Quenda

I spotted 2 furry little animals on the block the other day. I did some research and looks like we have Quenda - a sub-species of the Southern Brown Bandicoot. I had wondered about the narrow tunnels under the dense bush and bracken. Quenda dig for bulbs and invertebrates and sleep in shallow nests under the skirts of Black Boys(1). I feel vindicated in my efforts to retain as many blackboys as we could.

'A single Quenda can dig up to 45 pits a day which is equal to about 4 tonnes a year of soil turned over. This digging has several benefits including dispersal of mycorrhizal fungi that is important for tree health, increased water infiltration and nutrient capture leading to improved soil quality and improved seeding recruitment. The turnover of leaf litter also helps to reduce fuel loads making bushfires less severe.'

I think we need to keep these little critters on the property but turns out they need about 6 hectares of territory! I'm hoping the reserve across from our bottom firebreak added to our 5 acres and other remnant bush will be enough for them to thrive.

(1) Yes I still use this term for 'grass trees'. My Noongar friends also call them black boys and if it's OK with them, then it's OK with me.

Photo credit: I Photoshopped Jesse Steele's photo from the article 'Backyard Bandicoots at Mandurah'
https://www.stivesretirementliving.com.au/backyard-bandicoots/

Back to Earth

My life has been a series of repetitive cycles. I've had several aborted attempts at creating a sanctuary for myself, a haven, a peaceful place to live: smallest practical house, biggest possible garden. Why have a big house you just have to keep clean? Especially when you could be outside in the dirt with all the wildlife.

Many years ago - decades actually - I was introduced to Permaculture. It was the heady days of the 'Orange People' (of which I was one) before the America's Cup turned Freo into yuppy-ville. Freo was a hippy Mecca and artists could still afford to rent rundown studios in the cappuccino strip. They were strange, confusing and liberating times. Some of my friends were vegan and had taken to growing potatoes in straw. The seminal book One Straw Revolution was compulsory reading (and yes, I did read it!)

Today - with my partner of 17 years on board - I am venturing back into Permaculture/alternative lifestyle territory on 5 acres of scrubby coastal bush. It's been a difficult 2 year haul just to get to this point: putting our house in country town 'suburbia' on the market; waiting, waiting and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning for house viewings; watching the latest royal commission unfold as banks tightened up their loan practices making the housing market slide into negative territory, stressing about whether we would lose the 5 acres we could actually afford before we sold our place and then, when it did, finding somewhere affordable and flexible to live while we built.

Although it's been difficult I am keenly aware that I am extremely privileged to be the co-owner of 5 acres. If I never end up with a dwelling on it I have some peace of mind knowing that I have somewhere to go - even if it's just to sleep there in a swag on the ground. 

I feel a huge sense of responsibility to look after this piece of land, which is why the clearing has been a bloody nightmare!! I have been in tears several times as one small gum tree after another succumbed to the bobcat. Not to mention lizards and frogs scrambling for their lives. The last 3 days have been another kind of hell. We had an open 1 metre deep, 75 metre long trench to get the electricity down to the shed pad (we will be going solar but this will be an 'integrated' setup until batteries become affordable). The last few mornings I have been down there early to rescue the small creatures who had fallen in overnight - mainly small lizards and tiny, tiny frogs that looked like grasshoppers in the bottom of the trench. Yesterday I found small kangaroo tracks in the bottom of the trench. It was a relief to see the poor thing had got itself out and to finally get the trench filled in.

I keep wandering over the block, looking forlornly at the savagery wreaked by the bobcat and lately a front end loader. All I can do is say 'sorry' to the plants and animals - over and over again like a mantra - and promise to make things better, to repair the sanctuary for the 'roos who use the land to fashion cool cubbies for themselves and chomp on grass trees in the summer. It's going to be a lot of work - my body is 30 years older and sore - but  I am so up for it. I'll just have to take it slow......

Images:

'Swale' graphic - Dr©Grafix (author)
'Forest Garden' graphic - https://treeyopermacultureedu.wordpress.com (I'm now following this blog)