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Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary

7/26/2018

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Imagine traveling back in time to see the red-gum and yellow-gum grassy woodlands of Australia before European settlement. Before invasive predatory species like cats and foxes decimated the native wildlife. Before rabbits were an invasive pest. I didn’t need a TARDIS and the Doctor to time travel. All I had to do was drive 30 minutes north to the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary.

The sanctuary can return to an earlier time, thanks to an electrified, predator-proof fence. In 2004, the Australian Capital Territory established the sanctuary, removed the invasive predators and herbivores, and enclosed the land within the predator-proof fence. Native plant and animal species were reintroduced to create a living ecosystem, not a zoo.

Other large, fenced animal sanctuaries exist in Australia, but they tend to be in remote areas. Mulligans Flat is unique because it’s so close to Canberra’s urban environment. The nearly 1200 acres of sanctuary have become an ecotourism destination where visitors can see rare Australian animals.

Some of the animals reintroduced to the sanctuary have not lived in mainland Australia for more than 100 years, including the eastern bettong, the bush stone-curlew, and the eastern quoll.
Eastern bettong
Bush stone-curlew
Eastern quoll
The bettongs and quolls had been hunted to extinction but were successfully reintroduced from Tasmania. With luck, once the populations have rebounded, some of these native species will eventually be released outside of the sanctuary.

I wasn’t lucky enough to see any of the rare nocturnal animals the day I visited, but I did spot two echidnas (my first sighting of echidnas in the wild), the omnipresent eastern grey kangaroo, and numerous wallabies.
Echidna
Eastern grey kangaroo
Wallaby
Next time, I’ll have to go back for one of the popular twilight tours.

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Lifeline Book Fairs

7/19/2018

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Our next-door neighbors first told us about the three Lifeline Bookfairs held every year in Canberra. Billed as the largest gathering of book-lovers in Canberra, the first Lifeline Bookfair we visited featured more than 250,000 donated items for sale, including fiction and nonfiction books, magazines, sheet music, comics, maps, DVDs, and much more.

Books are surprisingly expensive in Australia. A new paperback that retails on Amazon for $8.90 USD can cost as much as $16.99 AUD (which is about $12.56 USD). A fair that sold used books held considerable attraction for my daughter and me. We went the first time for the prices; we continue to go because the bookfairs support a worthy cause.

Lifeline is an Australian charity that has been saving lives across the country for more than 50 years. The bookfairs in Canberra raise most of the funding needed to keep the local crisis support line and other suicide prevention services going.

The most recent Lifeline book fair was held on 13-15 July in Tuggeranong, a suburb about a 25-minute drive from the center of Canberra. It was a cold day in an unheated venue, but hundreds of people stood in line early on the first day, waiting for the bookfair to open. Australians will queue neatly into snaking lines on their own without being asked. We Americans need stanchions and velvet cords to keep us politely in place. Australians, on the other hand, really know how to queue. People carried reusable shopping bags and wheeled in suitcases and small shopping carts, all for their planned purchases of many, many books.

Once inside, I  thought how nice it was to hear conversations about books between people who loved them. They shared their finds with each other, saying things like: "Have you read this by him?" and "Isn't she marvelous?"

No matter what our interests are, we know we'll always find something at the Lifeline Bookfair. I can't wait until the next one.
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Our haul from our first Lifeline Bookfair
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Birdbrain

7/12/2018

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Australian raven
I’m not an obsessive person. Sure, I collected comic books as a kid (because I wanted to read complete stories), and I harbor a secret wish to watch every single Doctor Who episode ever made before I die, but I’m not a collector or an enthusiastic hobbyist. No quilting or collections of stamps and coins for me.

But birds, I’m finding, are a slippery slope.

Before I moved to Australia, I couldn’t identify any local birds in my suburban D.C. neighborhood beyond the ubiquitous robin, cardinal, and blue jay. In Australia though, the birds are so colorful and noisy, how could I ignore them?

I identified the common, brightly colored ones first, like the crimson rosella, galah, and king parrot.
Crimson rosella
Galah
King parrot
Next I moved on to the birds with big personalities, such as the Australian magpie, sulphur-crested cockatoo, and gang-gang parrot.
Australian magpie
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Gang-gang parrot
Then I felt bad about ignoring the less colorful ones like the common mynah, Australian pigeon, and superb fairy wren, so soon I was on the lookout for them too.
Noisy miner
Australian pigeon
Superb fairy wren
But I wasn’t a birder. Not at all. Birders are driven, obsessive people who go to the ends of the earth to bag their bird. And I am not driven or obsessive. Sure, I started scouring the second-hand store for bird guides and left my dog at home so I could get closer to the birds without alarming them. And I fantasized about having a real camera with a professional zoom . . . but I didn’t have a problem.

My daughter bought me a bird-matching card game for my birthday, and every family trip began to include aviaries and bird sanctuaries. I tried to share my fascination with my family.

“Look,” I said one day, waving my phone triumphantly. “I got a picture of a yellow-tailed black cockatoo today!”
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Yellow-tailed black cockatoo
My daughter gave my hard-won photo an indifferent glance. “I bet they call them that because of the yellow on the tail.”

“And they’re black,” my husband added.

A week later, I spent hours trying to identify a bird I’d tracked from tree to tree at the front entrance of our community. I consulted bird books, websites, and countless online photo galleries.

“I think,” I announced to my family, “that it’s a red wattlebird.”

My daughter squinted at my photo. “It isn’t red.”

“It’s sort of red,” I said. “There, by the beak. That’s a little red.”

My husband took a look. “And it doesn’t have a wattle.”

Spoilsports.

But they were right, so I spent more hours trying to identify that bird. I came up with nothing.
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The mystery bird
And it’s driving me CRAZY, the not-knowing. I HAVE to know. And I also have to admit that maybe I do have a problem.

I think I’m a birder. An lazy, unaccomplished one maybe, but still a birder.

Next stop, stamp collecting.

​
Update to this post: about six weeks after this post was written, I found out that the bird above was indeed a red wattlebird. Next time, I'll have more faith in my identification.
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Jerrabombera Wetlands

7/5/2018

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To the north, tropical rainforests stand tall, and to the west, arid deserts stretch across  Australia. In between those two extremes are temperate wetlands, and we are fortunate enough to have one right in the heart of Canberra.

The Jerrabomberra Wetlands and Nature Reserve, located about 2.5 miles from Canberra’s City Centre, is a floodplain between the Molonglo River and Jerrabomberra Creek. The reserve is a refuge for migrating birds from the northern hemisphere and inland Australia.

Five bird observation hides and three walking trails allow visitors to see more than 200 species of birds, including water birds, woodland and grassland birds, and birds of prey. Frogs, turtles, water dragons, platypus, echidnas, and kangaroos also make their homes here. For cyclists, a bike trail cuts through the northern edge of the reserve.

I wandered through the wetlands, marvelling at all the birds. Three loop trails led me through woodlands and around Kelly’s Swamp and Jerrabomberra Billabongs. (A billabong is an Australian term for the pond left behind once a creek or river changes course.)  Boardwalks snaked through tall reeds and grasses, surrounding me on every side. I felt as if I were far, far away from the city.
Swamp hen
Through the trees
Wood duck
Wetlands
White-eared flycatcher
Black swan in water
Jerrabomberra Wetlands is comparatively small; I walked all three trails in less than two hours. But, oh, what a magical place to spend a morning!
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    Author

    Rose Ciccarelli is an American writer and editor living in Canberra, Australia.

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