Melbourne--Less Shopping, More Penguins!

Melbourne & thoughts on the eco-friendliness of Phillip Island's Penguin Parade.

MELBOURNE---considered the most 'British' of Australia's cities, readily apparent with its Victorianesque avenues and open gardens.

Fashion capital of Australia! Everyone is greased and slicked for a walk around the town: knee high boots, flash leggings, bright jewelry, big button coats, pressed suits and skinny jeans all round (male? female? doesn't matter, everyone's squeezing in these days!)

I have found that Melbournians are just overall Good Looking People!

I've been looking forward to this visit for many reasons, but of course the biggest lure for me was the craze about Melbourne's Coffee Culture. The city is a maze of cafes and baristas, with worn streets where the clicks of heels and boots out drum the traffic. Walking these streets took me straight back to the good old days when I was living in the old quarter of Brussels, Belgium.

I've settled in St. Kilda--seaside town famous for the stylish cafes, nightclubs, cake shops and of course the infamous setting for one of the most popular soap operas 'Neighbours.'

St. Kilda is like a playground for backpackers. In the late 80's it was more famous as a hotspot for drug dealers and transvestites, but it's been cleaned up (more or less). The daytime crowd was pleasant to look at--the traffic these days up and down the strip are from yuppies and baby strollers.

(I would like to take a moment here to repeat what I said in another blog entry. If you value sleep, DO NOT STAY at BASE ST KILDA HOSTEL.)

Day trip to Phillip Island and the Penguin Parade:

Full day trip from Melbourne CBD (Central Business District, aka 'downtown') took me to Phillip Island. Surfer's paradise especially on a day like the one I was there for---wild winds, torrential wave action, and some of the cleanest breaks in the surf I have seen.

First stop, Churchill Island an old historic working farm. The wallabies pictured here are not farmed (and never eaten!), they were just a wild family pack I came across walking the yard. They're part of the backdrop out here, and just as common to see in a backyard as a stay dog or duck.

This mama wallaby had a baby joey peeking out its head from time to time in curiosity. When it got scared it would kick it's way back into the pouch and completely disappear from view! I didn't even know she had a baby until I saw a claw slip out of the pouch when I was leaning down to pet her!

The working farm was pretty cool to see, lots of history here and the farm's been passed down generation after generation.

They were shearing sheep which was a bit of a laugh for me because after months of traveling through New Zealand I somehow always missed a sheep shearing (which was a feat considering the population of sheep to Kiwis 'New Zealanders' is 10 to 1!) They also had some working dogs do a demonstration of how they round up the sheep and get them moving through the farm yards.

Around the corner from the farm was a real treat: the Phillip Island Koala Conservation Centre.

On the drives I've manged to spot wild koalas high up in the trees, but here at the centre was the first time I could get really close and personal with these beautiful creatures.

This sleeping giant's name is 'Bumby' and the most exciting part of his day happened when I was mere feet from him--he woke up, stretched, ate a eucalyptus leaf and then moved to another branch a few feet away to tuck in for another few hours napping. Wow.

Today there's only a few thousand koalas left in the wild, which means that they've lost nearly 90% of their population in less than a decade. Biggets threat to them is loss of natural habitat. Although not officially classified as 'Endangered' it's only a matter of time at the rate they're disappearing today.

Fun facts about Koalas:

1. They're marsupials like kangaroos and wombats, meaning they carry their young in pouches


2. They can only be found in Australia (naturally)


3. "Koala" in Aboriginal language means 'no drink' which refers to these animals going for days without water, fully adapted to the Australian climate


4. Koalas are very picky eaters. The Australian bush holds over 600 species of eucalyptus trees, and koalas will only eat about 120 of them. (Toxic for humans.)


5. On average sleeps 19 hours a day in the fork of an eucalyptus tree.


6. The first food a baby 'joey' koala will eat is its mother's shit. The koala requires a micro-organism to properly digest the eucalyptus leaves which can only be absorbed safely through it's mother's droppings.


7. When koalas become stressed or worried about the loss of their homes they develop a disease we know as Chlaymidia...that's right koalas have STDs.


8. According to Aussie high schoolers, there's a certain of eucalyptus tree that's toxic to the koala's brain. Some koalas become rabid and aggressive, and if a passerby gets too close to their tree they'll jump down and attack them trying to defend their territory. These are known as 'Drop Bears'.

(picture source: here)

Some more iconic wildlife I came across on Phillip Island, the majestic kingfisher Kookaburra and the Cape Barren Goose.

Another great stop over in Phillip Island was to take in the scenery at Nobbies Rocks--where Australia's largest fur seal colony lives.

But this was not the reason I decided to visit the island...the pull for me all along was the

Little Penguin Parade.

Phillip Island is also home to the largest Little Penguin colony in the world! Every sunset, thousands of little penguins emerge from the sea and march across the beach to their homes, in the sand dune burrows. The Little Penguin is so named because it is the world's smallert penguin, or so the scientists say.

I've heard a different story about the name. They used to be called Fairy Penguins, but in the late 80's the gay community was in an uproar about that so they had to change the name.

In New Zealand they're known as Blue Penguins (note the blue sheen in their coat) and in Australia as Little Penguins. Don't know if this story is true or not, but it makes for a good read!

Around 6:30pm I perched myself on a piece of beach, and waited. It was freezing cold, so I was wrapped from head to toe in blankets and overcoats, chattering my way through a cup of hot tea.

The waves crash against the beach, one after another and another, and when the penguins do finally emerge they take you completely by surprise! One wave brings water to the shore, and all of a sudden the next wave brings a wash of blue and black tiny figures crashing on to the sand! One second nothing... the next nearly 100 penguins magically appear!

They were all disoriented when they came out of the water, squawking and shaking the water off, and trying to regroup with the colony as close as possible before deciding to take a group waddle up the beach.

• The Little Penguin is born in a sand burrow but spends a great part of its life out at sea. They can go for weeks on end at sea and come back when they choose to, to their burrows. They actually sleep while they're at sea, dozing as they float on the surface.

• They always come back to the place they were born. Whatever burrow they are born into, they must return to to continue their breeding cycle.

It's a marvel to see. They wash in at sunset since their eyes are better suited for the sand dunes at night. This particular night there must have been nearly 2,000 penguins that washed ashore. Wave after wave brought them everywhere and in every direction! Some of the penguins even got lost, you could tell as you watched them waddle back and forth trying desperately to remember which direction their burrow was.

I stayed well into the darkness and even followed some of these little guys to their young chicks in the burrows (keeping a responsible distance of course.) It was a night of absolute magic, and I left with an awesome high of being up close and personal with mother nature's secrets.

• The Penguin Parade, is it eco-friendly?

This is a very big question I struggled with today. Phillip Island is a tourist destination for the most part, giving visitors unique insight into the wildlife and offering close encounters.

• The Koala centre and the Penguin Parade are full blown tourist facilities that include: gift shops, cafes, photo opportunities and information. But they are government run research facilties as well, non-profit organizations not in the game for commercial gain, but for educational outreach and support to continue the conservation initiatives.
• Thousands of people all year round come through from Melbourne to experience the Penguin Parade, and it can feel like a commercial trap with all the buses, crowds, and screaming children. But I left feeling good with the organization I chose to support: because in the end the experience wasn't about making the penguins accessible to us, but for us to be accessible to the penguins.

• Everything: every measure, every path way, every light post, was strategically placed and guarded to not interrupt the daily routine of these little penguins. Tourists are banned from taking photos so the flash doesn't interrupt the natural scenery, and the penguins honestly seem to ignore our very presence.

• There's extensive information about behavior and life cycles that's readily available in a child approved education centre, and under cover guides (who are scientists)constantly apprehending naughty tourists trying to break the rules.

In the end, the aim is perfectly achieved. You learn more about these beautiful penguins, you spend your money supporting a great cause, and children walk away falling in love and wanting Mom and Dad to do more to help ensure the penguins live on forever.

• The Phillip Island Nature Park has won countless awards for eco-tourism and conservation efforts and any tour you book from Melbourne will have to adhere to their strict guidelines and rules for participating. So, in the end I'm very happy with how I chose to spend my day today!