In article , Flying Tadpole
wrote:

Peter Wiley wrote:



Those students obviously didn't grow up in the country. Possums have 2
uses - dog food & rugs for the bed. I did admire the ones at Sydney Uni
tho - they used to feed from the bins with complete insouciance. One of
the few native marsupials which have made a (all too) successful
adaptation to the suburbs.

Which seems to be changing. Oddly, the common brushie is
starting to become a threatened species in Adelaide suburbs. A
consequence of denser housing AND everyone pulling up their fruit
trees.

Plenty down here, I see them wandering about outside my windows.
Something nailed a pademelon in my driveway the other night, I suspect
a feral cat as none of the neighbours have dogs loose and I've seen a
cat about. Time to bring a rifle down from NSW methinks.


No mangroves in SA are there? Thought their geographic range was less
than that. Certainly none in Tas.

Lots. Big big stands in Adelaide, right round the top end of St
Vincent Gulf, huge stands top end Spencer Gulf.

Also: Westernport Bay incl Philip Island. SOuthernmost stands
are on Wilson's Promontory.

Ah, ok, I knew they were down to the NSW-Vic border (used to camp in
Nadgee Nature reserve) but that lot were also (IIRC) a monoculture and
getting pretty scrubby. Hope you lot treat the mangroves better than
NSW (and esp Sydney) has. Wonderful filtration places and small fish
nurseries.

Mangroves are fun. Smelly, but
interesting places. Was barra fishing in the Wessel Islands one time in
a creek running thru mangroves and one of the guys spotted a croc. 4
people did a standing leap from the water into the dinghy in an
ohnosecond. It wasn't very big but who knew where its mummy was....

Southern mangroves are less interesting: monospecific stands and
no crocodiles.


You wouldn't have lasted with our lot.
Don;t you believe it.

Heh.

Someone would have put a possum
in your tent, or worse.

They didn't dare to.

Heh.


Field trips involved mandatory drinking every
night followed by crack of dawn trap runs to let the critters out, then
breakfast.

So? at that stage, I could drink any student under the table and
still give the appearance of being sober. Mooron will lend you
the how-to manual, if you wish.

Doubt I need it thinking of the jobs I've had & people I've worked
with. Fishermen, cattlemen, miners....... learnt more than one trick to
survive such 'social' encounters.

PDW