Eastern Brown

Silently slithering

Forked tongue flickering

Beady eyes glimmering

Gold scales shimmering

Eastern brown

Reflecting the sun

In a remarkable way

Under old Sugar Gums

Gill jumped sideways! It was she who had heard the faint movement of a rock as the Eastern Brown Snake made its way down the slope. I stood still for a while mesmerised by the beauty of its golden scales shimmering in the morning sun. Silently and slowly it slithered towards where I was standing on the Sugar Gum lookout in Mount Remarkable National Park. The view to the west down a deep wooded valley is one of the best in the Southern Flinders Ranges and it was a magic moment. Magnificent scenery, a glorious spring day and a beautiful animal peacefully going about his business.  He silently disappeared into a rocky fissure and we made our way back down the slippery slope towards the Mambrey Creek car-park.  

Too Late

It's too late to save the forest
When it's dead and gone
It's too late to say we're sorry
When it's no longer there

It's too late to say we're sorry
When the reef is dead and gone
It's too late to save the coral
When it's bleached beyond repair

We listen for the frog calls
But silence greets our ears
It's too late to say we're sorry
And our eyes are full of tears



















I am finding it increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about our future. In Australia in particular there is a lack of political leadership to address the issue of climate change despite increasing community acceptance of climate science. The health of the Great Barrier Reef continues to deteriorate, we have unprecedented fires in rain-forest and, ongoing major fish kills in the Murray Darling Basin. When we visited Arkaroola in the northern Flinders Ranges in  April it was heart-breaking to see the parched valleys littered with Euro and Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby bones. The Rock Wallabies rely on dew for water and there has been no dew in that area for 4 years. The wallabies  are coming into the homesteads in the quest for survival. And yet, somehow, despite the evidence all around us we remain locked in a cycle of denial and inaction. There has, however, been a shift in the denial process. As the science becomes overwhelming the outright denial that there is an issue is becoming rarer. There is more stage 2; "Ok we accept that the climate is changing but it has nothing to do with human activity" or stage 3; "Yes we are contributing to the problem but the consequences are being greatly overstated by climate alarmists". Unfortunately the situation is worse than most people think. The death of a 400 km strip of coastal mangroves along the Gulf of Carpentaria last week gets a small mention in the news and is promptly forgotten. Thousands of heat stressed flying foxes dying in Cairns and Adelaide last summer barely rates a mention. We are in deep trouble and it's going to get worse. And our response to this as a nation was to reelect a Party of climate change denialists at the last election. We have no choice but to soldier on. We have lost much but we still have much to save and each of us can make a difference.