| In Search
of the Loch Sport "Monster" |
| In Gippsland, the south
eastern province of Victoria, stories abound that the region harbours a
population of thylacines. Over many decades the beasts have become embedded
in local legend. Town and country folk speak of the Wonthaggi Monster,
the Loch Sport Thylacine, the Woodside Beast and no doubt
lots of other names I never heard of. Explanations of how such animals
come to be where they allegedly are depend upon who you talk to. A promising
theory holds that the animals are descendants of Tasmanian thylacines.
There is said to be evidence that thylacines were transported from Tasmania
across
Bass Strait, back in 1910, or thereabouts, by a league of
early conservationists known as the Thylacine Preservation Society.
Their motivation was to save the thylacine from extinction which,
by then in Tasmania, was clearly imminent. Imagine if they succeeded!!
The story goes that a group of 12 was released in the then newly declared
Wilson's Promontory National Park. A further group of 4 were supposedly
released on Victoria's southwestern coast in the vicinity of the town of
Portland.
 Could
there be any truth in the tale? Well, there is a long history of
sightings of thylacine-like animals in Gippsland. Committed researchers
& groups such as ARFRA,
Murray
MacAllister,
Bob Paddle and the authors
T. Healy
& P. Cropper to name a few, take the legend seriously enough
to write books about it and conduct field investigations. The town of Foster's
civic leaders lend the tale enough credence to warrant a billboard featuring
the Gippsland Thylacine as a "coming event". I call that
a hopeful investment in local tourism?
 Now
that we have the first of our seriously weatherproof auto-cameras on hand,
what should the Quest do about this aspect of Australia's "bush legends".
Go and take a look for ourselves, obviously. We do not say either that
the Gippsland thylacine does or does not exist. Although,
on the face of it, the prospects do not look especially encouraging. The
countryside is mostly open farmland crisscrossed by major roads. C'mon?
But then there is, after all, a half plausible mechanism available
which could account for their presence. So who knows?
It might be a good idea for
me to remind readers that the Quest for Thylacoleo does not
seek approval from "authority figures" for what we do. Nor do we attempt
to persuade others to our opinions. Is the officially extinct thylacine
really still alive and living in Gippsland? We say the proposition might
appear unlikely but there's only one way to find out for sure.
Watch this space, as they
say ..... |
 We
hit the road and head for Gippsland. There are many inlets and fishing
towns along the coast. The weather is cloudy & rain threatens. |
 There
are great surf beaches too which front onto Bass Strait. The surf's rather
calm today - not much wind. Not many folks know it but Bass Strait is stormier
even than the notorious Cape Horn off Patagonia. The western coast of Victoria,
from Cape Otway to Portland, is not called the "Shipwreck Coast" for no
reason. |
 But
there are calmer, coastal mangrove regions where tidal estuaries meet the
see. Often these are protected by a sandy "spit". It's the scrubby country
just inland from these that we are interested in. |
 Early
next morning we're out to check for tracks in the mud. Yep, lots of them.
Birds, naturally, but small mammals are out and about too. |
|
 These
two could be a dog and a feral cat, I'd say. |
 Pushing
inland on foot from the rather depressing estuary, the scrub thickens.
The weather brightens up a bit too, so that's good. |
 What
animals might lurk in here? Aha! There are Emus, a whole flock of them.
We manage to photograph two before the disappear into the trees. Can Questers
make them out? |
|
 In
fact there's an abundance of bird life in this coastal scrub and the stands
of forest which march down to the sea. Here are two of Australia's famous
"Laughing Kookaburras" |
 The
following morning, before dawn, we venture out. It's dark and frightening
in the scrub. Maybe the legend of the Gippsland Monster does seem unlikely
by day. But this time of night? Heh, well ...the existence of the Beast
feels maybe a little less mythical? |
 Dawn
arrives, lighting up the inlet. Crikey, am I glad to see first light! |
 We
seek a spot deep in the scrub where our camera can be hidden. The camouflage
patterns blend in well here, Hmmm ....although its canopy reflects a bit
too much light for my liking. How well concealed is it? |
 Step
back a little and view it. Yep, that's not bad. You can see it if
you find this clearing but we're a long way in. I think it could only be
stumbled upon quite by accident. The near impenetrable scrub stretches
for miles around. This will be OK ..... now all we have to do is wait. |
1st Results ....no result!
:( :(
Damn, something set
off the camera but it focussed on grass right in front of the lens. The
background is blurred - there's something there, though. The brown object
right of centre. Maybe a wombat? Or possibly an echidna?
I can see patience is gonna
be the name of the game ... we cleared all grass and branches away thoroughly,
second time around. Let's try again ... |
 |
| Meanwhile
... back in the "Lion Hills" .... |
|
 Questers
will remember how last month we sallied out to the Lion Hills? Well the
camera's still there! So that's a bonus. But, damn! There was a technical
snag and it didn't take any pictures. Figures - 1st one deployed. OK, we
replace it it and we also install an experimental animal attractor.
OK, so now with two cameras
out there, it's a waiting game .... |
 No
shortage of bird life in these hills. The Currawong, shown here, prefers
high country and a cold climate. |
| Hah
... and meanwhile, back in the Quest Laboratory! :) :) |
|
 So,
what's been happening in workshop and lab while our cameras are out there,
doing their thing? (Err.. we hope!) The first tube cam, the one that was
wrecked in the flood last last month, well it's nearly fully repaired.
Just needs to be wired up inside and it's ready for action again. Uh, well,
to be sure we need to lay hands on actual digital camera to go inside it.
On it, as they say ....
With three cameras on the
go it'll be a lot easier to maintain continuous coverage "out there". |
What else is on the drawing
boards? A remote flash unit is needed - sideways lighting lends a 3D effect
to images. So that's being developed too. Commercial units aren't all that
satisfactory as it's hard to make'em fit in with our equipment and way
of doing things. |
Results from Gippsland ...
18/10/03 : retrieved the
camera. The Bad News? Damnation - no results. The Good News? Our
camera's still working! Took a pic soon as it was in shadow. Battery is
down to 11.4V after 10 days. It took 78 images in that period. Dry as a
bone inside - it's totally impervious to the weather.
I think the response time
is too slow. We have it set so that it waits about 6 seconds before it
snaps a picture, in order to confirm it has an actual target in view. Works
on suburban possums but the animals out here seem to behave differently
:
much more timid. Something is tripping the instrument off but, whatever
it is, it ain't hangin' around after the camera whirrs while it gets ready.
We'll reprogramme it to fire on first contact and not wait for confirmation
like it's now doing.
We'll need to reduce current
drain as well - we require the unit to operate continuously for at least
a month. It would have lasted about another week, I think. The camera works
on 8V and the circuitry on 5V. Voltage drop was (12.9 - 11.4)/10days =
0.15V/day. To extend the same decline to a month, we'd want a dropout rate
of (12.9 - 11.4)/30 = 0.05V/day. So we'd need to reduce overall current
drain by a factor of 3. But hey, that's do-able!
Anyway, the camera took all
it's images by night just as it's supposed to do. It shrugged off a really
violent rainstorm with gale force winds, it handled freezing cold nights
and the daytime heat of the sun equally well and, after nearly two weeks
out there, came it back snappin'. It did OK.
Now all we need is some wild
critters in front of it ....
.  
To be continued ... |
