1 March – Venus Bay

The V/Line dropped me off at Leongatha, the “big town” on the way to Venus Bay (not on most maps, but it is near Wilson’s Promontory National Park (the southernmost point, and Mae picked me up to head over to her Eco Resort.  She’s a delightful woman who has been running the Eco Retreat all on her own for two years.  By the time we arrived in Venus Bay, it became apparent that she had big plans for me.  She is one of the leading members of the Friends of Venus Bay conservation group, who lead volunteer efforts to curb invasive plants and animals, as well as protect the many habitats and wildlife on “this wonderful little spit of land”.  On the big bus, I had stared hopefully out the window trying to catch a glimpse of kangaroos.  I saw tons and tons of lovely cows, but no wildlife (Melbourne is completely surrounded by pastures and agriculture).  Therefore, it wasn’t until we entered the peninsula that I saw my first wild kangaroo!  Not only one, but 50!  Just before dusk, whole families popped out from the bushes to graze in backfields, bush, and saltmarsh.

 

 

2-7 March -- Venus Bay

Here I am again in Melbourne…didn’t I JUST leave the city?!  Actually, I’m just swinging by for some internet access and, oh right, a 4-hour flight across the country to Perth!  The past week went by so quickly, sorry if I haven’t gotten around to any of your emails.  The Venus Bay Retreat WWOOF-stay was fantastic.  It is an oasis of wildlife and native bushland, where tons of songbirds come to play, black cockatoos swoop noisily overhead, and kangaroos, wombats, and 3 types of opossums visit daily/nightly.  My initial impression, of course, was that all of Venus Bay is like this.  It is located nestled between Cape Liptrap Coastal Park and Anderson Inlet, both of which are beautiful coastal environments that have some level of protection through Parks Victoria.  However, I soon found that the area was actually torn among many land-use agendas, most of which do not involve native vegetation or wildlife.  But I digress…

Have I told you how AWESOME of a gig WWOOF-ing is?  During the week, I performed some general household duties when it was cold and raining (my parents would be proud, and honestly surprised at my cleaning skills!) and lots of outdoor garden/conservation tasks when the weather was good.  I helped out a bit with the organic garden, from which we ate every meal, and had a bunch of hours of pulling invasive plants all over the retreat property, including some pretty sketch brush and saltmarsh (I had a great opportunity to try out my various forms of insect repellent, and I was surprised and relieved that the common brown king snakes were nowhere to be found).  After just a bit of work every day, I explored the area’s beautiful coastlines!  Anderson Inlet had some beautify marshy-goodness, with mangroves, grasses, and wonderful birds.  The Beaches were really schizophrenic—the first day I went down I could have sworn that I was back at Moss Landing, with the cold and high winds, huge waves, etc.  But later in the week the water was completely placid and crystal clear—FINALLY I got to pull out my swimsuit and snorkel!!!  Yesterday the beach was aaalll mine, not another soul for miles (that’s what happens when you holiday on a workday, lol).

This weekend was a different story, though….  So, when I had first settled into the retreat, expecting to be put to work on menial garden work, I soon found out that I was brought here for another purpose.  Mae, as crafty as she is, had chatted with some of the other members of the local conservation group and decided that I must come to Venus Bay and put my marine science skills to work!  Most of the sandy shores in southern Australia are dominated by the edible “Pipi” clam (Donax deltoids)—I’m talking about millions of them on a healthy beach.  The problem in the last couple of decades has been that many beaches have experienced overfishing of these bivalves, by recreational and commercial harvesting.  The local community of Venus Bay has started to get concerned about the Pipi stocks at their beaches, all of which are part of the Cape Liptrap Coastal Park.  It’s a funny situation, because “EVERYTHING” in the dunes, beach, and near-shore is protected by law….EXCEPT fish, octopods, and Pipi’s (specifically).  Therefore, my task for the week was to come up with an information packet for an upcoming community meeting with conservationists, pipi harvesters, Fishing Department, and Parks Victoria.  I’ll post the info here later on, if anybody’s interested.  The bottom line was basically that Pipi’s are super proliferate, but are very prone to local population crashes which could take 3-7 years to recover, and the harvesting of them probably affects the rest of the coastal ecosystem just as much as it depletes pip stocks.  Primarily, the concern is that the beach destruction (which in summer is left in craters from all the digging) prevents the sand crabs, the threatened and endangered seabirds from feeding (particularly the endangered Hooded Plovers, and the Sooty and Pied Oystercatchers).   I was super-glad to use my research skills, and I hope that the community can reach a resolution or plan soon. 

On Friday and Saturday I was thrilled to participate in some real shorebird conservation action, and I’m sure my shorebird friends will be incredibly jealous, haha.  Mae and I had walked down to one of the beaches Friday afternoon so that she could show me the work that had been done to protect the 3 breeding pairs of endangered Hooded Plovers.  As we were walking, one of the friendly Parks Victoria rangers met us, with the intention of setting up some wire fencing around the nest of “Pair 1” (imaginative name, right?  Let’s call them Shelby and Matt-Jean, for the simple reason that I haven’t gotten them a wedding present, hahaha).  The hooded plovers have been called by many visitors “silly little birds”, and here’s why.  They are so perfectly adapted to the southern Australia beaches (from Perth to Sydney) that they don’t make nests at all!  In fact, a “nest” is merely a scratch in the sand…often nothing at all, they just stick their eggs right out on open sand, just a couple feet about the high tide line.  What’s more, the eggs are cryptic and somehow chemically protected so that even keen-nosed/eyed foxes, eagles, ravens, and humans pass them by completely.  In the case of humans, though, it means that the eggs are very likely to get trampled, booo L  The birds themselves are adorable…well, you know plovers, they are tiny and cute and their little legs move a mile a minute. 

Anyway, so we joined Ranger Jona to set up signs and a 100m² perimeter around the nest.  We got the rare privilege of riding the entire beach with him, and I met my first Fairy Penguin and Albatross (both carcasses, unfortunately…does that still count?) and watched the dramatic sunset over the Bass Straight.  Then on Saturday I had the pleasure of being stationed on the beach to educate beachgoers about the fences and interviewing Pipi harvesters.  Bottom line:  sunny funday hanging around the beach all day!

By the way, all of this business with me, Pipi’s, Plovers, and People will soon appear in the South Gippland Newspaper!  I’ll link it here when it comes out, stay tuned. J

Now I’m getting ready to board my flight to Perth, from whence I will connect to a Greyhound bus bound for EXMOUTH!!!!  Wooo, diving mecca!!!!  Now that I’ve had a little taste of the Australia sun and water, and just a little of the heat, I’m ready to head north. 

I hope everyone has a great week, enjoy my continued photo-tour my Everytrail.com page (see previous post)