Platypuses and rent control

We've learned something about the fauna in Australia over the last couple of days. The animals here, as most everyone knows, are very different from other places. We visited the zoo a couple of days ago, and saw a platypus, koalas, a Tasmanian devil, and an assortment of kangaroos. The platypus had to be one of the strangest creatures I've ever laid eyes upon. He was swimming in a tank, back and forth, wiggling his bill from side to side. He looked like a mix of parts from other animals with its duck-like bill, otter-like body, and webbed feet on the side of its body, and eyes like a lizard. He was every endearing in a way. The zoo breeds these creatures, but we didn't see any baby platypuses, which are called puddles.

In the zoo we spotted some koalas, including a mother and baby. They were sleeping in the eucalyptus trees with their faces tucked into their arms. I understand they sleep 20 hours a day so it's not surprising that we caught them napping. We also were able to do a walk-about along a path, with two emus taking a bath on one side and kangaroos taking a rest on the other. The Sydney zoo was well worth the trip. The kids especially enjoyed the seal and bird shows. There was one vulture that flew down onto the stage from above with a body the size of a dog. It had a massive wing span and proceeded to crack open an emu egg with a rock. This particular bird was born in captivity and wasn't taught to do this, which is standard behaviour in the wild.

Yesterday we visited the Australian Museum in Sydney, which is mainly a nature museum, and included a floor on aboriginal culture and history. We saw many of the same Australian animals we saw living at the zoo, but this time they were either displayed stuffed or in skeletal form. There were even some models of some of the mega fauna that roamed Australia millions of years ago, like large marsupial carnivores that looked a lot like cats.

The museum provided some insight into why Australia has the creatures it does. Australia has most of the marsupials in the world, which are mammals with pouches to grow and house the babies. I didn't get a really great explanation for why that is, other than marsupials arrived here before placental mammals, and then Australia became isolated geographically. The marsupials would have travelled from South America via Antarctica to Australia maybe 100 million years ago, back when these continents were joined together and Antarctica and Australia were both covered in forests.

An explanation for hopping kangaroos builds on this theory. Once Australia separated from Antarctica, Antarctica continued to drift south to the pole and became a very cold place. Australia continued to drift north and became a warmer, drier place. In this isolated, hot and dry landscape with few remaining trees, hopping became a more efficient way to cover long distances than doing it on four legs. Go figure.

Later in the evening Catheleen and I went for a walking tour of the Rocks. Back when Sydney was first established the convicts and poorer folk were given the rocky land up the hill from the harbour to build their houses and businesses (called the Rocks). Government officials and the better off settled on the gentler rolling hills nearby. As we walked around the narrow roads and alleyways in the Rocks, we were told stories of some of the more interesting characters who lived in the area.

My favourite story was about one of oldest pubs in the neighbourhood, which in the 1840's would have regularly plied an unsuspecting patron with free rounds of beer. After all the other patrons had left in the early morning hours, this drunken soul would remain at the bar for one last free pint. A trap door would then open up underneath, dropping the victim into a holding cell below where they likely passed out with a beer still in hand. Upon awakening, the victim would find himself on a ship in the harbour, pressed-ganged into service.

We also heard about recent government plans to evict the last renters in government controlled housing in this area. It's quite controversial and we saw some protest signs. The properties are very valuable now, with modest garden homes selling for millions. The government plans to sell off the remaining properties, and use the proceeds to fund other government subsidized housing in other parts of the city. Some renters are descendants of the original renters from the early 1900's, and pay nominal amounts for their rent.

Here's Catheleen on the ferry on the way to the Sydney zoo.