2nd October 2010 Maria Island

There were young geese and wallabies all over the place. The young geese seemed to do everything in unison, with the mother watching over them and the father standing guard. They’d even eat together while sitting down.

Goose family

2nd October 2010 Maria Island

I have some photos of Maria Island left that I like. While we were on Maria, geese and wallabies all had young.

Goose youth

These are Cape Barren Geese. In the 1950′s there was a fear that these geese would become exinct. Some geese were introduced to Maria Island in 1968. Now you can see them wherever there is green grass to be eaten on the island. There is so much competition for grazing on Maria by various forms of wildlife that the grassy areas look like bowling greens.

Goose legs

Forrester kangaroos were also introduced to Maria Island because of their dwindling numbers on mainland Tasmania. These are often culled so that the island can support the remaining wildlife.

2nd October 2010 Maria Island

According to my word web online dictionary, relentless means something like “never ceasing”. This is the adjective that Kathy used while we were walking up what I would call a slight rise . If you think I might be being stoic, it wasn’t steep enough for a ball to roll down. If there were lots of rain it would form puddles rather than run down the…ummm, slight incline.

OK, to be fair, she had just walked up Bishop and Clerk, which is a hill, and she was tired, and there was no café on top of Relentless hill to look forward to

Wheat was grown on Maria Island for a short while. There was a windmill used to grind wheat and corn. The door is to the miller’s cottage which was next to where the windmill used to be. This latch looked like it was made by a blacksmith.

25th September 2010 Tasman Peninsula

There is a big pile of dead branches, and this fellow has his home in there.

I nearly talked him out ; he looked curious.

27th September 2010 Port Arthur historic site

I read such a request somewhere, and when I got here, everyone had the urge to sit in the window frames

It always amazes me that apparently intelligent and over educated people manage these things, yet they seem to have minds like dinosaurs – they are unable to adapt, unable to come up with something that works. Something simple like a protective clear coating on the sandstone perhaps.

I remember seeing people doing just this over 20 years ago in this same place, with the same feeble request in the written guide and on site.

These kids have been told to sit still, while their mother was composing a shot. I side with the cranky boy I suppose for guys, accommodating women starts at a young age

25th September 2010 Tasman Peninsula

The smaller kangaroo was so persistent in trying to kiss the bigger kangaroo. The big kangaroo wasn’t quite into all the “in your face” affection The scene reminded me of the Pepe Le Pew cartoons, hence the name of this post.

The whole quote is from Pepe Le Pew: “I am ze peanut butter. You are ze jelly. Come, let us make a sandwich of love.”

More of his quotes that I like

* Come back darling, golden violet! I will unshy you! You are just insecure. All you need is a little occupational therapy, like    making love!

* All right buttercup, you ‘ave done all zat could be expected. You ‘ave resisted your natural impulses and run away from me.

* Do not come with me to ze casbah, we shall make beautiful musics togezzer right ‘ere!

* Come, pink pigeon, we are wasting valuable time!

* I am ze broken heart of love. I am ze disillusioned and wish to enlist in ze foreign legion so I may forget. Take me!

* Turn out zee lights, darling. I know where everything is

* I tell you what. You stop resisting me, and I, I will stop resisting you. When ‘ave you ‘ad a better offer zan zat?

* Eenie, meenie, miney mo, catch a lover by ze toe, if she ‘oller, ‘old her closer; eenie, meenie, miney mosa.

* Permit me to introduce myself. I am Pepe Le Pew, your lover.

* Where are you, my little object of art? I am going to collect you!

* Zee cabbage does not run away from zee corn-beef.

* I am ze locksmith of love, no?

Oh, bugger, I just found a beauty, but totally unrelated to this post, from Foghorn Leghorn:

* That girl’s like that road between Fort Worth and Dallas …No curves

2nd October 2010 Maria Island

This was the last shot I took on Maria Island. It wasn’t easy. I wanted the shot close to the ground with the Magpie Goose blocking the sun. I would lie down, sight up, then the goose would move And the light was disappearing fast.

We stayed here for four days; it wasn’t long enough. There were magpie geese and kangaroos with young families, and lots of competition for grass. Most grassy places on the island looked as though they were bowling greens although none were flat.

Bugger! In hindsight I should have called this post The golden goose.

25th September 2010 Tasman Peninsula

This guy was at the Devil Park in Taranna. His mother was cautious, but when I dropped the camera down to get a shot of him, he tried to grab hold of it, or me

The Tasmanian devil, based on size, has the strongest bite of all animals in the world. It chomps through big bones. So even though this little fellow looks cute, he could have crunched up my camera just for a bit of extra roughage.

27th September 2010 Port Arthur

This photo has strange associations for me. It is in the Baptist Church at Port Arthur

This church doesn’t seem part of the historic sight, so there is no mention of it anywhere in the volumes of information on everything else in the site.

While in this church, Kathy found an open book. In it were letters from people all over Australia. They were letters of commiseration to the church congregation sent shortly after the massacre at Port Arthur.

I’ve just read through the events of that day – they are chilling. I was horrified at the time, but never knew the details. I’m also amazed at the bravery of some people; people who weren’t prepared for any such horror, and acted with such heroism and humanity. People died protecting their loved ones, or trying to help others avoid getting killed.

Reading these letters brought back the chill and incredulity of that time.

It also made me realise, that this was the only mention of what had happened here; letters from well meaning and caring people. In all the information everywhere in this information overloaded place that is geared to tell and sell and demonstrate the harsh living conditions for prisoners of the past – there is no mention of this more recent atrocity or the heroism and humanity.

This seems strange.

I’m not the only one to think so; conspiracy theories are rampant. The main theme seems to be related to strict gun laws that were passed in Australia shortly after the massacre. The government’s handling of Martin Bryant’s court case, and the investigations of that day, have simply left an incredible amount of room, and lots of doubt, for these theories to evolve.

25^th September 2010 Tasman Peninsula

This brown falcon was an orphan; he had no parents to teach him things he should have been teached This instruction would have included how to sit without damaging his tail feathers. As a consequence this well trained but domestically challenged bird didn’t have much of a tail. He couldn’t do fine manouvres too well, although he was able to fly between the spread legs of 10 standing people lined up in a row. Nobody actually saw him do it; I got a picture, but he is blur of brown.