Numbats with Hats

 

I added the Santa hats to Lyn Alcock's** beautiful photo as a gesture towards the festive season and shared it on the FaBWA group page I manage. Not long after I noticed several other Numbats with Santa hats. I don't know whether they copied my idea, or whether this is something that appears on environmental group pages at Christmas time. In the end it doesn't matter whose idea it was - the more people who fall in love with these little guys and care enough to help us stop our government from burning them and their hollow log homes the better.

Here are a couple more. I don't think they are as well executed as mine - but I'm probably biased (she says as she pointlessly searches for a laughing emoji).

To be fair - the Conservation Council of WA claimed the Numbat as their mascot long before we did. We ended up with a Numbat because the devastating 'prescribed' burn of about 65 of them and their habitat really got our members fired up. The outrage was so intense our membership grew from about 500 to 1500 in a couple of months.

Ok so this isn't a Numbat - it's 13 year old Molly in a Christmas elf's costume. She was being such a good sport for our hosts and her owners at Christmas day lunch, I though she deserved some recognition. 

Our capacity to anthropomorphise animals is boundless but so enjoyable (and funny).

**Thanks to Lyn Alcock for FaBWA's Numbat photo. Lyn allows us to use all of her photos for free. She has many and just wants to help us help them.

NOTE: No animals were harmed.

Life After Work

Life without a job is great - apart from the lack of income of course. I didn't realise how much my job had been stressing me out. I'm in the sweet spot now - feeling more energised whilst living off my savings and a generous tax return. I suppose I'll start feeling stressed again when the money starts to run out. But for now, it's a luxury to have my time and mind free of work related dramas. There are plenty of other dramas going on in the world to occupy me anyway.

I finally got the edits done and emailed my article back to the publisher of the C. G. Jung Institute's journal. This is what I saw when I opened the document after the publisher's edits. Eeek! How could I have got so many things wrong? It was a bit overwhelming until I realised that most were commas, hyphens and formatting. I stuck to my guns stylistically. I found it a bit annoying having to think about that to be honest. On a couple of occasions I heard myself saying: 'NO! I said it like that on purpose!' I'm sure this is normal for anyone who hasn't worked much with an editor. To be fair there weren't too many suggested stylistic changes. 

It took a lot longer than I expected to track down several academic references because web links were no longer valid. I enjoy that kind of sleuthing. It was really uncanny that one in particular led back to a book I had in my prison art library. I really struggled to find the reference for this quote by Aboriginal elder, Wandjuk Marika:

I am not painting just for my pleasure; there is the meaning, knowledge and power. This is the earthly painting for the creation and for the land story. The land is not empty, the land is full of knowledge, full of story, full of goodness, full of energy, full of power. Earth is our mother, the land is not empty. There is the story I am telling you – special, sacred, important. (Marika, 1995, p. 125)

When I finally tracked it down after following a couple of different sources - this is the image I saw and I realised where I had seen this book. It had been right under my nose all along but ironically when I realised I needed it, I no longer had access. Thank God for Google Books is all I can say, because that's where I eventually found the quote and the page number. 

The other uncanny thing that happened re my job was that my work watch stopped - just like that! I only ever wore a watch to work so I knew what the time was in the art room. We used to have clocks but got sick of replacing the batteries because the guys would take them for their TV remotes.

Another interesting development - I am involved in a community dance project that spans a couple of years and will eventually travel across the state from west to east. Too much to say now so I will do a post about it at some stage. I'm still not sure what I am contributing but it's something to do with 'storyboarding' the narrative.

I'm still enjoying my eBike and just spent my Xmas money from my Mum on some funky panniers for it so I can ride the 5km into town on the old rail tracks and go shopping, or 15km to the beach and take my swimming gear. The bike was a big investment for me but it has already been worth it.

Apart from that - I'm growing lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes, and landscaping the soak to create a small island so the ducks have somewhere to nest away from the foxes if we get another wet winter and it fills up. Waiting for my booster shot - which is kind of frustrating. We have been vaccinated for months but our state has been a fortress so we have't been exposed to COVID. It means it was a waste of time being vaccinated and now I need a booster. This virus is still raging around the globe and I just don't know where it will end. It does seem to be a good antidote to rampant capitalism though, and that's the best thing I can say about it. 

Magic Pudding Climate Policy

Our gobsmackingly ridiculous government has finally made a pathetic attempt to announce a 'climate policy' - net zero by 2050 - just in time for COP 26. Of course it won't do anything to make it possible to live on a burning planet, but more importantly it won't disadvantage any sector of the economy either, particularly their buddies in fossil fuel or mining. It will also keep the farmers happy, even though many have seen the writing on the wall and started moving across to new ways of doing things.

This policy is so gutless, so nebulous and so perfect in its ability to feed everyone - it's been dubbed the 'Magic Pudding Climate Policy'*. I'd already tagged it thus before one of my favourite ABC journos called it.

Oh yeh, and because the government really 'struggled' to get agreement between the 2 coalition parties that enble it to hold power, this amazing policy has a 'badge of authenticity'. FFS. Do they really think we are that stupid. Obviously many are, because they have continued to vote for them - through 20+ years of climate wars in this country.

I hope our prime minister's arse gets roasted at the next election.

* The concept behind Norman Lindsay's Magic Pudding is that it replaces itself and therefore has the ability to feed (please) everyone.

Image 1: Parody photo-collage by author.

Image 2: Norman Lindsay's 'Magic Pudding', 1945.

One day at a time

After dropping a bombshell at my place of employment last week I've been met with silence. I haven't heard from anyone there. It's a bit disturbing, especially when you have dreams that your boss is really angry and won't forgive you. Inevitable I guess. I'm dreading going back to retrieve some personal items and say goodbye.

I'm still working through the necessities of getting my health back on track. Some of my time is spent attending naturopathic and medical appointments, and probably will be for some time. But my partner and I went for a boogie board bash in slightly challenging conditions yesterday. My stamina was poor because the set of muscles required for this activity haven't been engaged for months, but the water was a crystal clear turquoise under a clear blue sky in light winds. Submerging myself in the ocean always makes me feel better. Getting tumbled is also good for severely inflamed and clogged sinuses. I got 5 hours respite before symptoms kicked in again.

I'm slowly moving towards more creative pursuits and finally finished off my quokka. He is now part of a poster I am designing to educate people about the relationship between trees and rain, basically that LESS TREES = LESS RAIN.

I had to share this unbelievably cute photo of a baby wombat peering out of its mother's pouch. 

Original artwork by author.

Photo courtesy of the Conservation Council, ACT. 

A door closes

Well I've done it - I've quit my well-paying, 2 day a week job. 

I can't afford to and there are many other reasons I should stay, but these are all 'head' constructs. The 'heart' reality is that my heart is no longer in it and the stress has been making me ill.

I sent the email to my boss this morning. It was a difficult email to write and I know it will have huge flow on effects. I console myself with the knowledge that I gave everything I could for 5 years and 1 school term. I'm exhausted and I can't do it any more.

I needed the space to sort out what was really going on. In the end I needed less space than I thought because I made the decision in about 2 weeks. One of the key indicators I am on the wrong road is that I haven't been doing anything creatively for myself for quite a while. Serendipitously it was this meme I randomly came across on Facebook that triggered my decision - and the question I asked myself: 

wtf am I doing trying to function in a completely dysfunctional uncreative patriarchal system?

I couldn't find an acceptable answer, so here I am.

What's next? I don't know. I have some vague idea about completing my Certificate IV in Mental Health - I've done a few units already. Other than that, nothing. I'll keep engaging in my environmental activism but that's voluntary. 

I guess I'll go along with the medical model for a while and get a heart ultrasound done (though they found nothing abnormal when I had one last year, after misdiagnosing an ulcer - probably stress-related) and do a heart stress test as well. I had to request to be bulk-billed. Technically I am on the 'poverty-line' in regards to income, but I don't get any concessions. My first visit to a doctor a few weeks ago to get steroid medication for severe headaches as a result of chronic sinus issues cost me $126 - of which only $75 was returned to me.

I'll invest some more money in my Naturopath who, unlike the medical system, seems to have a more nuanced appreciation of the mechanisms of hypothyroidism (not all TSHs* are the same).  She'll get some blood tests done to assess what is going on and we can go from there. She also knows a lot more about diet than the doctor I saw who told me that cow's milk has more calcium than soy so is better for you. A quick Google will tell you otherwise (cow's milk also has more fat unless you use no-fat, which tastes like cardboard):

Advice like this doesn't increase my confidence in the medical system. I must say that I am very grateful for their input when it comes to the mechanical side of things - they are brilliant at reconstructing broken bodies, removing blockages and bits that don't work any more, and replacing them with bits that do work. But when it comes to an appreciation of the holistic aspects of the body-mind relationship, they generally have a long way to go.

My partner tells me that you have to close one door before another opens. We'll see what's next.

*Thyroid Stimulating Hormone

Images: Referencing on images.

Chart: I've lost the reference but a quick Google will probably get you there. 

Poets vs Politicians

As an artist I really resonate with this. 

The destruction of a world dominated by left-brained logic and rationalism is damning proof of its veracity.

And it has focused my mind on something I regularly forget. So I will now ask myself - wtf am I doing trying to function in a completely dysfunctional uncreative patriarchal system? 

No wonder I'm sick.

Time to re-evaluate and make some new choices.

Image: Another random Facebook meme, with credits to the wise man who spoke the words.

People Are Like Flowers

I should be at work but I'm home because I've hit a bit of a 'brick wall'. I suspect it's just burnout - something like chronic or adrenal fatigue. I'm going to get some medical input but figure it's most likely going to be a case of me taking time out and putting myself back together again.

It was inevitable and it has happened before. Of course I can't afford to take time off work because I'm a casual, but my boss is being as supportive as he can be. It won't replace my 2 days a week income but he is looking at allowing me to work on some documents for the new training package for my art course at home and wants me back as soon as I am able. You can't ask for more than that.

Image: Random photo of Mona Meier's from the internet, words by me.

Mind Lost

Gender adjusted - so sick of the majority of memes being addressed to men.

The Curate's Egg

Lately life has been a lot like the Curate's Egg. For anyone who doesn't know, a curate's egg is something that is both good and bad. The phrase was first used in a Punch cartoon (1895) depicting "a meek curate who, given a stale egg at the bishop's table, assures his host that ‘parts of it are excellent.’" I think of it as something you might say if you didn't want to sound like a total whinger and were trying to find something positive in amongst all the bad shit. It strikes me that since COVID came on the scene - life is a lot like the Curate's Egg.

Something good: the WA government agreed to stop logging native forests in our state. This is a milestone and a huge victory for environmental activists who have been fighting hard for decades - chaining themselves to bulldozers, protesting, engaging politicians. These people deserve our gratitude. They have done a truly wonderful thing. 

Something bad: there's always the fine print. Logging doesn't cease until 2024, so I guess a lot more damage can be done by then. But that's not the worst part. Exemptions for mining will remain in place. The cynic in me knows that the decision to end logging was a sensible economic one that just happened to win the government some Brownie points. The industry has been propped up with tax payers money for decades so it's basically unviable. What really worries me is that there are already approvals for mining exploration and several are ongoing.

This bloody country only ever makes money from ripping up the earth and selling off raw materials. So the fight isn't over. Not by a long shot - especially when you look at how they are burning the crap out of the bush. The paranoid part of my brain thinks the burning is the precursor to the mining. If they wreck the environment so it looks bad, nobody will care about a few big holes.

Something good: my boss has allowed me to make up the 3 days I missed when I had to stay home with a cold. I'm a casual so if I don't work, I don't get paid. Missing 3 days is a big hit to my small income so it is very kind of him. I'm not blowing my own trumpet but I think he also wants to keep me. Not a week goes by that I don't think of leaving and I think he knows. Like all the education staff I do a bloody good job in very difficult circumstances.

Something bad: I will be working 3 days a week for 3 weeks. I'm already knackered and I have 2 more weeks of that regime to get through. The sinus issue that forced me take the time off is hanging around and I still get terrible headaches.

I'll finish off with something good. No bad.

Images: 

1. Author. New FaBWA header

2. 'Captain Scratchy' on Instagram (screen shot)

'Pretty' stuff

I promised I would do a more positive post so I've included some 'pretty' things. The deadline for our petition calling for a review into prescribed burning expired on 2 September. I created this meme to remind people to send them in by snail mail so we can submit to parliament in time. Although our small team of 5-6 people is pretty exhausted, we are making headway. Members of parliament and possibly even the government agencies we are scrutinising are starting to take note. Our Facebook group is becoming more widely known in cyberspace and the local community. 

I am now a committee member for the Denmark Environment Centre as well. I guess being involved with FaBWA and designing the flyer below for DEC it was inevitable I would get roped in. I went to my first meeting last Monday and it was 3 hours long! I spend a lot of time in meetings lately but unfortunately there are processes we have to engage in to get results. 

The DEC has grown in membership lately too - seems a lot of the city folk moving here to escape the rat race are environmentally minded. This is a positive and unexpected consolation for having my small coastal town invaded by sea-changers. Many local farmers, tradies and rednecks don't give a toss for the environment and work actively against it. If city people want to preserve the environment - I mean that's probably why they are moving here - I'm more than happy to have them on board. They are interested (and cashed up too). The DEC organised a nocturnal fauna spotting excursion last week and 100 people turned up! That's unheard of.

The next pretty image was taken by Terry Dunham. Terry is the admin. of the Stirling Range National Park Recovery Group. I met Terry 20 years ago when I was living in a caravan at a beachside park. He popped up again recently on Facebook when he became a member of our Fire & Biodiversity group.

This is a tricky photo because although it was taken onsite in an undisclosed location, the background is actually a poster of another of Terry's photos. He explained that he did this because he wanted to hide the location. Pretty clever and makes for a stunning pic. The plant is Darwinia meeboldii (Cranbrook Bell). 

I'll finish off with a cute fluffy marsupial. This is a Mardo (Antechinus). I showcased this little guy in another Facebook post. The photographer is Lyn Alcock and she takes some of the most amazing photos of Numbats, Echidnas and Mardos in the Dryandra forest. I can't believe she got this shot - these guys are quick!

Australia has some of the most unusual and stunning species of flora and fauna, and we are fighting really hard to preserve them.

New Variant?

 

Despite what some people think about me (my once-closest friend included) - I'm not a vaccine Nazi. I respect free choice and I understand vaccine hesitancy - from a medical, not a conspiracy theory perspective. 

But this virus seems hell bent on reducing our presence on the planet. The longer a virus hangs around, the more chance it has to mutate. The new C1.2. variant is possibly more infectious and mutates twice as fast. It has now mutated a fair way from the original Wuhan variant.

So it isn't a matter of individual choice - those of us who are vaccinated may still be in a precarious position. I for one am pretty unhappy about that because I have tried to do the right thing and other people are still putting me at risk. 

Tinkering at the edges will only get more of us killed or with long term health issues. Whilst that might be a good thing for the planet, none of us want it to be us, or our families and friends that succumb. 

It always seemed inevitable to me that our insistence on exercising our democratic right to choice would be our undoing.

Source: Eric Feigi-Ding on Twitter, Epidemiologist & health economist. Senior Fellow, @FAScientists. Former 16 yrs, @Harvard. @JohnsHopkinsalum. Health & social justice. COVID updates since Jan’20

Fully Vaxxed

 

For better or worse, I'm fully vaxxed - at least for 8 months when I guess I'll need a booster. Despite the cartoon, I'm not really smug about it either. I've said it before - I made what I thought was the best of a bad choice. 

I posted this on Facebook too. I considered not doing it because I know it will be a trigger for some people and I may lose more friends over it, but I think it's important to keep a sense of humour - even if 200 people a day are dying of COVID in Florida. It's not funny that people are dying, it's not even funny that many have chosen to go the way of conspiracy theories. I'm just sick of treading on eggshells. And I'm also sick of feeling as though I should apologise for the choice I have made. Like I've sold out or something. ME! The quintessential rebel.

I still have my doubts about the vaccine and I'm certainly not a sheep that follows meekly behind the flock. I also have a real distrust of medicine, science and the government. We don't really know what the long term consequences of this vaccine are and I have taken a leap of faith in getting it. So much about life is unknown but in reality - it always was. 

28 Minutes

I've got my writing mojo back and since sending the latest draft of the first article to get more feedback, I've moved onto the second. I hope the institute still want it but if they don't, nothing lost. I think it's good to rewrite the second while the first is still fresh in my mind.

I've posted this before and Sarah Toa may remember it because we both knew Melusina*. I'm posting it again because I hope this time it will be published. I had to remove it from my thesis but I think it should have been included. At some point though you just need to stop because you have enough words and your supervisor tells you to!

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

I hardly knew her - an artist - like me. In death she looms larger than she ever did in life. The manner of her dying tragic, poetic - terrifying. Drowned in the deep wild cauldron of blue-black sea. 

I couldn’t go to The Gap for months after her suicide. When I finally gazed into the beckoning throat I saw her struggling there, the cast shadow of her desperation wavering in my own.

She had tried many times to end her life. This time the slab-stone sentinel guarded the way out - the arms of the deep chasm held her. Cruel Mother-sea swallowed her soul - silently, whole. Into the Void.

The story unfolded in disembodied anecdotes. An image formed, imprinted itself savagely on my mind - and never left. She had woven, hurried, between the ubiquitous tourists, threatening to knock them down in her drugged and drunken haste, staggered with grim resolve towards the gaping wound in the granite. No one saw her step off the edge of the world, but they peered into the abyss to see where she had gone.

And they saw her trying to swim.

Jesus.

She swam for 28 exhausting minutes in the gently heaving maelstrom - from the time the call went out, until, only just too late, someone leaned from the rescue boat to grasp a handful of long red-floating locks, already turned to soft brown seaweed.

Perhaps her movements were just residual shreds of instinct, that she hadn’t really changed her mind. I imagine how she felt and what she saw: the hole of the sky framed by sheer black towering granite, white limbs darting like silver fish over the abyss.

Melusina still swims in the dark sea of my unconscious.

Image: Author. Oil on board. Study.

*Melusina is a pseudonym for an artist I knew who 'apparently' suicided at The Gap. I have not sought permission to use her real name, preferring instead to protect her identity. In one version of a German myth Melusina is a creature, half fish and half human. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/melusina.html

What Does it Mean to Get Published?

Study 5-4, (2011). Digital print from mixed media painting, 22.0 cm x 21.29 cm.

A week ago I received another email from the executive director of the CG Jung Institute of LA saying:

'We were planning on publishing your article at the end of 2021, which means that we would need the final manuscript in September. Do you think it would work? Please let me know. It’s such a special dissertation that I would like to encourage you to publish it with us'.

Eeeek!!! In the midst of juggling too many things this had completely slipped off my radar. Once again I was surprised at the interest. Anyone who has dared to step into the murky depths of my thesis will understand why. It's such an obscure topic - an intense and uncomfortable tale of a personal journey into the depths of depression and the Jungian unconscious. I never expected anyone apart from my supervisor and the examiners to read it. But here I am in the midst of apocalyptic times - a pandemic that won't go away, fires and floods and more global chaos than usual - being asked to focus on a self-indulgent piece of research that even my supervisor cautioned was in danger of descending into solipsism*.

With a head completely befuddled by the flu I'm still struggling to appreciate that being published might be an excellent thing. I'm not a career academic. I fell into it by default. It was the inevitable destination for someone with an obsession to find the very core of their own psyche. I tried Googling: what does it mean to get an article published?' but that didn't help.

Writing an article is quite different to writing a thesis. I've never written an article. Initially the executive thought his organisation could publish my thesis in sections to save me rewriting. He seems to want to publish the whole thing and that is a massive job, but he needs it in readable chunks for the journal. Having divided it into 4 chunks it is clear it will need a bit more rearranging than that - and some abstracts, bios and summary/linking paragraphs. I'm well into that process and it's having some side effects.

Revisiting the trauma that motivated me to do the thesis in the first place, going back into the process and revisiting the images I created as part of the research, is like experiencing PTS. But there is an up side. At what might be a critical time in our lives on a dying planet I am reminded that life isn't just material. This is important because in the face of physical annihilation it is possible the essence of our existence will live on - somewhere, somehow.

* The view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist. The quality of being self-centred or selfish.

Image: Author, original artwork.

The New (Ab)Normal

Where do I start?

I've got some crazy sinus-head cold driving me a bit mad. Colds and flus have been very weird over the past decade. I get bugs that last for months and never quite leave. This one was bad enough to forego a day's pay (which I can't afford) - the joys of being a casual. I might have pushed through but I also cracked a back molar and as good as Paracetamol is, I decided I was allowed to be self-indulgent, stay home and do nothing - or not much anyway.

I'm probably just exhausted. I get sick when I'm exhausted.

Our FaBWA group now has 2000 members but those leading the charge number about 5 - with one or two floating in and out from the 30 strong committee. As always only a few people end up doing the work in community groups. I'm a 'doer' so I usually stay away from them. I'm sick, our group convenor is sick and our new co-ordinator has just recovered from a terrible cold. Tomorrow we will spend our Sunday in a strategy group workshop to get some clarity on our priorities and what we should be doing next. 

The virus is wearing us all down. It's possibly the one thing uniting the world right now. That and climate change. In this fearful new normal I worry for the collective mental health of the nation, of the world. This is only the beginning. Things are going to get a lot crazier. 

I'm reminded of the John Clease routine in Fawlty Towers in which he is entertaining German guests in his little English guesthouse and tries ever so hard not to mention the war. Whatever you do - DON'T MENTION THE WAR. Of course he does - time and time again.

It's a bit like that with 'the vaccine'. I want to but I'm nervous about asking/talking to people about it because it is such a touchy subject and I don't know who I am talking to. Like climate change it has become a divisive issue. I have basically lost my closest friend over it. We simply can't talk to each other at the moment and I'm not sure we will ever be able to. As a traditional Catholic the potential for foetal cells in the vaccine was the starting point for her. She even lost respect for her own Pope because he was advising people to get it. Since then my friend has been tunneling down YouTube and SkyNews worm holes populated with right-wing conspirators, Qanon and anti-vaxxers. I just can't get through to her and I will now stop trying.

And don't mention climate change either. This is our old surf club. There is a new one behind this one but it is also at risk if the cold fronts keep coming through. It must be obvious even to the deniers that the seas really are rising. Over the past couple of years we have basically lost the only accessible family safe surf beach in town. I don't know what the surf club will do this season - so many kids have joined up because the town has grown rapidly in the past couple of years.

Recent extreme weather events in many parts of the world have probably tipped a lot of doubters over the edge of believability so convincing them may not be the problem any more. The problem is - what are we going to do? What can we do? We all feel so helpless. I went into work the day after the IPCC report came out. I went into the office and looked at my colleages and said: 'did you see the report?' They looked at me with a bereft shared knowing. 

It's official. We're fucked.

I said to my colleague, who is the same age as me: 'you know I was hoping I would be long gone before this climate thing really kicked off'. She said she was hoping the same thing. It was obvious to both of us we weren't going to escape the fires of hell now.

The obvious next question is: 'how do we live out the rest of our lives?' I honestly don't know. But I do think this is a time in which we are being forced to 'nail our colours to the mast'. I guess I'm one of those people who can't sit passively by and let things fall apart - regardless of how hopeless it looks. I try not to be mad at those who have given in, given up and choose to party out the rest of their existence. Many aren't in a position to do anything, and many are doing what they can - which is all you can ask.

For me 'doing something' means easing pain where I can and trying to protect what we have left. And trying to enjoy what we have left - which means riding the old rail trails and bike paths on my new e-bike. It also means helping others when I can - like creating graphics for free to help our group - like the leaves and the quokka above - but also for other groups like the one below.

These people are trying to do something and where I can support them I will. I guess the antidote to death and destruction is creativity and I've been working overtime on that lately.

Photos and original digital graphics by author.

The Humble Numbat

 

Our eco-group can thank the humble Numbat for really ramping up the prescribed burning issue in the SW of WA. The incineration of one of their significant habitats, and the annihilation of a large percentage of an entire colony of an estimated 50-65 numbats(2) was big news in our Facebook group. It also made it onto our prime time ABC news programs, as well as into several articles by various media outlets. There was such an outpouring of grief and rage that we gained 1000+ members in a few weeks as enraged members shared posts and invited friends to join the group.

I have to admit that until the Perup burn I knew very little about the Numbat. They were completely off my radar. Since then I have started following a couple of Facebook groups where I have been enjoying their antics. I needed to know more so I've done a bit of research and I'm sharing it here.

The numbat (also known as Walpurti and Banded Ant-eater) is a small endangered marsupial animal that used to live right across southern Australia. Today it is estimated there are fewer than 1000 left in the world located in 'two natural populations', in isolated pockets of SW of WA (some re-introduced populations) as well as two fenced sanctuaries in NSW and SA (both managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy)(1). 

The remaining natural habitats are the Dryandra Woodlands, near Narrogin and Perup Nature Reserve, near Manjimup. It was the colony at Perup, specifically Weinup (above), that was most probably all but wiped out in March 2021. Ironically the Numbat Project make this statement on their website (link below): 

'Fire can also threaten Numbats, which means land has to be carefully managed to prevent large bushfires'. 

As it was the 'prescribed' burn that destroyed this colony, not wildfire, I really have to ask: is the cure worse than the disease?

But back to my research. Numbats have a 'long, slender sticky tongue (10–11 cm long)' with which they extract termites from 'narrow cavities in logs, leaf litter and in small holes in the ground'. Numbats only eat termites so loss of habitat to farming, human activity and fire, as well as death from introduced predators, make them very vulnerable. 

Numbats are marsupials but don't have a pouch. Instead they have skinfolds that cover the suckling babies that remain attached for 6–7 months, until they are so big the mother can't walk properly. She then 'deposits them in the nest and returns often to suckle them'. The mother continues feeding them for about 9 months until they learn to forage for termites themselves. When they are 8–9 months old  'the babies start coming out of the burrow to sit and sunbake around the nest'. (1)

I have really fallen in love with these little guys. The more I learn about them, the more determined I am to try and protect them.

Image refs:

Graphic: Author, original digital drawing

Numbat pics: Lyn Alcock from the Dryandra Facebook group

Perup (Weinup) after the fire: Bart Lebbing

Text refs:
1. The Numbat Project 

2. This estimation was made by Bill Smart who's property bordered the numbat colony. He regularly photographed the Numbats there and got to know quite a few of them.

3. Dryandra (Incl Boyagin/Tutanning) - a SW Australian Safari 

Memes, rage and campaigns

Just to prove I haven't entirely lost my sense of humour - here are another couple of gems I found on Facebook. I've always thought cats had a rather wry sense of humour and this confirms it. 

You might have to be an Aussie to appreciate the next one. I think it's hilarious and for anyone who has stepped barefoot on a kid's Lego block, it certainly captures the moment.

So what else is happening? 

Apart from watching gorgeous baby wombat or numbat Facebook videos, and going for bike rides, I'm still busy with the Fire & Biodiversity group. It's going to be a long haul. The odds of having a win against any government department are slim. I still think it will come down to occupying the forest and chaining ourselves to trees but for now I am supporting those who believe we can effect change through the usual channels. 

Unfortunately this takes time and in the meantime, forest management agencies are destroying ecosystems while we are forced to look on. But we have many allies now - nearly 2000 people in the Facebook group and they are watching closely. So even though the enquiry we are calling for was recently declined by the environment minister, we are keeping the pressure on. They know we are watching and we will hold them to account eventually. I just hope we can slow the damage until then.

I'm doing the graphic design work for our group and that is keeping me pretty busy. The infographic above is me working out style and format - content yet to be decided. To have a chance of winning this fight we need the public behind us so a huge re-education campaign is required. I say 're-education' because at the moment most people believe prescribed burning is keeping them safe and convincing them otherwise is a difficult argument to prosecute. The public have little idea of the destruction that is going on in our precious forests and a lot probably don't care as long as they believe 'hazard reduction' programs  are stopping their houses from being burnt in a wildfire. They conveniently ignore how many wildfires are actually escaped prescribed burns. They also don't understand how decades of forestry and short cycle fire management have contributed to the problem by encouraging highly inflammable understorey.

Above was a known numbat habitat, 'prescribed' burnt in March 2021. No numbats have been seen in the area since and it is likely baby numbats were incinerated in the hollowed out logs that these little guys live in. 

Below is an image of a numbat that has had to evacuate the fire - it is disoriented and possibly stressing about its babies and loss of its home. (You can just see it off the right hand corner of the inset).

This is a karda (Racehorse goanna) with its foot burnt off in another 'prescribed burn' in the Mercea block of the Walpole Wilderness last year. In a cool fire, these lizards would likely escape, but the fires being conducted by 'authorities' are so hot, often incendiary fires that encircle an area, leaving no escape routes.

Lots of images of cute bioturbators and marsupial mammals will be needed to change minds so I'm getting more familiar with tiny honey possums (for the logo below) and numbats (in the infographic above).

New vector logo. I had to redo it as the old one I did in a hurry was only raster and low resolution.

Original Numbat.

More graphic experiments - creating motifs to be used and reused on different educational material.

I'm not being paid for this work but I am happy to use my skills for something important so I don't mind. My 'real' job still pays the bills.

I haven't been blogging much for months and the reason - a combination of using computer time to do graphics, but also an inability to express the grief and rage at the wanton destruction of our beautiful country as these maniac arsonists burn the hell out of it. Sometimes I am just too angry for words, but I'm determined to keep fighting - maybe just because my sense of justice won't allow these bastards to get away with it.

Photo refs: Courtesy of FaBWA Facebook group page

Artwork: © Author - Mad Fish Designs

This Looks Familiar

 

Who's experienced this? I know I have.