Kangaroos are Back!

Pre bush fires we always had kangaroos around.
After the fires, nothing.
But now, 2 years later they are back.
They feed at early dawn and late dusk and into the night.
Some have ventured into our yards
From the amount of faeces around, there must be quite a few after dark.
We have two regulars. A largish western grey with her baby (joey).
Despite its size it is sometimes still climbing into its mother’s pouch.

Joey is the name given to all marsupial young, not just kangaroos.
Newborn kangaroo joeys are just 2.5 centimetres long at birth, or about the size of a grape. After birth, joeys travel, unassisted, through their mother’s thick fur to the comfort and safety of the pouch.
A newborn joey can’t suckle or swallow, so the kangaroo mother uses her muscles to pump milk down its throat. 

At around 4 months, the joey emerges from the pouch for short trips and to graze on grass and small shrubs. At 10 months, the joey is mature enough to leave the pouch for good.
It’s nice to see them back despite occasionally causing some fence damage and eating pasture that my cattle could do with.

Wollemi Pine Update ☹️

In 2007 I received a small potted Wollemi Pine cloned from a secret stand of around 100 trees somewhere in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
The Wollemi Pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs.

Over the years I have documented its progress on this blog.

It has done remarkably well.

Until now.
The tree doesn’t like ‘wet feet’.
So far this year we have received 1700mm of rain.
The annual average is 1100mm.
Our property has been soggy for months with the water table so high and drainage slow.
The pine started to show some stress a few months ago with yellowing of the top leaves.

Now the top half is completely dead.

Fingers crossed it is ‘self regulating’ and will survive with the remaining foliage.
But the forecasts are not good
Australia is in the midst of a negative Indian Ocean Dipole event which is producing the higher rate of rainfall over the east coast.

There are also have above average sea surface temperatures around Australia. These conditions mean that there’s a lot of available moisture that can be dragged into these weather systems as they cross the country.

The October to December outlook suggests wetter than average conditions for most of eastern Australia.
There was also a 70% chance of a La Niña event developing during the spring, which was contributing to the wetter than average outlook. 

National Wattle Day

Wattle Day celebrates the golden wattle as Australia’s national floral emblem.
The wattle is resilient against Australia's droughts, winds and bushfires and and is said to represent the spirit of the Australian people.
The golden wattle has more recently been used as a symbol of remembrance and reflection, with a sprig worn on national days of mourning.

For more than a century Australians in different States and the territories celebrated their own wattle day on different days in July, August and September whenever the wattles were at their blooming best locally.
The first celebration of wattle day took place, however, on 1 September in 1910 in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Since 1992 National Wattle Day has been 1 September in all of Australia's States and Territories.
Wattles have long had special meanings for Australians and in 1988 the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was officially gazetted as Australia's national floral emblem.