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Once again, I just returned to Cairns, this time after my month-long independent study project at the Australia Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, an hour north of Brisbane. The hospital is associated with the Australia Zoo, both founded and owned by Steve Irwin and his family. I spent the month living with one of the vets and two other zoo workers in the Glasshouse Mountains, the town next to Beerwah. Both areas are very small towns, but it was nice to be settled somewhere for an extended period of time.
My research project was a case study on Jake, a koala who was diagnosed with cystitis (caused by Chalmydia, yes, like humans) on my first day at the hospital. I observed him hourly every day I was at the hospital to watch his treatment and see how he recovered. It was interesting in theory, but in practice koalas mostly sleep, so my observations were not very exciting. In the end, his cystitis was cleared, but he had kidney problems as a side effect. His kidneys are likely to get better, but my results aren't as happy as I had hoped.
Another reason I chose to study Jake is because he was in a koala radio tracking program before being pulled out with cystitis. The tracking study monitors koalas that were released from the hospital with radio collars. A researcher, Kiersten, tracks the koalas twice a week with a directional antenna and receiver to monitor their success back in the wild. I got to go out in the field to help Kiersten a few times and will incorporate it in my study. It was especially great to see koalas actually in the wild! The tracking is done in Blackbutt, a tiny town 2 hours west of Beerwah. It's a beautiful area, but so tiny that when we went into town to get dinner at 7:05pm, everything was shut and we had to go to the next town over to find an open grocery store!
At the hospital between observations, I got to help out with many different tasks - feeding koalas, giving oral meds to koalas, and helping the vets on triage (basically wildlife ER). I saw tons of different types of animals come in and learned some basic veterinary science. By the end, I was able to help the vets and nurses take temperatures, get meds ready, and even gave an IV. I also got to perform a few necropsies (post mortem surgeries) on koalas - a little gross to most, but it was so cool to see the insides of koalas.
I had weekends off from the hospital, so I got to fit in a little tourism of the area as well. One Saturday while I was there was Steve Irwin Day at the Australia Zoo, so I spent the day at the zoo (for free!). It was also the grand opening of the hospital's new building, so I attended that, along with a bunch of famous people like the Irwin family, the Veronicas (an Aussie music group), and Muhammad Ali's daughter. The next day, I hiked Mt. Ngungun, one of the Glasshouse Mountains near where I was staying - a short but pretty hike. The following weekend, I took a 2-day tour of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. Nine other tourists and I crammed into a 4-wheel-drive and rode up the beach with a tour guide, who brought us to all the sites. We swam in Lake MacKenzie and Lake Wobby, floated down Eli Creek, did a rainforest walk by Central Station, and visited a 1900's shipwreck. We spent the night camping with a barbie (BBQ) dinner and music around a campfire. It was supposed to storm that weekend, but somehow the weather held off, and it was perfect!
By the end of my month, I had made friends with all my housemates and their friends, so we were able to pull together an Aussie Thanksgiving before I left. I cooked the turkey (the first turkey I've ever cooked, and it actually came out well!). I also made stuffing, gravy, and pecan pie, while the others made various veggie dishes. We put together a complete meal that actually felt like Thanksgiving, but it being almost summer here, we ate outside at a candlelit table under the stars - definitely made it a unique night. They were all very glad to get to celebrate, and it was a nice way to say bye to everyone.
My flight left Brisbane early on Sunday morning, so Saturday I headed into the city to actually spend an afternoon there. (I hadn't spent any time in the city before then.) I walked up and down Queens St. Mall, where I was shocked by the crowds of people. Cairns is nothing in comparison to Brisbane, and having not been in a city for months, I was shocked with the craziness of it all. Of course I think Boston is bigger, it was just a shock to my system. I also crossed the river and explored the South Bank, where they have a scenic walking path along the river and a man-made beach nearby. That night, I hung out with some Aussie girls staying in my hostel room, and they said I had seen the main sights of Brisbane, so I felt pretty satisfied with my 12 hours there.
The next morning I was up early to catch the plane, and I'm now settled back in Cairns for the next 11 days to finish up my program. It's crazy that it's almost over, but I still have plenty of work to do on my final paper and presentation and lots more traveling when the studying is over! I'm meeting the family in Sydney in 2 weeks, when we'll visit there and then New Zealand. I'll try to keep up the blog, although I've been doing a poor job of that recently and I apologize. It's hard when things get so busy here, but I miss everyone and can't wait to see people next month!
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