Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina), originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

This photo was taken inside Melbourne Zoo's Butterfly House. The tip of this butterfly's wing has been broken off which may suggest a run in with some over-zealous tourist who tried to pick it up.

Orchard Butterfly (Papilio aegeus)

Orchard Butterfly (Papilio aegeus), originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

I went to Melbourne Zoo this afternoon (again) and took this photo in the butterfly house.

Meerkats for my birthday

As I looked out of my window this morning the world was covered in a thick fog. From the spare room at Laura and Paul's apartment I could hardly see the other side of the street. The city, which can usually be seen with the lights still shining, was invisible. As I swung my legs out of bed I sighed. Today was my birthday. 32 today! It seems to have come around so quickly. Feels like only yesterday I was 31. The years just now seem to be going so fast.

This year was going to be different though. I was spending my birthday in Melbourne with Laura. I'd come down a couple of days before and had spent my days entertaining Max and shopping in the city. Our birthday morning started getting up with Laura and Paul seeing to Max's morning needs before we settled down with a cup of tea to open the presents. I received a book on insects and a Bill Bryson book from Mum and Dad and from Laura and Paul I got a meerkat cup, meerkat t-shirt and my photo taken with the meerkats at Melbourne Zoo.

We arrived at the zoo around 10:30 and went straight over to the meerkats to get our photo. We were let into the enclosure through the rear and sat on a log. As soon as we sat down the meerkats came over to us and started to over our laps. To keep them interested the keeper threw mealworms onto our laps. The meerkats loved them and grabbed them as soon as they could get to them. At one point we had all nine climbing on us. It was good fun. The meerkats are cute little things and their fur is surprisingly soft and their claws unsurprisingly sharp. It was something that I'd never really do and was very fun.

Laura and me with the meerkats.

Graduating

I never thought that graduating was a big thing. To me it seemed to be a lot of money to spend for a couple of seconds walking across the stage and getting to shake the hand of the head of the uni whom you have never even spoken to before. For that reason I wasn't going to go to my graduation. That's what I said but I still booked my flight back to Brisbane and paid the money after being told by a few friends that I really should go and do it.

And so this afternoon, me, Mum and Dad drove up to the Sunshine Coast for me to graduate. Before I could walk across the stage I had to get my uniform. It consisted of a cape, hood and a mortar board hat. After about fifteen minutes I was able to get it all on together the right way and looking presentable. With that we started to wander over to the sports stadium where the ceremony would take place. After two hours of waiting around we took our seats and settled down for the ceremony.

It started with a procession of all the academics in their gowns with all the trimmings. Speeches followed. After what seemed like a long while the procession of students getting their degrees began. From my degree there was only me and one other person who received their degrees. The other two people who were graduating didn't attend. Still we walked across the stage and shook hands with the Chancellor, he said well done and we walked off the stage. That was it.

It was all over very quickly but I'm kind of glad that I went. It was good to get my certificate. I feel quite proud of what I've done although I do think that anyone can complete a degree, it was good that I did it.

Me in my graduation gown and hat.

Dad, Me and Mum at the Graduation.

Complaints, complaints, complaints...

The first complaint about me came as a bit of a shock. I’d just arrived at work and the boss comes over to me to say that they have to write a ministerial (a brief for the minister for health which then gets distributed to the local member of parliament) about me. I wondered why. What had I done that was so bad? My first complaint was due to a letter that I had written. The proprietor had seen it as me threatening him and saying that I would close down the place. Where he got this idea from I don’t know. You only have to look at the track record of our program to see that we haven’t closed a place down recently. We haven’t closed a place down in the past five years. We haven’t closed a place down… ever, as far as I’m aware. I received a couple of letters from local members of parliament whom I really would have liked to have written back to. Unfortunately I can’t tell them where they can stick their support and just had to stick the letter on the file with no reply. Just another thing I guess I’ll have to get used to.

What do you Finke?

This week I went out to the community of Aputula, otherwise known as Finke. Finke is famous in Central Australia as it is the start/finish point for the Finke Desert Race, which is a major race on the off-motorcycling calendar and follows the Old South Road for over 200kms before finishing in Finke. The next day, the riders do it all again but head north. We weren’t here for that (being four months early – the race is in June). Our drive down to Finke wasn't as quick as the race (and we went down the highway before cutting across which is about 420 kms) but it was a good run down there.

Me Driving to Finke.

After receiving a complaint regarding the store we went down to investigate. Our time in the community was spend conducting inspections at the various registered premises in the town, touring the sewerage ponds, landfill, bores, power station and airstrip as well as meeting with various community representatives and managers from the shire services. We had quite a bit to do in the town but in the end we got our inspections done and letters written.

On Wednesday morning we left the community and headed back to Alice Springs. It is 151 kms of dirt road before getting to the Stuart Highway near Kulgera. On the way we saw a sign for the Lambert Centre and had to go. After all, it was only 12 km away. After some real four-wheel driving we arrived at the Lambert Cenre. The Lambert Centre is the geographical centre of Australia. Now I can say that I really have been to the middle of Australia!

The way to the geographical centre of Australia.

The Lambert Centre.

On the way back to Alice Springs I had another first. Driving along I heard this massive bang and the steering on the car became very still. I was traveling at around 110 km/h but managed to stop the car and pull over to the side of the road. It was my first blow out! It wasn't a big thing. Being in the outback there were no cars to hit and I could slow down easily. It was exciting though. The tyre took a while to change (another first) but we were soon on our way back to Alice. This time, we arrived without any further problems.

Changing my first blown out tyre.

A rapid trip to the Barkly

At the start of February, Cyclone Yassi hit Cairns. It was a category 5 cyclone and therefore, understandably, caused quite a bit of damage. It was bad to watch the devastation on the television but we didn’t think that it would affect us much. We might get a bit of rain, maybe a bit of wind too, but nothing too bad. You can imagine my surprise when I read in the local paper it would reach Alice Springs as a category 1 cyclone and we could expect widespread flooding. That lunchtime as I walked down the mall I was even more surprised to see people building walls of sandbags in front of their shops and businesses. I’m on the Public Health Counter Disaster Committee for Region 3 and the reports that we’d been given only stated that there might be minor flooding. These businesses were quite a way from the river and would only be reached with very major flooding. That weekend we were told that we might be called upon depending on what happens. It was very unlikely, but we had to be prepared just in case.

That weekend there were a few very heavy passing showers and lots of dark clouds on the horizon. Not the major flooding that the papers said would hit Alice. Not even the minor flooding that the Government had said may happen. The river didn’t flow that weekend. It dribbled over the following week but was that light that you hardly had to slow down when driving across the causeways. The storm passed to the south of Alice Springs. The decision was made however, to start a voluntary evacuation of some of the remote communities. In the end, one community did evacuate some residents. The thing was, they didn’t have anywhere to go. It wasn’t a disaster situation and therefore no shelters were open and the government departments didn’t have any legislative power to do anything really. In the end, the show grounds at Tennant Creek, the closest major town to the community, was opened for the influx of residents who left their community.

On Monday afternoon, I was asked if I wanted to go up to Tennant Creek with another EHO, Aaron Clifford, to do an assessment of the show grounds for environmental health considerations. So after a very busy afternoon booking accommodation, making phone calls to many other government agencies and a lot of paperwork it was confirmed. I was going up to Tennant Creek and would be back on Friday. We left early the next day and were up in Tennant Creek just after lunch. We went straight around to the show grounds and started work. Our job basically involved us checking out the facilities, ensuring the food preparation areas were safe and suitable for use; the ablution facilities were sufficient, in good working order and in a sanitary condition; that the accommodation was safe and sufficient and to basically look for any other environmental health issues that could affect the health of those staying at the grounds. We then had to arrange cleaning of the facilities, use of alternative food preparation and storage facilities and ensure that the necessary precautions were taken to ensure that the health of the residents was not compromised. It involved a lot of meetings with people and seeing what people could do to help. These people were then matched up and everyone was happy. It took us two days to get everything sorted and write our reports on the trip.

A flooded road near Wycliffe Well.

Me at the Devil's Marbles.


Tennant Creek.

It was a good trip up to Tennant Creek and a good learning experience on how do conduct a rapid assessment of an evacuation centre and how to get what you need through meetings, phone calls and lots of luck. In the end we accomplished what we'd set out to do and the boss was happy with the final report. It was a good week.

Going for a Drive

Each night for the rest of the week we went for a drive. North, south, east and west, we covered each point of the compass. Heading out of Alice before sunset then driving down the road until we decided that there wasn’t much out, and we turned around. It was a shame that there wasn’t much out. The days had been hot but the nights were relatively cool. For whatever the reason, there wasn’t as much out as should have been. Even so, we did get to see quite a few cool things.

Stimpsons Python (Antaresia stimpsoni).

Me illegally interfering with a gecko (by picking it up).

Southern Spiney-tailed Gecko (Strophurus intermedius).

Marbled Velvet Gecko (Odura marmarata).

An angry Mulga Snake (Pseudechis australis) that I suprised (and suprised me) while walking down a dry river bed.

A House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) eating grass seed near Glen Helen.

Australian Owlet Nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus) that didn't want to get off the road.

Centralian Carpet Python (Morelia spilota bredli).

A fly on a tree.

Bynoes Gecko (Heteronotia binoei).

Rocking the Rock!

Stewart was here for two weeks and in that time we saw quite a bit. The next weekend we drove down to Ayers Rock. Even though I’d been down there twice before it was still as impressive as the first time. The massive red rock comes looming out of the desert. It starts its looming when you’re still quite a way off and gets even bigger and more loomier the closer you get. We arrived late after stopping to take a couple of photos of critters that we saw along the drive. Despite the lateness of our arrival we were up early before the sun. We drove out to the new viewing platform that was recently built at a cost of over 3 million dollars. Unfortunately they must have ran out of money for the signs. There was one in the local indigenous language but not one in English. I can only guess that more aboriginal people visit the sunrise viewing platform than those who understand English. We drove half way around the rock before I decided to turn around. I don’t know why they only decided to put the indigenous language on the signpost. Is this politically correctness gone overboard or just a stupid mistake? I’m hoping it was the latter. The sunrise was impressive but as there were about eight tour busses that were there as well as a few cars and campervans, (I can only assume they either followed someone in or can speak the local dialect), the view was more of the crowds instead of the rock. One thing that amused me was that they built the viewing platform spending all that money but didn’t bother to take out the two or three trees that were in front between the platform and the rock and blocked a portion of the view from most angles. Even the ones on the very top of the dune!

After the sunrise we went to the base of the rock and waited a while to see if they would open the climb. Unfortunately they didn’t because of apparent high winds (even though there wasn’t even a breeze on the ground), and so in the end, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we decided to do the base walk instead. As someone who has both climbed the rock and done the base walk I would have to say that the climb is much more impressive. Hopefully there will be a next time. The Aboriginal Land Corporation has just purchased Voyages Ayers Rock Resort and so it looks like they’ll be closing the climb pretty soon no matter what the weather. It was a hot rock on the day we walked around. Ten kilometers under the blazing sun but by the end we (or at least I), felt we’d achieved something. After that we went to the cultural centre before heading over to the Olgas. Stewart wanted to find a little dragon (a lizard not the mythical kind) in the area so we decided to do the Valley of the Winds walk. It turned out that the little dragons were quite common. We walked to the first lookout (about one kilometer return) and we saw five of the little things. I’m going to have to go back when it’s cooler and do the rest of the walk.
The weekend seemed to go very quickly and before we knew it we were back in the car and driving back to Alice Springs.

Pale Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus laevissimus)


A tourist photographing Ayers Rock.

Western Brown Snake (Pseudonja mengdeni).

Driving back to Alice Springs

I’ve been back in Alice Springs for two days now and today is my first day back at work. Stewart and I set off on the 4th of January driving south through Broken Hill and Port Augusta back to Alice Springs. The drive took around five days to complete and all up we drove over 3500 kilometers. There were a few long days and some even longer drives. Time wasn’t against us but I did have to be back by Monday. In the end we drove straight through. We could have stopped in Dubbo. We could have stopped at Ayers Rock. In the end, we drove straight through and arrived in Central Australia with two days to spare. It was only the second time that Stewart had been to Alice Springs. He drove out with me when I first brought my car out. Then he only stayed for a couple of days then so this time, he had to see a bit more of what Central Australia had to offer.

Stopping off in South Australia on the way back to Central Australia.

A sea gull flying away from Port Augusta in South Australia.