Would you like fries with that?

Trip 7: Perth to somewhere in the far north-west Kimberley

Purpose: Biological Reconnaissance Survey

Total Distance Traveled: 4914 km
Distance Traveled Year to Date: 20,305 km 

Chicks are cute but would I think twice about eating chicken? No.

Calves are cute, but would I think twice about eating beef? No.

Lambs are cute, but would I think twice about eating lamb? No.

My world revolves around reptiles. Would I eat one? Of course I would. I have been to restaurants where crocodile has been on the menu and I have indulged without guilt or hesitation. As long as the little brute had a good life and died humanely, I feel no contrition if it's final resting place is my dinner plate. I am certainly not afraid to try new things and the novelty of eating crocodile has long since passed as it has been commercially available for years.

Could I catch one, kill one, and eat one? No way. Not a chance. Absolutely not. I have always maintained that if I ever came across a fresh road kill I would give it a try. But in 25 years of field biology I have never found a road kill that I was certain was fresh enough to eat in a situation where I was able to get it into the camp fire coals in good time.

If ever I was to get the opportunity to try anything on the scaly smorgasbord (e.g. goanna, snake or turtle) it was going to happen in the company of traditional owners. So imagine my delight when I returned home from a day in the field one of the traditional owners, had bopped a giant Varanus panoptes or Sand Monitor (goanna for the layperson) on the head and had it in the coals in prep for the nights supper. Bucket list moment.

Goanna cook up Phase 1. The entrails are dragged out of the throat and the animal is seared in the super hot coals before being cooked more slowly deeper under sand and coals.

A claw on which to gnaw

Whilst we were conducting our biological survey, the traditional owners were on country en mass for their annual burn off. They call it 'right way fire'. The objective is to target specific areas that have not been burned for more than three (3) seasons. In these areas the litter load is building to a point that a bad fire at the wrong time of year will wipe out every single thing that is flammable: the grasses, the shrubs and the trees giving the fauna nowhere to retreat during the fire and nowhere to refuge after the fire. The result of annual 'right way fire' campaigns is a patchwork or mosaic of burnt, recently burnt and long time burnt land providing safety from extreme wildfire but also contributing to broad-scale habitat hetrogeneity in the local vegetation creating developmental, regeneration or successional stages of growth.

What a privilege it was to be out on country with them to see the landscape burn: that might sound macabre but it really is a natural, powerful and beautiful event: also a very necessary one.

Fire burning a spinifex primary dune between the ocean and a tidal inlet.

Just a note: Everyone thinks helicopter work is glamorous. It is not. It means you frantically run around getting from the drop zone to the pick up point knowing that for every 15min you are late you have just cost the client nearly $400. All that with an entire working day's worth of food, water and survey gear on your back.