Gloria O'Possum

VicRoads doesn't really respect wildlife corridors and rarely includes wildlife crossings in its vast expensive highways, despite its Fauna Sensitive Road Design Guidelines (on what page here to find link to pdf document is unclear). The excuse seems to be that they are too expensive. However VicRoads is costing us all more than money. And last week it sent a giant mulcher to mow down forests of trees which had been planted along the Mornington Peninsula median strips as a climate change mitigation measure by previous regimes.

Notwithstanding VicRoads' "Updated VicRoads Tree Policy, 20 January 2017", the corporation hasn't really changed its mechanistic values:

"The updated policy offers increased scope to consider existing trees, not just new plantings, and consideration during planning and development instead of only responding to new proposals. Mr Wall said historically, VicRoads has been seen by the community as prioritising roads, safety and movement over trees and the wider environment."

And went on to confirm that they would continue to prioritise roads over trees.

If VicRoads puts its roadbuilding above the wider environment, on which we all depend, it is plainly out of control, operating within a grandiose belief system that road-builders are more important than anything else.

Recently they announced:

"We’re upgrading the Mornington Peninsula Freeway between Mount Martha and Rosebud to improve safety as part of Victoria’s Road Safety Strategy & Action Plan, Towards Zero 2016-2020 [...]

Australian Wildlife Protection Council manages to interrupt VicRoads program of devastation

And along they came with the enormous tree-mulcher, right at the beginning of Spring, when most birds make their nests. The Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) Secretary, Eve Kelly, could hardly believe her eyes as suddenly she realised that the considerably forested median strips and roadsides were being mown down at lightening speed by a monster machine. VicRoads had employed a single wildlife spotter who was overwhelmed in her attempts to save any birds, lizards, possums, koalas from the path of the giant mulcher. Eve had more success than most, in getting the Mornington Peninsula Freeway project paused by complaining to VicRoads, when she complained about the plight of the wildlife on behalf of AWPC.

"VicRoads was told the clearing would impact on wildlife now and in the future. "We voiced our concerns about the loss of habitat, and the welfare and care of animals now in rehab at wildlife shelters,' Ms Kelly said later. 'We also raised our concerns about the destructive methods used and the lack of planning, including the time of year this work has commenced.'" (https://issuu.com/southernpeninsulanews/docs/spn_10_october_2017)

There were "reports of dozens of displaced animals, including ringtail possums dropping babies from nests, echidnas and blue tongue lizards being trampled by the authority's 'forestry machine' - and even being mulched alive."

"Ms Kelly said 15 orphaned possums were being hand raised at WHOMP after the drama. Two young ringtails had to be put down."

After complaints, VicRoads met with Brenda Marmion of Ocean Wildlife Shelter, and Eve Kelly and Craig Thomson of AWPC, with Klarissa Garnaut of Wildlife Help on the Mornington Peninsula on speaker phone.

VicRoads stopped the clearing and VicRoads Program Director Bryan Sherrit said the program would be redesigned, that work would restart next year after peak summer season, and that the 'high density vegetation removal machine' would not be reused on this project. He added that 'any future vegetation removal' would use more fauna-sensitive methods.

But trees are not safe with VicRoads and its safe roads project.

VicRoads is a corporation

This is the problem with corporations. They take over state services and run them for profit, and then they start creating work for themselves. VicRoads benefits from overpopulation in Australia, rolling out roads to connect new suburbs, and thinking up new jobs for its friends. Removing trees along roads is one of the more diabolical make-works they have found. They have become like the Cat with the Hat only not so funny with their expanding manic activities, backed up by huge material resources: fossil fuels and machine of inhuman size.

All over Victoria, citizens are trying to stop VicRoads from running roughshod over democracy, contributing to carbon emissions, turning beautiful trees into mulch and displacing Wildlife.

A "Save Roadside Trees in Victoria" website: https://saveroadsidetrees.com/the-problem/roadside-vegetation-issues-non-vicroads/ was formed in October 2016 in response to shocking plans by VicRoads to remove trees from the sides of roads. The first post appears to have been from Latrobe Valley:

"The Latrobe Valley Sustainability Group is protesting VicRoads’ proposal to remove 90 Endangered Strzelecki Gums plus acacias and wattles (including 24 old and very old trees) as part of a road safety project on the Tyers/Traralgon Road in the Latrobe Valley. Latrobe City only has 23% remaining native vegetation."

"A radical plan to remove roadside trees around the State is underway. It is apparently backed by research, but people are continuing to die on roads where trees are completely absent. Is the program, advertised widely as the “Towards Zero” safety campaign simply an environmentally costly experiment? There has been an increase of 13% in deaths from road accidents this year despite the increases in roadside tree removals."

"Conservationist Sue McKinnon said the tree hollows created an important corridor for the movement of phascogales. “The success of the breeding season of the phascogale is dependent on mobility and large numbers of hollows in a wide range as the male runs around over a huge area to find females to breed with, and after this time the male dies,” she said. “If the phascogales’ movement is restricted by removal of hollows along a corridor, the breeding season may fail."

"The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office has produced a document for various authorities to better engage with the community. Auditor-General John Doyle warns “failing to adequately engage the public risks alienating the community and creating negative impacts through poorly informed and implemented decisions.” Look no further than the #WstnHwy Duplication project for an example of where things have gone badly wrong. http://bit.ly/1TLmTWp (https://saveroadsidetrees.com/solutions/

Unfortunately the groups above seem to have got mixed up with Friends of the Earth (FOE), an organisation affiliated with the Socialist Alliance of AntiFa fame, political organisations which take over environmental and other political territory, but don't do much about it. In fact, many people think that, where you see a group affiliated with the Socialist Alliance, that means that the government or corporation will have an easy time.

Australians are also trying to stop the removal of massive trees along the Western Highway. See "The Western Highway Conservation Group," https://www.facebook.com/Savewesthwyveg/

VicRoads has too much power. It should be broken up and road building be returned to local councils, which cannot work as fast and have many other priorities that would dilute the capacity for road-building to take over.

A video of VicRoads tree destruction and roughshod-riding over the wishes of Australian citizens and residents

Vicroads and Transurban Project

Why do some focus energy
to stop the little possum he
from strutting very naturally
upon the branch that be?

What did possums ever do to humans?

An example of a 'possum band'. This ridiculous sort of chastity belt for trees to stop possums sheltering where they have always sheltered is a cruel device for which residents unwittingly foot the bill to councils in nice little rorts arranged with the manufacturers of these totally unnecessary devices.

Why do some focus energy
to stop the little possum he
from strutting very naturally
upon the branch that be?

What gives? What's up
what motivates
the householder the radio jock
the councillor the passing hoon
to scheme so strangely to deprive
the naive possum of his life?

Is it bloodlust
Is it fear
that so inspires
the deadly sneer
that so conspires
the dark career
to so reject the furry feature
to so harass a fellow creature?

What is this dreadful cowardice
this low pursuit of the defenceless?
How do his persecutors justify
harassment of this little guy?

Time for Reform, St Kilda Councillors:

The Australian suburb of Saint Kilda, Victoria, is memorable in its dedication to possum harassment by possum-banding trees against all opposition and in its provision of easily disprovable reasons for doing so. The Port Phillip Council that oversees St Kilda started out saying that possums transmitted a kind of wilt that affected palm trees and that they were banding the palm trees in Catani Gardens, St. Kilda. They were unable to prove that possums spread palm wilt and unable to show that the palm trees had any wilt. In the picture you can see that the trees' thatches are uniformly healthy. That didn't stop the council putting up the possum bands, though and causing deaths of possums through loss of shelter. There was a war for years between the council and the people who loved and visited the possums. It was a stinking example of despotism on the part of petty officialdom. The most obvious motivation was commercial gain from manufacturing and providing the metal bands, which ratepayers were funding under the guise of combatting a non-existent threat to palms. The wound has still not healed. The bands are still there. The possums still lacking shelter. The unfounded cruelty still unrepented, still shaming. The scandal, the cruelty, still raw, still present. And since spread to other councils, like a commercially motivated cancer, masquerading as science.

The cruel and silly possum band

O see the cruel and silly possum-band
example of the stupid hand
of some man
- or woman
who
given too much power
did not improve the shining hour

What reason pray
to persecute
the innocent arboreal brute?

Were the councillors irate
to know that something lived and ate
yet did not bow to council rate?

How else to make the possum
know
that humans ruled the land
Except to place around its trees
arcane and ugly possum-band?
That piece of steel and human vice
flouting reason, cruel device and -

Ridiculous at any price!
An impost and an insult to
ratepayers of intelligence
moreover anybody who
had the slightest bit of common sense

Cloaked in pseudo science and blindness
- to prevent wilt they said -
bereft of empathy or kindness
- they left the possums dead -
the humans, creaming off some cash
from ratepayers to reimburse
the manufacturers of this trash

I can hear that collective intake of breath from wildlife warriors and carers all over Australia. Possums as pets? Wildlife as pets! Isn't it bad enough that humans mistreat dogs and cats, without encouraging them to imprison and malnourish possums and other wildlife? See also: "Living with humans - A possum responds to "Living with wild animals" article" and earlier episodes of Gloria O'Possum's adventures.

Breakfast at 6pm, delivered to my door by a friendly and tolerant human. Note that I can leave and enter the house anytime and I forage for my own food and sometimes sleep elsewhere. I am a free but friendly spirit.

Settle, gumnuts!

I wasn't talking about keeping us all locked up.

No. I was talking about sharing shelter - as I do with my giant human -.
I meant not locking us out of the Great Indoors which you humans have converted our forests into. I was talking about time-sharing possum boxes with the local population, hanging out together in the garden, growing native trees to attract us to your backyard, going on bushwalks together, singing at the moon together, playing with baby possums together and interacting with adults on a free and equal basis.

Baby possum and human interacting

Free to come and go, human and possum. I wasn't talking about locking us up, feeding us tinned 'possum-food' and 'science-diets', or taking us for a walk on a leash (Great Possum no!). I was talking about living and letting live and making friends.

Intolerance of different species is rife amongst Australians. Although the government preaches multiculturalism, possums and other wildlife are displaced and persecuted - even killed - by humans. Do humans really prefer dogs and cats to possums, quolls, devils and roos, or is it just because they have been discouraged from making a connection with Australian wildlife?

A lot of wildlife carers think that the government really wants to get rid of all of us native animals. The government is very unfriendly, calling us pests and taking away our natural habitat. A recent treasurer of Australia, Peter Costello, said that he wanted to get rid of all of us! What a horrible remark! He should have been locked up for hate crimes as well as for promoting greed and human overpopulation.

A lot of humans think it is illegal to keep Australian wildlife. Well, it IS illegal to lock some of us up without a license and, so it should be. The same applies to locking up humans - you also need a license. But it isn't illegal to interact with us and let us live on 'your' property. No policeman is going to come along and tell you that you mustn't address possums on your back fence, or feed them gum-flowers, or have them come in and out of your bedroom window and sleep in a possum box on the dresser. No policeman is going to come along and tell you that you may not encourage a long-necked turtle to live in your swimming pool or fish pond either, although you need to conform to certain specifications if you purchase a long-necked turtle.

You know who will try to tell you not to be friends with us? Your dog or your cat. They will try to kill us. These animals have been taken from their natural homes and they have brought a culture here that is anti-possum, just like many human settlers who were not born here or who grew up in a possum-less high-rise, or who have been so indoctrinated with Beatrix Potter animal stories that they are rabbit, dog and cat mad.

Okay, you love your dog and cat. But, when they die, please think about us possums and the rest of the indigenous animals. Don't get another dog or cat. As well as being naturally cute and funky, natural tightrope walkers and roof-dancers, we are so much more convenient. You don't have to desex us, you don't have to register us, you don't have to keep us inside all night or walk us on a leash. We are free to come and go - except where we are falsely persecuted in public places and by intolerant householders.

One of a tribe of possums at Catani gardens, St Kilda, harassed by the Council, falsely and persistently accused of spreading Fusarium wilt

Yes, a possum-human relationship can be an equal partnership. What's more, you can follow us into our world. Imagine, children, tree-climbing with friendly possums. The poor dog or cat - at best tolerated as immigrants - have no real citizenship. They are not allowed out and about without a human in tow. But the possum, the kangaroo, the long-necked turtle, the quoll - we are free as birds - or we would be - if there were not so many dogs, cats, and wildlife-phobic politicians out there.

Let's clear up this misunderstanding now.
You can buy possum-boxes at your local petshop. What's stopping you?

Politics of indoor and outdoor possums

I hear that there has been a bit of a kerfuffle in the candobetter possum camp - among the humans, that is - over whether I should be living outside or inside. For me, of course, there is no doubt. 'Inside', as humans refer to some of the bigger wooden hollows in Brisbane, is the normal place for possums. We don't live 'outside' by choice. We live in holes in wood, like humans. What did you imagine? That we sit under trees holding fig-leaves over our heads in torrential rain by choice? No, we possums have the same needs as humans. To paraphrase Shakespeare:

"I am a Possum. Hath not a Possum eyes? Hath not a Possum hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Human is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? [Try it some time!] If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that."

The only reason you may find us outdoors (except for nights of the full moon, singing) is because of the housing crisis in Australia, notably in Brisbane, where I was born and reside. I used to come to this place with my mother between 11pm and 2am and we would sit in the shelves in the kitchen, avoiding possum hoons outside. You can see us in a film about the housing crisis that shows me when I was little. Now I am living permanently in this very big old dead tree, made of finest extinct Brisbane Forest, with many superb hollows containing refrigerators, stoves, bookcases, baths, computers, with running water and food. My particular haunt is the comparatively small, snug hollow (known as the AWPC possum-box) behind the door of the hollow adjacent to the kitchen, where the backpack used to hang. The giant human I share with lives in a gigantic hollow at the front of the house. We rattle around here. Sure beats Vinny's clothing bins. I won't pretend that I didn't like that backpack - it reminded me of mum - but I do admit that the possum box is more durable and harder to get me out of. Best of all, the human who placed the possum box here, doesn't try to take it to work with him. We both got a shock when he tried to pack his lunch and novel to take to work the first time.

See more about that episode in "Living with Wild Animals"

For us possums it is obvious that humans know very little about us. That is the reason they are so intolerant. So I have taken it upon myself to write this educative blog.

Possum circuits and time-share arrangements

Some of you may be surprised to hear that the other night another possum slept in this box. Since I am not going to go into my private life, I will not tell you whether it was a male or a female possum, but I can tell you that it is quite normal for related female possums to live together, and for male possums to visit. It doesn't mean that this place is going to be inundated with possums. We are too territorial for that. (Although not as territorial as humans; most of you want the forest all to yourselves - although you call it 'inside'. Ha!) Male possums have a big circuit and visit a number of females and different possum quarters in their travels, for reasons which you may guess. They often sleep rough. Female possums have a smaller range of addresses and they prefer comfort and security. I felt secretly triumphant to realise that the human here, initially so keen to keep me 'outside' (it's unofficial about the small refugee population of possums, bats, rats and birds in the roof) was disappointed after I spent two nights in the possum box then didn't come home the next. Well, that's about my rhythm at the moment. Two nights in the box and the third night visiting relatives. There is a bit of a time-share arrangement among a wider circle with the possum box. I spent the last two nights here but I'll be sleeping in the ceiling of a kiosque in the Roma Street Gardens tomorrow, after dining off some of those rare fruits. We spread ourselves around. We are not the ones who ate all your roses; it's snails - because there aren't enough birds. Encourage birds and you will not have any big problems with snails. Only another two hours before the sun goes down here in the tropics, so I think I'll have another little nap. Hopefully there will be a bit of banana when I wake up. My mother started this project and it's taken years, but I think I have this human nearly trained.