large coconuts. As one approaches, ears begin to appear as does a cute nose, usually tucked into their chest or under their arm. All of the dozen or so Koalas that we came across were initially sleeping. Having come all this way, we either honked the horn or whistled loudly to get their attention. They dutifully oblidged us by raising their heads, blinking a few times and promptly going back to their eucalyptus-induced haze. Great photography resulted.

I'm no marsupial anthropologist, but these Koalas seem very isolated, always in the nook of a tree alone from the rest of the Koala. I did hear that Koala are sedated by the oils in the leaves of eucalyptus, their sole dietary staple. Proving the point, our untrained eyes never saw a Koala walking around or doing anything but sleeping or chewing. Although, one did give us the finger after we honked at him.

Here in Port Phillip, where every day is a school holiday, they have a Koala Conservation Center. Judging by the commercialization of Port Phillip and their fliers in the town's Information Center, it looks more like a Koala Concentration Camp. There have been reports that detained Koalas have filed grievances with the municpal council, saying that there is nothing clinically wrong with them and they've been held against their will, purely for profit. The townsfolk say that a few of them got tired of being gawked at by kids, grannies and tourists, trying to make a break for it. Two weeks later, they found these rebellious Koala just yards outside the perimeter, attributing general slothiness and constant inebriation to their slow progress of escape.

Tonight is the night Peggy has been waiting for, the Penguin Parade starts in just over an hour. Australia has this little breed of penguin called the Ferry Penguin, who go off and fish during the day and at a pre-determined time synchronized on their little penguin watches, they all come waddling up the beach to their home in the dunes. We've bought seats the the grandstand that the park service has set up for effective viewing of this spectacle. Unfortunately, no cameras are permitted. There is something like this not far from our place in Sydney, so we might make an attempt there. Many good pics to come upon our return.

Port Phillip itself seems a bit overrun with Aussie families making a weekend break from Melbourne. It's a small little island, but rife with Mini-Golf, Go Karts and, of course, Koalauschwitz.

posted by ncawthon at 5:32 PM