IF people are not careful when they feed crocodiles, tragedy usually strikes.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Rachel Lau, a second-year student at University of Adelaide, getting acquainted with a kangaroo at a private farm.
When crocodiles are conditioned to expect food from people, they can become aggressive with their human providers just to get it, according to a croc expert from People for the Ethnical Treatment of Animals (Peta) USA.
This could never have made any sense to me had I not had a close encounter with a wallaby on Kangaroo Island.
One islander said wallabies are usually timid and shy unless someone has been feeding them.
“We don’t want animals to be humanised. After all, we are invading their land, not the other way around,” he explained.
Yes, Kangaroo Island with its beautiful bush land is a haven for wildlife, including koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and reptiles.
The towering cliffs and clean ultramarine seas are playground for penguins, sea lions, dolphins and whales.
Kangaroo Island is in the southern part of Australia, a short 30-minute flight from Adelaide.
First discovered uninhabited in 1802 by British explorer Matthew Flinders and now populated largely by farmers, the Island is more than a mere travel destination.
Indeed, in a world constantly and rapidly changing, such Australian first free settled colony seems increasingly rare. It is one of the last unspoilt wonders of the world.
One of the most popular misconceptions about Kangaroo Island is its size. To make a comparison, Kangaroo Island is seven times bigger than Singapore and four times the size of Hong Kong. To be precise, it’s 155km long and 55km wide, making it Australia’s third largest island.
With a population of only 4,500, it certainly keeps the island very natural and spacious for the animals. It means there is about 1sq km of land for every resident.
It is certainly a place where animals are not invaded — or the other way round.
The experience at the sea lion colony at Seal Bay was unforgettable. We were amazed at how close we could get to these large seals without making them feel disturbed or threatened.
Scores of sea lions basked in the sun and waddled up the beach to rest in the sand dunes. They were there in all sizes and shapes, young and old — their smooth skin dappled in sand.
Walking down the long wooden boardwalk to the waterfront, we were told there was a pre-determined time for us on the beach. This is to control the number of people there at any one time.
Only about 100 are allowed so as not to impact on the sea lions in their natural habitat. Loud noises of any sort are frowned upon.
The large sandy beach and dunes are home to thousands of Australian sea lions who loll about in groups. This rare species is protected under the guidance of National Parks South Australia.
As we walked within a hair’s breadth of these sleek furred animals, we saw a mother and a baby sea lion “bidding each other farewell.”
The tour guide told us often the baby is left to die as the mother would just disappear — for whatever reason. No other adult sea lions will adopt someone else’s baby.
This is something unforgettable about the animal kingdom that we learnt, especially close-up!
We visited a private farm where we spotted some adorable koala bears, different species of birds — and of course, with kangaroos hopping by, undisturbed by our presence.
After all we were on Kangaroo Island — so it wasn’t exactly a surprise to see Kangaroos leaping here and there throughout the Island.
We also visited Pure Sheep Dairy, owned and run by a certain Johnson family. A cute sign is nailed to its entrance with the words — Ewes Welcome – written on it.
Undoubtedly, ewes are most welcomed because in the dairy is to be found the most up-to-the minute milking devices. Here, 1,200 sheep are milked twice a day — 300 at one time.
Out of this comes a fine cheese industry — ricotta, holoumi, kefalotiri, feta and manchego are produced and sold in bulk to retailers or to individuals in the front shop.
“There’s good fat in sheep cheese. It doesn’t clog the arteries,” we were told as we tried several of the tempting samples. And that eased my guilt.
Kangaroo Island is really not just about the animals, birds and reptiles.
It was well worth visiting the old light house at Cape du Couedic. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the lighthouse keeper and his family lived in harsh conditions in a small one-room stone cottage perched on top of the cliffs and exposed to the elements but with commanding views of the bays and ocean.
The drive to the Remarkable Rocks was a quiet one. This cluster of weather- sculptured boulders on a granite dome is called Remarkable Rocks and it’s indeed remarkable.
Sculptors Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and many other artists could not have done better than these Nature-crafted rocks which swoop 75 metres to the sea. The blue water meets the blue sky and the only other colour is the white waves.
I only realised how huge these rocks are when I saw a young man walking beside them. “You can’t compete with Mother Nature,” I thought aloud.
The Rocks seem to spring out of the waters like giant formations. The Aboriginals believe only spirits reside on the Kangaroo islets, so they don’t want to live there.
Underneath one of these huge rocks, I saw angles and shapes that looked like scooped out melons. And every year, about 160,0000 visitors come to see these erosion-induced granite formations.
The Rocks are magnificent. I stood there, staring at the sea for a long time — my spirit was certainly soaring.
The population of 4,500 seem industrious and dedicated to keeping their island as natural as possible while still hosting over one million tourists each year.
In the town called Kingscote stands a decent building housing the police station. My niece who worked on the Kangaroo Island for a year as a pharmacist told us there are only two policemen here.
Peace and crime-free days seem the order. There is also a hospital with only 11 beds. I was told seriously ill patients are air flown to Adelaide for treatment.
I chatted with an old timer who had this to say: “There is a good feeling about Kangaroo Island. Some say it’s caused by the constant conjunction of open land, open sea and open sky.”
There is certainly a goodness in the atmosphere and a sense of being home!
With the Kangaroo Island experience still fresh in mind, I had a rude awakening back home in Sarawak when I read a local news headline splashed in bold — A licence to kill.
Just days earlier, a permit had been issued to “cull” crocodiles in the wild at Sungei Seblak, Kabong (Saratok District, Betong Division) because of the frequent attacks on humans.
Not by any stretch of the imagination, it’s certainly a good life for the animals and the 4,500 residents on Kangaroo Island.
As the old timer pointed out: “I couldn’t live anywhere else.”