Healesville

For my last day in Australia, we took a trip up the Yarra Valley - an area known the world over for its wines. When the European settlers first arrived in the area, they asked the local Aboriginal people what the river was called. Not quite grasping the meaning of the question, the answer was "Yarra", which, in fact, means "River". You can only imagine how stupid the Aborigines must have thought the Europeans, especially as the river now bears the name of, effectively, "River River".

After lunch, we headed to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary which is attached to the Melbourne Zoo and which offers the chance to see many examples of indigenous wildlife in something approaching their natural habitat.

Nearest the gate are dingoes – the native dogs of Australia. The species has acquired a rather negative reputation but they’re actually quite striking animals (when viewed at a safe distance, of course):

From there, we made our way to an outdoor arena where there was a display of the aerial skills of some of Australia’s native birds. The birds flew over and sometimes between audience members. Not, perhaps, terribly natural behaviour but it helped hammer home the point that many of the native species are severely endangered.

For example, a barking owl:

 The most impressive bird was the enormous wedge-tailed eagle:

Elsewhere, there were numerous members of the parrot family, mostly quite tame:

 

 

Further round we came to the Tasmanian Devils:

who never quite stayed still long enough to have a proper photograph taken! As their name suggests, the Devils come from Tasmania. They’re not especially unpleasant – they get their name from their unearthly scream. In the wild, the population is being decimated by a contagious form of cancer which affects the devils’ faces. It is 100% fatal and, despite research, there is, as yet, no cure. The Sanctuary have a colony of healthy devils which are being bred in captivity to help to keep the species as a whole alive. So far, over 100 babies have been born.

We were in a hurry to get back to the city so there was just time for a couple of shots of some wallabies:

before we had to leave. We had tickets for a concert in Melbourne for the evening in which Brock was performing, and he had to be on stage for a rehearsal at 4:45. The concert was, it has to be said, quite splendid, with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1.