First Project at Perth Placement: Malleefowl Survey at Badja Station

The first few days: The first project: surveying Malleefowl begins…..we depart Perth around: 8 30am to head to the Outback more specifically, Badja Station.There are eight (our team leaders: Bree and Marion, Glenda, the project partner, and us volunteers: Ben, Alex and Tom of the UK, Stephanie of France, and myself) of us in a very cramped Land Cruiser with bench seats.We are all quite happy when we stop for morning tea around 11, not so much for the tea and biscuits but to relieve cramps.We then proceed until about one when we stop for lunch in a "town" of about five people, and that's the most people we've seen since the outlying suburbs of Perth.We make one other stop before reaching the station.I've never, even in Nebraska, driven so long without seeing any other towns or humans!

(Couple of Side notes:*We only spent about three of the eight hours riding on a "two way highway", after that it was either a one and a half lane dirt or gravel road to which in AUS you go head on with the cars coming the opposite directions and then one person pulls over (scariest damn thing …I had to hold my breath every time we passed a car!)*The weather in the Outback is typically hot during the day, it was 100 when we arrived on Monday and the opposite at night as cool as 30 (thanks for the warm sleeping bag Andrea, everyone else brought synthetic bags and has been freezing) during the night .)

Around 4:30 PM we check in with the station manager, Roger, an Australian-lumber jack-esque man.He then takes us to our "accommodations"—we were told they'd be a bit rough around the edges but that didn't even begin to describe where we stayed (the pictures should be enough but I'll add in some detail).After a ten mile bumpy journey down the road from the station managers home we arrive at what appears to be an abandoned barn but are informed they're the shearers quarters from when they used to run sheep (--we were the first women to have ever stayed in them J).There are three "buildings" and a "bathroom".The tour: first stop is the kitchen and eating area…my initial thought was there is no way I will touch or eat anything for two weeks but to my own surprise I did and am still ok, I just keep envisioning cooking in a gourmet kitchen to make myself feel better!On to the "bedrooms"…there are seven small rooms with two mattresses on metal frames both of which look about a gazillion years old—ripped, stained, spider webs etc. and a "dresser".The first room of the building is the showers.To use the showers we were shown how to make a fire under a water tank for hot water---these showers, although quite rustic became one of the high points during our days out there!The third building is a locked up barn.And then the restrooms….essentially a metal shack split down the middle with two toilets---and to our surprise upon first use-- frogs that jump up each time you flush the toilet!Oh, yes and the toilets are about a couple of hundred feet away from the sleeping quarters; getting up to use the restroom in the middle of the Outback in the middle of the night—a little scary!!

We all get situated as best as we can and unload the trailer.Stephanie and I volunteered to cook the first night.We scoured the kitchen as best as possible and threw together a little spaghetti bolganese and salad.After dinner we had a team meeting of what the next couple of weeks would be like and were off to bed---HA!

SO..Australia has a lovely variety of insects and animals…Stephanie and I decided to share a room because we thought better to be together on this interesting endeavor.Upon entry into our room we are greeted by a very large "bush cockroach"—that's where the boys came in handy!We felt better having it out of there but there were several other friendly little critters as well,and there are not walls or fully closing windows in our "rooms" so it's free admission for all God's little creatures!I quickly sealed myself into a cocoon in my sleeping bag and mosquito net and was off to sleep.I had that sleeping bags closed so tight I don't think an army of men could have gotten in, what a day!

As one might imagine I was up pretty early.We had to be up, lunch packed and ready to go by 8am.Everyone was ready on time and we were off to meet Roger.Roger was taking us out to the area next to where we were surveying to show up both an active and non-active mall fallow nests.These are huge nests—the non-active nests look as if a small spaceship landed in the sand.The active nests are huge mounds of vegetation.

After observing the examples of what we were looking for we took a drive about a ½ hour from the quarters to the area we were surveying.Essentially the group of us was spaced 10 meters apart to survey the land looking for active or non-active maleefallow mounds to access and report on.Each section we cover is about 5K out, we covered two sections today.Although that may not sound like much, it's a long hard day through the bush, which can be so thick at times you can't see someone even a couple of meters from you…how do we keep track of each other?The leaders at either end of our surveying line have GPS systems, those of us in the middle have whistles, compasses, and you must maintain vocal or eye contact of the people on either side at all time...and yes it gets even better when it cools down out of nowhere, and it begins to downpour—and for a couple of glorious minutes even hails!There are also no trace rules in effect on the station, meaning everything brought on the station must be brought off the station; not even things such as a banana peel, an apple core etc.—lots of fun!

It was a long first day..butnight two was a bit easier going to sleep because I was exhausted after the day but I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall asleep thinking about a nice comfy bed at home!

Day two started off a bit rough…..I awoke around six and was heading over to the kitchen for a cup of tea.It was a very cold night and it was raining when I awoke, boo.I wasn't the only one up…the team leaders were out at the car, we had a flat.Having a flat anywhere is awful, having one in the middle of nowhere when the closest town is over two hours away PLUS your satellite phone isn't working—not a great situation!This is where things started to go downhill…we ended up having the "day off" while they took the car to get the tire patched.The next few days after that went pretty well except for the generator going out until Sunday when we went to visit a Wildlife Sanctuary in Mt. Gibson (a couple hrs. from where we were).

On our way back from the sanctuary the car broke down……….someone must have been looking out for us because we miraculously were able to get signal for the phone. The station manager and his wife drove their cars to come retrieve everyone except for me and one of the team leaders.We waited for a tow truck for two hours, and then steered the car another two hours by a tow-rope to Mt. Magnet.

The next day we found out the gear box was shot.Bree, the team leader and myself then set up shop in Mt. Magnet while the head office began figuring out what to do with the project,, car, all of us etc.Thus, Bree and I spent our 48hrs in Mt. Magnet at all the hot spots a town of 427 people can offer: the BP station, the pub and the library.I think we managed to meet at least 350/427 people, and were informed in great deal on everyone's lives.

Finally retrieved, we made the drive back down to Badja, stayed one last night, and headed back to Perth on Wednesday.All in all it was an interesting introduction to the volunteer program.It was certainly a memorable time filled with good times with good people, some pretty delicious meals even for being out in timbuck-two, incredibly gorgeous scenery and exciting to learn about the Mallefowl.

We were given Thursday and Friday off to recover from the craziness which was much appreciated!I spent the long weekend going out other volunteers, people I've been hooked-up with via friends in the states, and some other lovely folks we've met at the accommodations, going to Rottnest Island, shopping, going to the Western Australian Art Museum, the WA Aquarium etc.

Tomorrow we're headed out for project #2: Beach Clean-Up and Survey in Jurion Bay (about five hours up the coast from Perth)