In the wet with the platys

Legend tells of a legendary animal, whose anatomical peculiarities were the stuff of legend...

Last weekend, still bouncing from our adventures with little penguins, we headed inland to north-east Victoria, to a tiny little dorp called Tatong. Our objective: Ornithorhynchus anatinus, or Platypus, if you prefer. We were there to assist Elise, a PhD student at UMelb who is looking at genetic markers in platypus sub-populations.

The "town" of Tatong consists of a pub/inn and a post-code for the surrounding farms, but nothing approximating shops or any other signifiers of permanent habitation. The pub was lovely, though, and served as a fine base of operations. We arrived after a 3-hour drive through rolling rural grassland, and spent most of the Friday afternoon setting up nets and scouting for likely platypus haunts. There was a slight conlict of priorities, in that the platys are fond of fairly deep pools where the freshwater invertebrates flourish, wheras the nets work much better on narrower streams (which are also nicer to work in), but we found 5 suitable spots in the end. It was very warm, so we enjoyed having an excuse to spend the day knee-deep in cool water, despite an unfortunate encounter with a leech and the (unrelated) loss of a pair of glasses in one pool. (Said glasses were recovered after much groping about in murky swamp water, somewhat bent but otherwise in good condition after their swim). As we were finishing up the last net the rain started, a persistent drizzle that continued through the rest of the weekend.

Once the nets were in place, there was nothing to do but rest up and wait to see what came in. We checked them first at about 9:30pm, the first location had a family of ducks in the net. We freed them and moved on to the second spot, where we found a platypus! Sitting there in the net! Snuffling the strings with his little bill! Baring his one-inch poisonous spurs! So cute! Really, they are the most adorably improbable beasts. The bill is not as hard as expected, the fur is incredibly soft and they are just wonderful. We took him back to the truck and did a whole lot of measuring and weighing, took a tiny bit of genetic material and gave him a microchip tracker in case he ever got caught again, and then returned him to the river. Amazing.

We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to get the truck back to the road - the rain had turned the trail into a muddy slope, and in a truck with an automatic transmission and 2-wheel drive there is only so much you can do to get out of that kind of situation. We parked on the road after that.

The rest of the night was less dramatic - a few freshwater prawns (called "yabbies" or something), a few wombats on the prowl and a fair bit more rain. We got to bed around 2am and woke at 6:30 to start checking the nets again. The morning brought another platypus and a few holes in the nets: these are caused by water-rats (also known as rakali), which get caught in the net and gnaw their way out, causing substantial damage. They grow up to 35-40cm body length, so they make pretty big holes on their way out. The day was spent resting at the inn with another check in the mid-afternoon and a splendid pub dinner. The pub turned out to be a popular watering-hole, perhaps simply by virtue of being the only place with booze for about 30km in any direction, but I must say that the staff were lovely and the atmosphere very congenial. There was a christening party the first night we were there (and when we left in the morning to check the nets there were a few people passed out in the backs of trucks), and there appeared to be a consistent business from groups of bikers looking for a place to stay overnight.

The following night we got 3 more platys! And another on Sunday morning! Brilliant. (Also: ducks, several trout, loads more yabbies, a spiny crayfish and a few turtles. We found one water-rat in a net, plus a generous helping of holes in various others. We cleaned the trout and left them at the inn - they may have appeared on Sunday's lunch menu). Drove back to Melbourne in great spirits.

That evening we went to a Thanksgiving dinner with Christina's astro group, and then slept deeply and well... until 4:00am, when I had to get up to go to the airport. After battling late trains and shuttle buses, I got to the airport and checked in, at which point I discovered that the online travel agent had messed up and given my a hand-luggage only ticket. Never mind, my bag was small enough for hand-luggage, if a bit awkward, so I ditched a few sharp articles and made my way to the gate as the passengers were starting to board my 7am flight. It was at this point that I realised I no longer had my laptop with me, having left it at security. And, of course, you can't leave your bags at the gate while you run back... Anyway, it all worked out fine, and in the end the flight was delayed by a Korean family trying to pull a baggage scam by checking in bags under someone who wasn't actually flying. I passed out shortly after take-off and woke up just as we were descending towards Hobart.

And what a lovely city Hobart is. There were grey clouds in the sky, but the sun was shining brightly on the harbour, and as we drove over the "diplodocus" bridge the sun was directly behind us, and ahead was a perfectly clear and brilliantly colourful rainbow, magnificently arching over the bridge and disapperaing into the water on either side. Best welcome arch ever. And I was thinking, "Gee, Hobart, I already liked you, you didn't have to go to all this effort to make a good impression!"

I'm looking out of Andrew and Verena's window at a very grey and damp scene as I type this, with about an hour before I head off to the airport and fly back to Melbourne. It's been had an excellent week here, working at CSIRO with Beth, and lovely to spend some time with the Oliviers again. Despite todays rain it's been good weather the rest of the week and I've enjoyed walking to CSIRO and back each day. It's a lovely stroll, a little over 4kms, and passes the river front and the sailing club, as well as several lovely parks. On Wednesday evening the weather was so grand that I decided to walk by an even more picturesque route, and ended up taking 3 hours to get home, hiking more than 10km over the top of Mt. Nelson on the way. So it's been a pretty good week.

Christina's spent the last few days in Canberra, so I'm looking forward to hearing all about her adventures when we both return this evening. And then it's less than 3 weeks til we leave for our great holiday!