Wombat

OK, OK. I know they're common, but when you live in the west of Victoria you never see them, so we got excited. They choose to live in the east of the state only (except for a small population near the South Australian border). I'm talking about Wombats, the Common Wombat. At Tidal River on the Prom we went out with our torches to look for them and found them easily, grazing on the grass near our cabin. I found it quite difficult to focus the camera on a moving target when it's pitch black, so most of my photos were of the backsides only!

We saw evidence of wombats everywhere we went - diggings, burrows and scats on the tracks. The scats are rectangular and always in a little pile on top of a small bump or log. In several places we noticed that wire had been put along the banks, presumably to stop the wombats from digging into and eroding the hillside.

It's unbelievable that there used to be a bounty on wombat scalps until 1966, and even now they are unprotected in a number of areas and are killed by farmers who don't like the damage done to fences and pasture. Many are killed by road traffic.