The Easter Bilby

Happy Easter!

Cadbury chocolate Easter Bilby
(source: Woolworths)

While in Australia, you come across some peculiar animals that exist nowhere else in the world. There is a whole species of marsupials (mammals with a pouch), that are indigenous to the country. One of the lesser known ones is the Greater Bilby, a small rabbit/mouse-like mammal that lives predominantly in central Australia. These poor buggers are on the verge of extinction. The main reasons for the decline in bilby population are habitat loss, competition from feral rabbits and deaths to non-native predators such as cats and foxes, particularily when bilbies range further from their homes during bushfire events.

The Greater Bilby - Macrotis lagotis (photo: Queensland
Department of Environment and Heritage)

Popularized through the story Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby that was written by an Australian woman when she was 9 years old, the Easter Bilby became an icon and sparked several bilby campaigns. For example, in an attempt to raise public awareness to their endangered state chocolate easter bilbies were sold instead of regular easter bunnies (see image). Unfortunately, they are hardly sold anymore. However, there are breeding programs in place and maybe one day the bilby will make a glorious return to the stage of Australian wildlife. In that sense, happy bilby easter everybody!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

A comeback?

Greetings dear reader

Long time no see! It has been nearly 9 months since my last post and the blog (and possibly the people reading it) felt quite a bit abandoned. However, with a week of my field work in Western Australia behind me I feel like this would be a good moment to pick things up again. You can look forward to somewhat of a travel account with a few bits of geology thrown in (yaaay, right?).

Also, I'd like to mention the reboot of my personal web page. I finally got around to uploading a few pictures here and there as well. Feel free to check them out if you don't mind the sight of rocky landscapes too much. ;) That's it for now, this is more of a quick notice rather than an actual blog entry, so (hopefully) see you back here soon!

Jan

P.S. I felt like changing the blog layout as well to match the winterly spirit of the season (although somewhat exaggerated for a city that hasn't seen actual snow in about 20 years).

Meeting the Twelve Apostels - Victorian style

G'day folks!

Once again I'd like to share a few pictures with you, this time around from the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The GOR is an over 200km long coast strip situated west of Melbourne, which has been listed as an Australian National Heritage. Many interesting rock formations adorn this continent border, including a group of limestone stacks known as The Twelve Apostels. These rocks were not always so popular amongst sightseers because they were originally known as Sow and Piglets. Soon after being renamed with a much more myth-enshrouded name involving the disciples of a certain god's son popularity of the sight grew drastically. Nowadays the twelve apostels represent one of the geological highlights of the state.

There is an interesting story about a three tourists who once were walking across a natural bridge which existed between two of these apostels. As luck would have it, just as the group crossed the bridge to the outlying limestone formation the bridge collapsed behind them leaving the tourists trapped. A driver who was passing by the place called for help. The only way to save the isolated married couple and the single man was to evacuate them via helicopter. The nearest available gyroplane belonged to a TV news crew who did not want this opportunity of action news slip by. So when they picked up the three stranded tourists naturally they wanted to interview them. Oddly enough the people behaved very camera shy and reluctant to allow interviews. The reason for this was revealed later. As it turned out, none of them were supposed to be out there that day. The single man was supposed to be at work but had taken the day off being reported as sick. As for the couple, although married, they were not married with each other. Naturally national publicity was the least thing these three people had hoped for that fateful day. Talk about karma!

Catch y'all later!

Jan

Snow in August!

Greetings dear reader,

first off I'd like to apologize for the blatant lack of new entries, but on the bright side I've got a couple of things saved up to share with you guys (this being the first).
As you most assuredly are well aware, it is currently winter in Australia and now and then snow falls in higher altitudes within the state of Victoria. So as a birthday treat I allowed myself a tobogganing trip to Lake Mountain, a small skiing resort close to Melbourne. The resort is situated near Marysvville, a small town which was badly hurt during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Only one building, the bakery (picture) survived the flames.
The trip was university-organized, and there were about 30 fellow international students (and one family with child) indulging in the sledding. Unfortunately there was no fresh snow, so most of the sliding happened on icy remnants of artificial snowmaking, but it was a joyous experience none the less. The sleighs are not your typical wood-made christmas-type childhood sleighs (which were very popular when I was a kid), but instead more like flat plastic slide boards.

Although tobogganing is fun, it does not quite capture the same thrill of actual skiing which is why I might return next winter for some proper downhill activity (provided I saved enough money to afford the ridiculously high lift pass prices). That's it for now folks, catch you later!

Cheers
Jan

Melbourne shaken, not stirred

A few hours ago, just before 9pm an earthquake with a Body-Wave (mb) magnitude of 5.3 occurred ca. 120km ESE of Melbourne. According to the webpage of the Sydney Morning Herald the biggest quake in a century rocks Victoria.
Here the data as being released by the GEOFON Program GFZ Potsdam:

Region:	Near SE Coast of Australia
Time:	2012-06-19 10:53:30.2 UTC
Magnitude:	5.3 (mb)
Epicenter:	146.20°E 38.26°S
Depth:	10 km
Status:	M - manually revised

After the initial uneasiness, we soon realized that all was fine and no real damage had been done, but it was an interesting experience to say the least. Alright, enough action for the night, time to go sleeping.

See ya (hopefully)!

God save the ... holidays!

G'day everyone! Although technically the Queen of England's date of birth is on April 26, every second Monday in June each year within Australia (except for Western Australia and Queensland)has celebrated as a holiday in compliment to her majestys' birthday since 1788 (and for 111 years of independence). Furthermore this year Qu. Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee as monarch just one week before June 11th.

Fortunately this year's long June weekend had some really nice weather on Monday, which is a rare sight during winter in Melbourne (generally a very cloudy sky). The result — pictures:

Top left to bottom right: (1) Swanston Street in Melbourne Central with tram (usually loaded with people during rush hour), (2) Yarra river (viewing westward), (3) Part of Melbourne Skyline (looking NE), (4) St. Pauls Cathedral, (5) Flinders Street (train) Station, (6) State library of Victoria.

In other news the first poll is done and seeing as there is a general desire for a'couple more infos, I'll try my best posting some more in the near future. Hope you're all well. Have an awesome weekend!
Cheers
Jan

How would you make Melbourne a better place?

Found this on an internet forum the other day, and just had to share it:

(source:  www.reddit.com/r/funny)