One feral proof fence please.

One thing that has really been enforced in this girl, from working in Australia all last summer and also in California this last winter, is how downright shameful I feel sometimes to be of European descent. The plight of the indigenous peoples in both Oz and the States is quite similar. The land has forcefully been taken from them and their cultures/traditions were at one time abolished to such a degree that many are now "lost". What is the use of a "white man's" education if one has lost the ability to connect with one's ancestors and own culture?

The aboriginal lore and history was one facet of Australia that I was immensely interested in last summer. The history of the dreaming and the aboriginal knowledge of the inhospitable outback and use of plants and animals is tremendous. I had very few opportunities to meet indigenous people last year and I'm hoping for more this summer.

Maybe one of the other reasons I'm suddenly pissed at my ancestors is because we have spent the last four working days putting up a “feral proof fence.” I know that I wrote about this last year—when we were living on a sanctuary surrounded by such a fence and one night all of my students got wasted and then couldn’t figure out how to get back IN. haha, That was actually pretty funny. BUT, here at Yookamurra, the students and I have been hard at it, establishing a six foot high fence around the 2000 or so hectares. This fence keeps out foxes, cats, and rabbits--the three most lethal introduced species (save maybe for the cane toad that has yet to make a presence in the south of OZ). The foxes and rabbits were originally brought over for sport and populations easily skyrocketed because of the abundance of food here. Marsupials (mammals that give birth to live young that then mature in a pouch) are pretty slow, having evolved on a continent with few predators. So, the foxes and cats (brought by early Europeans as pets) have a field day with them. The fence will keep these guys out while aiding in the safety of native marsupials and placental mammals to propagate and exist on the inside. As all of these native critters are nocturnal so the only time you will see one is on the way to the bathroom at night, alone, or on the way to your cabin, again alone, and one either flies across the path, much to your astonishment and momentary unease, or hisses at you from a tree!

It was one of these nighttime moments that Josie finally made herself known. An eastern grey kangaroo, Josie is about three feet tall, and very very inquisitive. At first we thought she genuinely liked us, but it soon became obvious that she was only using that as a ploy to get close enough to possibly sneak into the kitchen door! It had happened before, with other groups and we've been told "you don't want to see what she can do."

It's been cold here. Really cold. And I wake up clutching my sleeping bag along with a ratty old comforter I found about my head. Though, I could also be doing that because of the memory of the HUNTSMAN SPIDER we found on Tuesday! They live! Crawling with legs spread wide, the dreaded huntsman was found on a students cabin wall! Perched right above his bed! Waiting? Anticipating? Before I had any say in the matter (for I try to enforce in the unwieldy Americans the fact that we didn't come down to OZ to KILL everything) the students had bug sprayed the poor guy to death. One advantage of this was that we were all able to gaze into its beady eyes up close. You ever notice, however, that when you talk about bugs, or worse yet, interact with them, you keep thinking of them and maybe even '"feel" them crawling around...hm...but, Ive instilled in the students no more killing. Now I await my big moment when I get to try and capture one for release back into the bush...

Stay tuned for more, I hope everything is bright and happy back up north and that everyone had a smashing 4th of July. We ended up at a semi-seedy pub in Swan Reach that night to celebrate our independence. Interesting town in that you have to cross the Murray River to get there. The Murray is the largest river in all of Australia (and subsequently has a heap of environmental issues) and at this particular spot, we didn't cross a bridge to get to the other side. Instead they have a ferry, running 24 hours a day, that shuttles you and your car the 200 or so yards across the water. Pretty surreal and all at once, very Australian.

Laura