Australian Animals at Healesville Sanctuary

This is one last post about my time with my parents and aunt and uncle. When they came back through Melbourne after their time in New Zealand, we had a day to enjoy some Australian sights. Our first stop was Brighton Beach for "morning tea." I bought them various flavored macaroons from the market and brought along some strawberry lemonade.

Speaking of the market, I brought them all to the South Melbourne Market first thing in the morning and made them go pick out and buy their own meat item for lunch. They had fun navigating the crowds, seeing Australian items for sale (lamb and kangaroo), and trying out their knowledge of the metric system and Australian currency!






After morning tea, we drove out near Healesville Sanctuary and I cooked up a BBQ lunch while my family took a short hike in the park. The flies were insane and prevented us from even sitting down while eating, but we made it work. Then it was off to Healesville Sanctuary, where you can see all of the Australian animals in one place.

We started our visit with the bird show. They flew all around our heads while we learned facts about them.

The best part was when this eagle spotted a wild version of itself high up in the sky. Well, the wild one spotted this one too, and ended up swooping down incredibly close. We almost got to witness an attack; you could tell the handler guy was kind of freaking out!

Sleepy dingo.

After the bird show, we walked around the other exhibits, checking out several Australian animals. I've included a few of my favorite pictures for you to enjoy: a dingo, emu, lyrebird, red kangaroo, koala, pelican, colorful bird of some sort, Tasmanian devil, and kookaburra.

It's hard to believe that we won't be living in the land of these animals much longer. The shipping company came today and packed up all our things to send to California. We rented a car and made one trip to the op shop and two trips to the rubbish collection place. We're down to just one large backpack and one daypack for ten weeks of survival. This is getting really real!

Aboriginal Art in Kakadu (and a Dingo)

Kakadu National Park is home to lots of aboriginal art sites. We visited one called Nourlangie, and it was pretty cool. The rock shelter here has been used for about 20,000 years! I've included some pictures of some of our favorite drawings.

I've included this in case you want to try making some rock art of your own!

This one shows traditional dancing.

This one is called Nabulwinjbulwinj. You say it like Nar-bull-win-bull-win. He's a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam. Yikes!

















This is the Anbangbang Gallery, and it includes Namarrgon (the Lightning Man), Barrginj (his wife), Ginga (the great saltwater crocodile), family groups on their way to a ceremony, and Guluibirr (the saratoga fish).

Here's another one of the Lightning Man. Namarrgon is an important Creation Ancestor who is said to be responsible for the violent lightning storms that occur every wet season. The band joining his head and ankles represents the lightning he creates. He's pretty cool looking. This was definitely some of the best (biggest, most detailed, most interesting) rock art I've seen in Australia so far.

And on our drive to our campsite, we saw a dingo. Poor guy-so skinny!