Saving a Thorny Devil


Saving a Thorny Devil

What lays beyond the gate of the homestead? Where does that red dusty trail lead to?



The view from the yet to be built look out at Big Lagoon

It was our first Monday at the homestead. All was quiet and peaceful. Our chores had been done, breakfast was had, the kettle had been put on. Ranger Chris had other ideas. He burst around the corner in his Parks and Wildlife ute and in a dusty cloud came to a screeching halt in front of the caravan. He hopped out and asked us if we wanted to join him on a field trip. I stuck my hand up and jumped at the chance. Julie had planned other activities so a boys day out it was. Big Lagoon in Francois Peron National Park was his destination. Ranger Chris lowered his tyre pressure to 16psi – he said that you could even go down as low as 12psi for traversing through heavy sand. As we are driving over that dusty red trail with tyres almost flat, Ranger Chris chatted about “Parks for People", conservation.in general including management of feral animals, regeneration and protection of native flora and fauna.


Closer to Big Lagoon the one lane track started curving sharply left and right giving you that “sitting-duck” experience in regards to oncoming traffic.


After arriving safely Ranger Chris showed me where the new campsite and lookout was going to be built, overlooking Big Lagoon. We walked past some low bushes and Ranger Chris started explaining that this particular bush was Shark Bay Sandalwood or ‘Santalum Spilatum’. He explained that the branches, when cracked, smelled like sandalwood and showed me some of the nuts that were hanging off the branches and some were laying on the ground. He said the nuts, when roasted for ten minutes, tasted like macadamia nuts and were eaten by the Indigenous people of the area.




Sandalwood bush

Later on I found on the Shark Bay website (sharkbay.org.au) that there used to be an industry in Shark Bay making perfume and cosmetics from this bush. Emus are known to eat the rather big nuts whole and then poop them out leaving a more fertilised product behind. It shows how important Emus are in the eco system. Good luck at both ends Mr Emu!!

A Sandalwood nut ready to be swallowed whole by an Emu. Good luck with that!

Ranger Chris showed me many more interesting nature events within a small area – for example there was a hopping mouse trail on the side of the dune and a bush of which the seeds were taken and buried by ants and thus replanted.

At some time during our short drive back from Big Lagoon, Ranger Chris suddenly veered out of the 4wd grooves and stopped. He yelled out to me – "Thorny Devil" and hopped out of the car. I carefully followed him and walked to where a lizard-like creature with grey-yellow spikes and skin armour was sitting in the middle of a tyre track. "Did you get him"? I asked Ranger Chris concerned. "Nah! – he’s alright" was his reply. "Well" said Ranger Chris. "This is your chance to do some conservation of your own". "What do I do"? I asked him. He replied "Just put your hand underneath him, lift him up and place him in the bush away from the road. If we leave him in the tyre track he will just get squashed". "Ok." I said – "let me get my camera first" thinking of Julie and my blog readers in mind.



Picking the little dragon up with my hand was a strange sensation. The Thorny Devil looks so ferocious yet is surprisingly placid and slow. Again later I read that the males bump their heads against each other when the are fighting over a female. Hard to imagine these gentle creatures getting the momentum to kiss each other Liverpool style.


As carefully as I could I scooped a large hand of sand up with the little reptile on top but when the sand had left my hand, like an hour glass, the devil was sitting on my hand, softly prickling my skin with its body armour. I took a real close up look at this prehistoric looking survivor and then placed it carefully in the bush. A burst of happy energy ran through my veins all day from that moment on.



A Thorny Devil making tracks.
Slowly