Flowerdale and The Haven Animal Sanctuary

So not long after getting back from Flowerdale with Deakin Enviro Club, I emailed Trent and Vik thanking them for a lovely time and to sort out when they were free for me take them up on their offer of staying again. We managed to sort out a date rather quickly and I spent a few weeks counting down the days until I could go back.

It was quite an epic journey to get there but I knew it would be worth the effort. I got  bus to Box Hill, a train from Box Hill station to Lilydale Station, where I was going to get a bus to Yarra Glenn. This however didn’t go to plan, as shortly after arriving and finding the right bus stop, I found out that the next bus wasn’t for hours. Not only meaning I would have to wait in Lilydale for ages but also that I would miss the Fungi Information Night that we were supposed to be going to. So I called Vik to let her know what was going on, and she said Trent would come and get me. So I had a wander around the shops and grabbed some food from a chip shop to kill the 45mins that it took Trent to drive to Lilydale. He brought Tess for a ride which was nice, and she slobbered me straight away haha!

When we got back to house Vik was waiting for us. She jumped in the car and headed to the information night. On the way down the drive, Wombie decided it was a good idea to run in front of the car and nearly got ran over! Silly wombat!

I was unconvinced at first as to how interesting hearing about fungi for an hour or two would be, and whilst it was quite dry at times, it turned out to be quite interesting. The speaker worked at Healsville Sanctuary, and spoke about the anatomy of fungi in general, and then moved on to talking about specific types of fungi. He showed some pretty cool photos of different species, most of which could be found in Victoria, and all of which could be found in Australia. Whilst it’s not something that is going to help upon my return to the UK, it was still nice to hear about something different that I didn’t know much about.

Once he had finished and answered some questions for the audience, we all headed into a back room for some snacks. There was a huge assortment of pastries and cakes. The chicken and leek pies were to die for, and they also made some chocolate toadstools which were EXTREMELY cute! They tasted pretty amazing too! I got to see Rosemary again, and was introduced to several people from the local area.

After we’d had enough and it started winding down, we headed back to Trent and Vik’s. So we’re heading up their long drive and Trent grabbed his big torch to try and show me the fox that had been hanging around their property. We managed to find his eyes, glaring across from the other side of the property.

Now normally, as a British native and animal lover, I am all for saving the lives of foxes. In Australia however, my opinion was flipped. Foxes ARE a pest in Australia, a real pest, not some imaginary one that British farmers use as an excuse to justify their barbaric activities. Foxes aren’t native to Australia. In fact, it was British people that introduced them in the first place, as they were hoping fox hunting would catch on over there too. Luckily it never but now culling has become a necessity. Foxes have been wiping out native ground dwelling mammals that don’t have any natural predators. So whilst it might seem like I’m being hypocritical, the circumstances are completely different AND the Australian government have regulations too. To cull foxes, you have to have to maintain a certain percentage of head shots. I can’t remember exactly what it was but it was in the 90’s, so you can see how seriously they take animal welfare. Anyway, I digress!

SO, after seeing the fox, I found my eyes drawn to the big group of roos that were bouncing around. Despite knowing they were all over their property and obviously knowing they were widely spread throughout Aus, I still found myself being surprised and excited every time I saw one. It was lucky however that as we grew closer to the house, I was looking at the path and not the roos, as Wombie decided, yet again, that it would be a good idea to run in front of the car. Now it was lucky I said ‘There’s Wombie’ as Trent didn’t even see her. This did make both me and Trent very happy though, as it meant we knew where she was heading…..the barn. Trent and Vik gave her access…..and she made her own access to their barn when they stopped letting her in the house. So as soon as we parked, we grabbed the torch and our rain coats (as it had decided to start hammering it down) and headed into the barn for some wombat loving. Unfortunately we couldn’t see her and she wasn’t responding to Trent’s calls but it was nice to see her briefly anyway, especially as Trent said he hadn’t seen her about in a little while. We then headed inside and went to bed.

The next morning, after breakfast, Trent headed up to the coop to do some more work on locating Lead Beater Possums. A little while later, Vik drove me to The Haven so I could help them out for the day. The Haven is an animal sanctuary which is owned/run by a couple of friends of Trent and Vik’s. They basically take in any animal and also hand rear a lot of babies that have been orphaned. They have kangaroos, wallabies and wombats as you’d expect, but also owls, emus, peacocks and even a calf. I’d been really looking forward to coming and working with them, and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

Not long after being dropped off, I was jumped by a huge lovable sook named Bo. As it happens, Andrew (The Haven’s owner) owns the pair that are responsible for the ever amazing, Tess. And despite being absolutely adorable, Bo, has quite possibly the biggest head I have ever seen! It’s massive....yet, he’s still dopey….

Shortly after, Andrew came out and we introduced ourselves. We then headed into his kitchen and started preparing bottles. Now I can pretend to play it cool and say I wasn’t bothered but I was RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED, to say the least. First, I fed the baby wombat they’d been hand rearing. I believe its mother was hit by a car, as wombats often are in rural areas unfortunately. He warned me how snappy wombats were in general but also that she was a ‘bitch’…and I’d like to say he was exaggerating but she really was an ill-tempered wombat! Now I’m not going to pretend that I have a lot of experience with wombats, and I know that wombats in general are quite grumpy, and obviously wild animals but she really was just out to get you. When she was feeding, she was fine but as soon as there wasn’t a bottle in her mouth she just wanted to bite you. Despite all that though, I still wanted her. She was just so cute, and LOOKED so innocent. I mean baby animals are always adorable and nobody can resist them but a wombat joey (yes, I know what you’re thinking; joeys are baby kangaroos BUT it’s actually the term for ALL marsupial babies)…they blow the rest out of the water! Andrew however didn’t agree and said that he’d never really been a fan of wombats and that roo joeys were the cutest. We had to agree to disagree. Although I did admit that roo joeys came in a close second!

The wombat in question; who could resist that face.

Once I’d finished feeding the wombat and managed to put her back into her crib without losing any fingers, we moved on to hungry baby number two. Now this joey was a hell of a lot smaller and a hell of a lot gentler. In fact, I don’t think it could have been more delicate. It was a baby Ring Tail (Ring Tailed Possum). It was sharing its box with a slightly older but equally as cute Brushy (Brush Tailed Possum), who was more than happy to finish off the marsupial milk when the Ring Tail decided it had had enough.

Andrew and I then headed off so he could show me the rest of their animals. First stop on the tour was the wombat enclosures. They had 5 wombats I believe; two of which were housed together as they were twins. They were at the age of being separated very soon though, which sounds quite sad but that’s what would have happened in the wild, had they both survived; as twins aren’t common in marsupials. The other three were adult and a couple of them were due to be released soon. Andrew thought it would be funny to send me into the different enclosures to try and find out the hard way which of them was the ‘friendly wombat’. I had a quick glance around and instantly knew it wasn’t going to be the chap below; he just looked grumpy!

Luckily I didn’t have to go through with the experiment, as Spud decided to come wandering up to the side as soon as we got near his enclosure. Andrew opened the door and let him plod out. I gave him a rub and Andrew said I could pick him up if I wanted. I did, and shortly wished I hadn’t. For some reason the ‘friendly’ wombat decided he didn’t like me very much. He started nibbling my arm, and whilst I realise if he’d wanted to do some serious damage he would have, it still bloody hurt. So naturally I moved my arm out of the way so he couldn’t bite it anymore….then he went for my boob, and I thought that avoiding a bite to a sensitive area took president over wombat cuddles, so I put him down.

Spud; looks friendly doesn't he...

After putting Spud back, we moved onto the aviaries nearby. When you enter there’s one big aviary that you step into and then other smaller aviaries along both sides housing individuals and small groups of various species.

As you would expect there were Australian natives that were being rehabilitated but there was also quite an extensive collection of parrots from all over the world, simply because Andrew loves them. Here’s a few of the inhabitants:

Andrew then grabbed a couple of buckets with bread in them and we continued to another part of the property. After being followed by a duck for quite a way, we gave him a bit of bread. Andrew said that he had to be separated (all the other ducks were on the other side of the fence by the house) as he was boisterous and always started fights. Problem was, he then got his ass kicked and often ended up bleeding. He didn’t seem to care though, as it meant more opportunities to bug people for food, and god was he greedy! He was quite possibly the greediest individual I have ever encountered.

After having to practically run away from the duck, we ended up at an enclosure with two emus in it.

We poured some bread over the fence and to further prove my point of how greedy the duck was….he was shoving his beak through gaps at the bottom of the fence and stealing food from the emus that were god knows how many times bigger than him!

Next were the wallabies. Andrew said they were quite flighty and to get in and out quite quickly. He wasn’t kidding either; as soon as I walked in they were all over the place. I put a bit of bread down for them and then we moved onto the roos.

The roos, completely unlike the wallabies, seemed to not be phased by our presence at all. Most of them just lead there relaxing, apart from a couple that came over wanting to be fed.

We handed a couple of the individuals some pieces of bread and I made a couple of piles around the enclosure with the rest.

There was one roo that had a joey; which you can see below. She was so habituated that she allowed people to touch her and sometimes even the joey! I didn’t bother the joey but I did give her a bit of attention.

When we were done we headed back to the house where a woman was waiting. It became apparent she had been working there for quite a long time and we started having a chat. Shortly after, Andrew received a phone call about an injured roo that needed to be put down. Agreeing that it probably wasn’t going to be the nicest experience for me, he grabbed his gun and left. I stayed with the aforementioned woman; who’s name escapes me. We went inside and I immediately noticed that there were now two sacks hung on the side of the wombat crib….and they had roos in them!

Leonis 

Shakespeare

She then started telling me about how she’d been hand rearing roos for quite a few years and had quite a rowdy girl at home who was nearly old enough to be moved to Andrew’s mob that we’d just seen. I couldn’t believe it. They were insanely cute and I could see exactly why Andrew loved them so much.

We made some lunch and then she said we should start preparing food for the animals. We went to the prep room which is also home to several reptiles of various species, a couple of macaws and two big cages of rats…which were food for the snakes.

Once we’d gathered various food items together and prepared them, we set off on the rounds. We revisited all of the aforementioned animals and scatter fed them. When we were done, we went into the aviary and cleaned out all of their water bowls. This may seem like a basic 5minute task but believe me, it was far from it. Birds aren’t known for being the most cleanly of animals and some of them had quite a lot of algae on them. The hose got us in a bit of a tangle too but we got there in the end.

When we were done, we went back to the house. Upon walking into the kitchen/living room, it was apparent that one of the joeys had decided to get out of its ‘pouch’ and go for a stroll haha! We took this as a sign that they were awake and ready to be fed, so we made up some bottles. I have to say, it was a real pleasure feeding them, unlike the wombat I mentioned earlier. They were just so gentle and didn’t try to bite at all. I was pretty sad putting them back in their pouches to be honest....and even sader that I couldn’t take one home with me!

Shortly after we’d finished, Andrew got back and said it was time for another wombat feeding. I said I’d grab her and he was like ‘Uhhh are you sure?’ and said I’d have to be pretty quick of she’d bite me. I thought; I can do this. Of course it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. It took me a good 5minutes to get her as you have to grab her and quickly wrap her up into a blanket so she can’t escape and/or bite you. After I felt she was secure, I went and sat on the sofa. She then started wriggling and even though she was little, she was so strong! She managed to get free and I quickly wrapped her up again. She did manage to get the nail of my little finger completely in her mouth for a few seconds though, and Jesus Christ did that hurt!! I can only imagine what an adult wombat bite would feel like…

Once she was all fed up once again, we retired to the porch. Andrew and his wife had invited some of their friends over…complete rednecks…in the most stereotypical way haha! And after a nice but mildly awkward bit of hanging out with them, Trent arrived to pick me up. He even pointed at their truck on the way out and said what rednecks they were!

We got back to the house about an hour or so later and Vik had dinner on its way. They’d invited a friend of theirs over for dinner…who I’m told won the Australian Body Building Championship back in the day. He was a lovely guy and there were very few awkward moments in the conversation haha! When we had all finished, we sat near the fire and ate some chocolate. Shortly after, their friend left and we all went to bed.

The next morning Trent got up early again…and when I say early, I mean Trent and Vik early! He was gone by the time I got up, which was a shame as I knew he wouldn’t be back by the time I had to go back to Burwood. I was looking forward to spending some more time with Vik though J

We made the rounds; letting the chooks out and bottle feeding BaBa....Who has got huge!

Then we just hung out for a while, talking. I also had quite a nice cuddle with Tess.

When it got to sort of mid-late afternoon Vik decided to have a nap on the sofa. I didn’t want to disturb her considering she was about 7/8months pregnant at this point, and as they don’t have a tv or anything, I thought I’d take advantage of my surroundings and take Tess for a walk. So I grabbed my boots and off we went!

Now Trent and Vik’s property is very hilly and quite hard going in places but I thought I’d see how I went. Of course Tess made it look ridiculously easy and was running up and down all over the place! We started making our way across the property at first; following a path but then I decided it might be nice to try and make it to the top, as I’d heard the view was pretty amazing. Well, as I said before, it’s pretty hard going…the problem is, it’s very steep in places, and at this time, I didn’t have proper boots; all I had was a pair of wellies I bought in Lorne and they were a bit sloppy on me. So every time I went upwards, the wellie would bend. I had little grip and the grass was wet. Now I’m for a bit of adventure as much as the next person but when it comes to slipping on wet grass and falling down a 45 degree hill, with no one around to help…I’m a little more reserved!

We did however make it about half way up and walked quite far along. The view was pretty amazing.

Then we headed back down towards the house, which in itself took quite a while. Along the way i spotted a roo bouncing around a bit up hill from us. I saw Tess watching it and immediately told her to leave it and went to grab her collar. I did however miss and she took a bit of a run towards it. I shouted at her a couple of times to stop, and luckily she did, as i don't think the roo would have taken to kindly to her running at it...especially as it looked like a buck!

We walked a bit further and then Tess found a new distraction...a wombat hole....which she proceeded to inspect whilst i tried to pull her away incase we were met by an unhappy wombat!

When we got back to the house I had a look in the door and Vik was still sleeping, so I grabbed Tess and headed back out; this time heading down the property. We walked, and in parts ran down the path and went down by the dam (well one of them). Tess went in just enough to get her paws wet and then ran off into some long grass.

 

 

 

Despite being nervous of coming across a tiger snake in the long grass, as they are pretty common in the area and it was a warm day, I proceeded to chase her around. I did however get pretty nervous and just wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible when we hit a muddy patch and I started to sink. We both made it out alive though and continued chasing each other back up the hill to the house. By the time we got back Vik was awake and asked us how our walk was. I told her where we went and she said we must have walked about 5km considering the path down the drive is about 2km. I was pretty chuffed with myself considering I’m not the athletic kind but to be honest it was so peaceful that the majority of it didn’t seem like hard work at all.

Vik cooked us a snack and shortly after we headed to the coach stop. It was basically a bus stop at a petrol station in the middle of nowhere. Vik didn’t really want to just leave, despite me saying I was fine, repeatedly but she had left a roast on and wanted to make sure it was ready for when Trent got back. I understood considering that Trent doesn’t take much, if any food into the coop with him, as its just more stuff to carry. So we said our goodbyes and I wished her luck with the baby.

I sat on a curb near the station and waited for the coach. I was looking at the sky and thinking about how beautiful it was. Then I just saw a photo in my head….whilst looking at a lamp post…and here it is….

Not long after the coach arrived and I made the long journey back to Burwood.

Flowerdale with Deakin Enviro Club

Not long into my time at Deakin University, i discovered an enviro club...and of course joined. Well the club every year, for the last few years has gone to stay with this couple (Trent and Vikki) in Flowerdale. So the time rolled around and i was a bit nervous about going as i didn't know many people in enviro club, and the ones i did know, i didn't know well but i plucked up the courage and went, and in the end i was extremely glad i did!


So we met Trent and Vikki at a rest stop in literally the middle of nowhere and then followed them to this country junction, where people had began to gather. We were quickly informed of this huge area of forest that was being logged in Toolangi and we were going to be part of a photo (if we chose) protesting it. There ended up being quite a few people of all ages and backgrounds in the end, and we spoke to some nice people. We made a short video of us all chanting "Save Our Forests" and after some technical difficulties, we took this photo:

After we had taken a few photos and milled around speaking to various people, we got back in our cars to follow Trent and Vik to the next stop. Shortly after getting in the car, i noticed Steph had a new friend attached to her; luckily she was wearing jeans...

Nav with Steph's leech'y friend!

After that bit of drama, we followed Trent, Vik and a couple of their friends and eventually we parked on the side of this road surrounded by forest on both sides and got out. We had a quick chat with a couple of their friends that had been doing extensive research in the area and then we headed into the forest.

The forest was realy pristine and beautiful. It was unlike any of the Australian landscapes i had seen thus far, and i am certainly glad i got to see it. It was pretty dense, and made for quite an intense trek at times.

Walking through the forest.

A stag tree that is approximately 400 years old.

I don't have a photo of it but there was also a 900 year old fern! 

After seeing how beautiful the forest can be when left to its own devices, they thought it would be a good idea for us to see what is becoming of the forest just a few miles down the road...and it was devastating.

As soon as well pulled up to the logging site you could see the dramatic difference and the amount of once pristine forest that they had demolished. It was a tragic sight to see.

We went for a walk through the site, and hiked up through the upper end of the logged area. Here are some photos i took:

Logs being wasted to make paths for machinery.

One of many stag trees that have been chopped down.

Everything you can see on the right hand side is wastage. Trees that have been cut down that aren't right for what they want and are just piled up and left there.

Us hiking up to the top part of the logging site.

It just seemed to go on forever.

This photo is of what used to be a creek. That the logging company agreed to leave a buffer around but didn't, and so now this area of the creek has been completely covered with logs to make paths for machinery.

Atfer getting quite sad and having quite intense conversations, we decided it was time to head to Trent and Vik's house in nearby Flowerdale. So we said bye to their friends and set off. Now i knew Trent and Vik lived in the country but i didn't anticipate their property being quite so impressive. Here are a couple shots of their land:

After arriving at Trent and Vik's, we unloaded our stuff and just hung out for a while. Then Trent asked if some of us would like to go and do some platapus surveys, and most people seemed pretty eager, so we headed down to a local creek.

It was freezing...so Jordan decided that looking like a terrorist was a necessary price to pay for warmth!

The creek as it started to get dark.

The birds all of a sudden went crazy and took off into the sky. There were literally hundreds of them; this photo does not do it justice at all!

Me and Steph using amplifiers to listen to the birds.

Nick and Jordan came and sat with us after they didn't see anything at their spot.

After about an hour or so after it got dark, Trent came by to pick us up. Unfortunately we didn't see any platapus' but apparently some of the people situated further up the creek did :(

We then picked up a few of the people that stayed at the house and some more equipment and headed to this reserve just down the road.

Anthony didn't have a jumper and so had to borrow one off Trent. He looked pretty snazzy!

After we arrived at the reserve, Trent was using a very high tech infared camera to detect animals in the dark and we could see their heat signals being displayed on a large screen on his backpack. We saw serveral Brushtail possums, a couple Ringtail possums, some Sugar Gliders and a wombat!

It was the first wombat i had ever seen, wild or captive, and so i was pretty stoked. I wanted to get a good photo of it, and did get pretty close but i didn't want to upset it too much, so my photos didn't turn out fantasic. Here is the best one: 

Once we had seen our fair share of wildlife, we headed back to the house. Then just as we're going up the driveway, Wombie; Trent and Vik's pet wombat comes running infront of the car. So we stopped and got out. He got me to walk with him towards her and said to me that if she starts running at your feet that it means she wants to play but to run away as she gets really rough. So with that in mind, i started approaching her. Trent asked if i wanted to touch her and my response was 'As long as she is okay with it' as i didn't want to upset her or anything. So he called her and she came right up to my feet. As she got to my boots, i took a step back and she took off into the darkness. I did however manage to get this photo:

When we were greeted with some honey and lemon tea and all collapsed in the living room by the fire.

Trent and Vik have an amazing dog called Tessa. She is an English Bull Mastiff, and wasted no time squeezing in next to her dad on the couch!

[L-R] Trent, Tess, Megan and Jordan

After socialising for a couple of hours, we all retired to bed. Me and Steph were sharing a double bed in the upstairs guest room, which was pretty nice. A lot of people planned to wake up before the sun and hike to the top of Trent and Vik's property to see the sunrise but after seeing how overcast it was, it seemed pointless. I did however wake up with a nose bleed, which is very unusual for me, and then had to stumble down the stairs in the dark at stupid o'clock trying to not wake anyone up but trying not to drip blood everywhere. I don't know how many people have tried to keep their head back to stop the blood whilst trying to look where they're going...but it is REALLY hard!....Especially in a house you're not used to in the dark! Anyway, after all that drama. I went back to bed and arose the next morning to have breakfast with everyone. We more than had our fill and then went to work on Trent and Vik's property.

We split into two groups and went to take some tree guards off of some of the trees that had been planted. Half of the group (my group) stayed near the bottom and worked on the lower parts of the hill...which was still extremely hard work as its at a 45 degree angle....and then the other half hiked with Trent and Tess to the top of the hill to take down some of the ones at the top.

Once we'd finished, some of our group decided to hike to the top to see the view and see if the others still needed any help. Me and Steph decided we weren't willing to make the trip and decided to go on a walk of our own and take some photos. Here are some of the best ones:

Chook!

Cockrell that crows like nobody's business at all times of the day!

Baba...a lamb Trent and Vik are hand rearing.

Look at that cute little face!

Me holding Baba! :)

We had a great dinner and relaxing evening before heading to bed. The next day we headed to Trent and Vik's neighbour's to see how they had built their environmentally-friendly house. On the way in, we were greeted by these beauties!

When we made it to the house. This was the what we saw.

View from the hill leading down to Rosemary's house...Everything you can see in this picture is their property. They have an extremely impressive 2000+ acres!!

Rosemary's doughnut shaped house. It is completely environmentally friendly and is tailored to fulfill all of their needs. For example, the dam infront of the house that can be seen in this photo, was purposely put there to reflect light into the house.

After having a nose around Rosemary's house, we went to another house on the property; her brother's i believe, and got some equipment. We then carried the equipment over some very hilly terrain..surprise, surprise...to do some planting.

Deakin Enviro Planting team!

When we'd finished planting all over the hill and picking up old plant pots. We then went over to this drit bike track that some of the owners kids had built. It was pretty cool and they made it look very easy!

After milling around watching the dirt bikes for a while, we headed over to the sheep shearing shed for a BBQ. I took a few photos of the property on the way. Even they don't do it justice as to how big it really is...

 Vik brought over so much food, we were extremely spoilt, and there will still enough leftovers for Tess to have a good feeding!

Atfer we'd had our fill, we headed back to Trent and Vik's. We hung out for a while, and then after some technical difficulties; managed to take this group photo

So that about raps up our weekend. It was one of the best weekends of my life, and Trent and Vik are truely inspiring people. They very kindly invited me back to come and stay with them sometime, so i could experience more of what Australia has to offer. I may just have to take them up on that!....