Wombats, Kanagaroos, and Penguins!

Saturday April 1st – After a really poor nights sleep with the howling wind and pouring rain for most of the night, we got up and finally began our trip down to Phillip Island.

Phillip Island is 135 km (about 90 minutes) south of Melbourne and was originally used in the 1800’s for farming and running sheep. It started picking up as a tourist attraction in the 1920’s due to the famous “Little Penguin” colony on the island. Each evening the world’s smallest penguins gather in small groups at the water’s edge then run (waddle) across the beach to their burrows in the dunes nearby. One of Australia’s largest colonies of fur seals also gathers on the rocks just offshore the island and there is a Koala conservation center as well. It promised to be an exciting trip.

As we drove south the weather varied tremendously. We would have beautiful blue skies with fluffy white clouds for a while then thunderous heavy rain for 15 minutes. We kept our fingers crossed that the rain would pass in time for the “Penguin Parade”. Just before we arrived at the island we were driving along chatting like crazy when we passed a sign “Giant Earthworms 300m on right”. We looked at each other with eyes wide and shouted in unison, “Giant Earthworms? Let’s go” (By then we had passed the exit as 300m is not a very far distance). We spun the car around and raced back to the exit to “Wildlife Wonderland – Giant Worm – Koalas – Wombat World – Emu Land”. It was a mom and pop type of joint and we eagerly paid our admission fee and bought some kangaroo food. (Yes, apparently we were going to feed the kangaroos!)

We first walked into “Wombat World”. The center houses the Bare-nosed wombat or ‘common wombat’ who range in southern Australia and Tasmania. The wombats here are all orphans from road kills or dog attacks, the center acts as a half-way house and raise the baby wombats until they can be re-released into the wild. Wombats are marsupials and live in underground burrows during the day. Babies live in their mother’s pouches for about 6 months then stay with her for another year. Although Wombats are normally nocturnal, the wombats here are active during the day as their human care-givers or “mothers” are active during the day. Once they reach sexual maturity at about 2 they revert back to a nocturnal life. They are pretty docile and the keeper held one in her arms for us to pet. He was about 14 months old, and weighed about 14 kilos (about 25-30 pounds). As adults they reach about 25 kilos!

Next we went into the Kangaroo area. We walked out into a large pasture to see a group of about 30 kangaroos sleeping in the shade on the far side. A couple of people had walked out just before us so we looked over to see about 6 big kangaroos hopping over to the people and they were hand feeding them! I couldn’t believe it. As we got a little closer it was kind of nerve wracking, some of those ‘roos were BIG. We worked up the courage to feed them and I even petted one of the smaller ones on the head. What an experience.

There were also some pens with a few dingoes lounging in the sun, we then headed in and saw the Koalas. They were pretty active as it was time for fresh feed to be brought in. We chatted with one of the keepers and learned about the koalas, what they eat, how babies are raised, etc. Then it was time for the Giant Earthworm. The earthworm display was a bit disappointing as the only earthworm was a dead preserved one. Apparently they are highly endangered and not allowed to be kept on display. The film and photos were interesting though; these worms can grow longer than 10 feet! They also had a great white shark exhibit, which kind of creeped me out. It was a preserved Great White about 5 meters long (16 ½ feet) in a tank with it’s mouth opened wide. There was various scary photos and information on the wall and a short film showing them eating varies animals and being studied by man. Some of you may know of my shark phobia, so will understand that I didn’t stay there very long. That thing kept STARING at me.

We left the Wildlife Wonderland feeling giddy and satisfied in a cheesy way. Onward to Phillip Island where we booked a B&B for the night and headed to “The Nobbies”. The Nobbies are a couple of rock outcrops on the rugged coastline. It was extremely windy and cold but the view was spectacular! We took tons of photos of the waves crashing against the rocks. Later we headed to the “Penguin Parade” site.

“Little Penguins” are the world’s smallest penguin standing 15-17 inches high and weighing about 2.2 pounds. At the “Penguin Parade” there is a building with gift shop items and educational material about the penguins. The area is carefully monitored by the rangers as historically people have really negatively impacted the penguin colony. Now there are viewing stands with benches to sit on and the beach is roped off. No photography is allowed and they are strict! We saw a guy try to shoot a photo and the ranger went over and made him put his camera in a plastic bag which she sealed and gave back to him. Apparently the flash really scares the little guys. So we sat near the beach (in the freezing wind) until dark waiting for the penguins. Suddenly they began to appear. They gather together at the waters edge in groups of 10-15 called “rafts”. The penguins are most vulnerable to predators when they cross the stretch of sand from the water to the bushed in the dunes. They stand in their groups in the water debating, sometimes spinning around and heading back into the water. Finally they commit and hurry up the beach. After watching a few groups waddle in we walked along the boardwalk back towards the building. All along the boardwalk to could see the penguins walking along to their little houses too. We had a great time. I’ve added a link to the Little Penguin website to my blog if you want more information.

By this time it was almost 10 pm and we were hungry. Finding a place to eat was not easy as almost everyplace had already closed, but we managed to find a pizza shop. There we met our first real live “Yobbo” (remember what that is?). Anyway, it was a fun day and we slept well at our cute B&B.