Conservation Volunteers of Australia

CVA Van

Lately I’ve been giving back.

You see, although Australia was once rather isolated from the rest of the world, it no longer is. And as part of an ever shrinking global humanity, it has experienced some of the pitfalls that occur when old footsteps reach new shores.

In this case, those footsteps brought with them mud from explorers’ boots, and the mud brought with it seeds from foreign lands.

These foreign seeds were able to sprout upon Australian land and establish a stranglehold on certain tracts of land, including some of the National Parks I wrote about in my last post.

That’s where the Conservation Volunteers of Australia (CVA) comes in.

The Conservation Volunteers works closely with the National Parks Service to, among other things, eradicate these “invasive species,” and replace them with native ones.

At the suggestion of a friend, I raised my hand and offered to volunteer for this worthy cause.  So far, I have helped to eradicate such icky species as the Privut, the African Olive and the Bitou Bush.

The picture below shows an exanse of land that was completely blanketed by the Bitou Bush before we came in and cleared it away; as you can see, it took almost complete control over a large tract of land.

Bitou-Free Bushland

The next step is that the National Parks Service will come in and plant native species, such as the iconic gum tree (eucalyptus).

I guess the next question is “What is wrong with a new species being introduced to a new place? If it is not a problem in its native country, why is it a problem here? Can it not provide adequate shelter and nutrition to native wildlife?”

Well, according to Michael, our fearless CVA leader on the Bitou Bush project, native flora and native fauna have adapted to each other over thousands and tens of thousands of years. This cohabitation has led to a complex ritual in which the various species are caught up in a pattern of give and take; this mutually benefits each species and perpetuates the survival of all involved. (OK, I know that last sentence was cheesy – I’m no to biologist. But check back, I may try to get a quote from Michael himself!)

Michael’s example was this: The gum tree is prone to losing large branches – they just fall right off the tree. This leaves a cavity which provides good protection for native possums. The invasive trees, though beneficial to the ecosystems from which they came, do not lose their branches in the same manner as the gum trees. Therefore, possums located in infested areas have an inadequate supply of shelter.

For the benefit of these possums and other native species, The CVA operates all over Australia. This offers volunteers the chance to explore new regions and lend a helping hand. Though I have only volunteered in Sydney so far, I am currently eying a trip to Tasmania.

I feel excited about this worthy cause. It gives me the opportunity to give back to nature, meet like-minded people, keep active and generally feel like a working part of this wonderful planet.

Two New Friends

View from Coastal Walk - Sydney Harbour National Park

I don’t even have to leave Sydney to enjoy nature and to hike some of the most beautiful trails I have ever seen. According to one website, there are 60 National Parks in and around Sydney.

One of these parks is Sydney Harbour National park, and it is a short ferry ride from downtown. This park comprises several “heads,” which jut out from the mainland and sort of encirculate a small harbour. The park is located on the tips of these peninsula-like “heads” and are is not connected via the mainland.

I went to Sydney Harbour National Park with the first of my new friends – Janelle from Seattle. I met Janelle on Christmas day at the beach. She was traveling in Sydney by herself, and we spent the remainder of her six-day vacation exploring Sydney and the surrounds (I basically accompanied her on her whirlwind tour of Sydney, doing all of the touristy stuff I should have done ages ago!).

So, we caught the ferry to the Sydney suburb of Manly, and took the Manly-to-Spit-Bridge Scenic Walkway through the Sydney Harbour National park. The walk was outstanding. It takes you through some dense bush, along several beaches and along beautiful rugged coastline.

I have also visited the Blue Mountains National Park, the Royal National Park and Botany Bay National Park, the latter two of which also have outstanding coastal bushwalks.

What I like about these coastal walks is that the coast offers a new dimension to the whole hiking thing. Though I have always loved nature, I never felt that the ocean gave me that sense of natural wonder quite like the way the mountains always have.

That has now changed.

There is nothing like the feeling of coming out of some dense bush to a rocky outcropping and seeing a tree-lined harbour open out into a vast sea. It is exhilarating to watch the waves hitting the rocks, sending a fine mist into the air.

Though I do miss the rustic West Virginia mountains, I think I have found a another new friend in the Australian coastline.

Two new friends in two days – you can’t beat that!

Thanks Janelle.

Get This…

As many of you know, I was born in Wheeling, West Virginia and spent most of my life in and around the Upper Ohio Valley region of the state. I have a strong connection to W.V., mostly because of the time I spent hiking, camping and generally enjoying the mountainous terrain – most notably that terrain which lies within the Monongahela National forest and the Allegheny Highlands. This might help explain the outdoorsy theme to this blog.

This post, however, is not about the outdoors. It is about the absurd story behind a particular video I found on YouTube. You might be wondering what a YouTube video has to do with my introduction to this post or with my life in Australia.

Let’s start from the beginning…

My first real adventure away from home led me to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I spent three years of my life (2005-2008). Upon moving to Cincinnati, and still feeling a longing for home, I quickly discovered a place where fellow West Virginians met to watch West Virginia University sports and talk the motherland.

Cincinnati is not a big city, so suffice it to say, there was not a huge contingent of West Virginians – but it was nice to retreat to a place where I could find at least one person with the familiar love for home. Similarly, my friends in Washington D.C. found a place where they too can enjoy a nice friendly conversation with some Wild and Wonderful natives of the Mountain State (i.e. West Virginia).

I thought to myself “If Cincinnati and D.C. have W.V. hangouts, then why can’t Sydney?” So on a whim, I Googled “West Virginia Sydney.” I was surprised by one of the first results. It was an article about a singer named Neil Sedaka who apparently had a number one hit in Australia called “Wheeling, West Virginia.” Sedaka, a Brooklyn-born singer, apparently wrote the song while in staying in Sydney, and it became a huge hit for him here – though it didn’t do so well in the US.

Of all the years I spent growing up in the Wheeling area, I had no idea such a song existed. Neither did any of my friends. Maybe it was because it was overshadowed by John Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads. Or maybe it was because the song was never a hit in the US. (Or maybe it is because the song absolutely sucks, as you will soon find out.)

Whatever the reason, I forgot all about my search for West Virginia hangouts, and my new project became to find out more about this song. A trip to YouTube quickly led me to a recording of Neil Sedaka’s “Wheeling, West Virginia.” Here it is (Dad, turn on your speakers and click on the video screen):

If you listen closely to the lyrics you will find out that the story is told from the point of view of an actor living in Hollywood (“racing his MG down to MGM“) who is troubled by the fast-paced and fictitious lifestyle of acting. We find out that this man is originally from Wheeling, West Virginia where he left his previous (and presumably less-worldly) self behind. On  the way to the movie set he asks himself “Where is the guy from Wheelin’ West Virgineeeea? Thousands of miles from hooooome.”

The big-time actor misses his small-town self.

I bet you are wondering, why am I listening to this song? Why do I really care? Why are you wasting my time with this nonsense, Brad?

Just think back to everything I’ve told you so far about this song and its singer. Does anything sound a little strange? Let me just tell you how my brother put it after I played the song for him. He posited…

“So its a song written in Australia by a guy from Brooklyn about a guy in L.A. reminiscing about his life in Wheeling, WV?”

So, there you have it folks. A wonder of a song. A song that inexplicably defies all rules of geography and physics.

Kind of like when John Denver said West Virginia’s most famous landmarks are the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenendoah River.

A Rare Sight

Two weekends ago, I was able to enjoy one of my favorite hobbies – camping.  One of my colleagues knew that I was interested in camping and got me in touch with a friend of his who was planning a trip to the Yalwal area of New South Wales.

Yalwal is the site of an old gold mining town, which is about 184 km south of Sydney. Today, Yalwal is buried beneath a lake formed by the damming of the Danjera Creek/Shoalwater River. According to the Yalwal visior information site, the only remnants of the old town of Yalwal are a graveyard and some leftover mining facilities. The land is now owned and managed by the City of Shoalhaven.

I caught a ride to the old town with two of the seven eventual campers – Krishan and Andrew. To get to Yalwal, Andrew drove us from Sydney down the south-west coast of Australia for about 131 km before turning inland for about another 60 km or so.

The last notable town before heading into the mountains is a town called Berry, which is a sort of boutique mountain town where city-slickers can escape for the weekend and feel like they are being active (when in actuality most of them are probably doing nothing more than sipping gourmet coffee on the sidewalks of a little boutique mountain town).

My crew and I, on the other hand, were doing the real thing. We hurried through Berry and soon found ourselves winding up long gravel roads until we reached the top of a mountain – at which point we winded down again until we came to rest in the quiet little valley formerly known as the town of Yalwal.  Our camp set upon a ledge overlooking Dangera dam and the lake it created.

The lake way behind me is where we camped.

The three of us were the last to arrive, and we rounded out the crew of seven. Attending the trip were two Brits, two Sri-Lankans, an Indian, an American (me) and only one Australian (who is 100% Greek).

It was a nice, fun, laid back trip. We sat around the campfire Saturday night and took a hike down to the lake the next day. However, the highlight of my trip (besides meeting a bunch of cool new camping buddies, er…mates) took place before we even made it to the campsite on Saturday.

A few twists and turns before hitting the campsite, while still in the car, Krishan pointed out an animal that was grazing in another campsite off to our right. Andrew stopped and I got out of the car to experience my very first proper Australian wildlife sighting! I saw…

Wombat

…three kangaroos and three wombats!!!!

Live!!! In the wild!!!

Scared of us humans and ready to run away!!!

Before the animals took off, I was able to get a picture of one of the wombats. The best way I can describe the wombat is that it looks like a groundhog the size of a full-grown pig with the face of a black bear.

When I mentioned the sighting to people back in the city, they all told me that I was lucky to see a wombat in the wild, because apparently they are quite  rare to see (they are marsupials).

I told ‘em that’s what I do.

They don’t call me the Koalablogger for nothing!

To Snow or Not to Snow? That, My Friends…

A strange thing happened my first week in Sydney.  Or so they say it happened. I feel compelled to blog about this occurrence, because several people commented about it on one of my first blog posts.

What is this mysterious occurrence, you ask?

On Sunday July 27, the day after I arrived in Sydney, early reports indicated that it snowed in the city for the first time since 1836. (Just for the record, I toured the city the day before in shorts, while many of the locals could be seen in coats and scarves.)

It turns out, however, the mysterious precipitation was not snow after all. It was a form of hail that covered the ground in a soft white blanket. Similar to – but not exactly – snow. This happened in only a few suburbs not near me; so, unfortunately I was not able to lend my trained eye to the investigation.

I did, however, pull up this article by the Sydney Morning Herald, which suggests the snowfall in 1836 may  have similarly been a misdiagnosis.

For you Consumer Generated Media fans out there (fancy word for the work I do), further research led me to this discussion thread in which a few average folks discuss the prospect of snow in Sydney. Though you have to take what these people say with a grain of salt (after all, they are not all experts), you can read between the lines and come away with some pretty interesting insights.

The discussion, which took place in 2002, touches upon why it can get cold enough to snow in Sydney, yet snow never comes. It is a Catch 22 which works something like this…you need clouds for it to snow, but clear skies for it to remain cold enough.

In an unfortunate twist to this story, the Snowy Mountains region of Australia is recently witnessing one of its most deadly snow related winters in recent history (see Brisbane Times).

Snow is apparently making a big impact in one of the places least known for it.

Making Camp

Huge Freaking Bats

The other day, I took a walk through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens on my way to the harbor. I did not explore the entire Gardens, so when I do, I will dedicate a post just to them.

What I want to write about today is an interesting group of creatures I encountered as I took my stroll…a colony of grey-headed flying foxes (i.e. huge freaking bats) who have made the Gardens their home.

As I walked along the path in the Gardens, I was struck by a series of high pitched screeching sounds. When I looked up, I saw what looked like hundreds of large oval shaped fruits hanging from the trees about nine meters (30 feet) up in the air.

It wasn’t coconuts I was looking at.

It was an extensive colony of large brownish-grey slumbering bats, each one wrapped in a blanket of large black leathery wings. They looked to be about a half-meter tall (1.6 feet) from their feet down to their heads.

It was quite a grotesque sight, but a grandiose display of natural beauty nonetheless.

It was this group of creatures that collectively voiced the screeching noises I heard. So next time you complain about your partner talking in his/her sleep, just be lucky you don’t have to sleep next to one of these somniloquists.

Every once in a while, one of these slumbering creatures would rouse itself and fly around, showing off a magnificent wingspan of about one meter (3.2 feet). Wikipedia says these bats are among the largest in the world.

I decided to do a little research on this bat and I discovered this particular colony of bats is at the center of a controversy between the Gardens, who want them gone, and conservationists, who say the bats are a valuable part of the ecosystem.

Though the bats are growing in numbers at the Gardens (as well as in similar Gardens in Melbourne), they are declining in numbers elsewhere (National Geographic).

You may be wondering why, instead of making a mad dash out of there, I took the time to look up and observe these bats. Well…

On my plane ride to Sydney, I was lucky enough to sit next to another American transplant, who actually told me I would run into these creatures. My first question…

Do they carry rabies?

The answer… Australia doesn’t have rabies.*

That’s a good thing…considering Sydney also has huge freaking possums!

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*Editors Note: As I looked for supporting information on the lack of rabies in Australia, I came accross this document from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, which does, in fact, say that there are no rabies in Australia or New Zealand. However, it does go on to say the bats in Australia have been known to carry a separate but related disease called Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABL), from which people have died.

The moral of the story…if you come to visit me in Sydney, you may want to do your own research on the native wildlife – instead of listening to me!

Relies on Fire

The Banksia

Today I met some Aussies who were no exception to the norm – very friendly. One of them worked closely with one of the ex-prime ministers of Australia. That explains why she was interested in hearing about my brother who lives in Washington D.C. The other is a cosmopolitan girl who introduced me to her friends and took me on a scenic walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee beach.

The walk from Bondi to Coogee is 6km long each way. For my American friends, that equals about 3.8 miles each way (go to www.onlineconversion.com to work out all sorts of conversions). Along the way, my new Aussie friend introduced me to a very interesting plant called the bansksia.

I was surprised to learn that the banksia plant relies at least somewhat on fire to reproduce. According to this wikipdia article, fire helps expose its seeds and creates a favourable environment for reproduction. Brush fires are common to Australia…and the fires serve a purpose; just ask the banksia. However, man’s presence has created too much of a good thing. Wikipedia goes on to say that man-made fires pose a threat to this genus of plant.

Although bears are not present in Australia (and no, koalas are not really bears), protection of the banksia sounds like a job for Smokey the Bear.

Smokey says natural fires only for the banksia, please.

Anyway, the walk was gorgeous. Along the way from Bondi to Coogee, we passed several beaches, all of them separated from each other by rock formations. For those of you familiar with the Carolina beaches, this was totally different. There were no miles long (oops, I mean kilometers long) stretches of beaches. Each was its own unique playground.

All of them ready for further exploration by this koalablogger…

Family and Friends…Thank You!!!

Hi everyone, welcome to KoalaBlogger! This is my first post on my first blog ever! It is being created to inform my friends, family and anyone else who is interested about my advetures in Sydney and the larger place known as “down under.”

This first post is dedicated to all my family and friends who made this adventure possible. From my family who has given me all the support in the world, to my coworkers (who are also friends) who believed in my work ethic, to my friends who showed me around their new towns before I left for mine. Thank you all so much! I love you all and wouldn’t be here without you!

Stay tuned for more…