All the world’s a wallaby

There must be something in the grass in Tasmania. The biggest herbivore stands 1.5 metres tall, while the largest carnivore – the notorious devil – is as compact as a bull terrier. The wombats are built like hippos but are actually the size of badgers, and then there are the wallabies, those cute, hopping creatures that look a little bit like rabbits – except they’re about five times as large. That’s a safari, Antipodean-style.

There are several key differences to your standard African experience. First, with the odd exception, these herbivores don’t need to be too concerned about predators, so they’re generally relaxed about the presence of humans. This, in turn, means you can travel on foot rather than being crammed into the back of a Land Rover with your knees jutting through your chin. Finally, you really don’t need a guide – just get out of your car at the visitor centre of Narawntapu National Park and start walking towards the grey furry things with the funny hind legs and the long tails.

Surprising as it may seem, Tasmania’s white farmers have been good to the native herbivores. OK, the farmers cut down the forests, but what remains is mainly a place in which to rest up during the day, away from wedge-tailed eagles and thylacines (the farmers, in any case, shot the latter to extinction – one less thing for the other wildlife to worry about).

In place of the forests, the farmers cultivated pastures for livestock or arable crops, and in doing so they also provided substantial feeding grounds for other animals, too. The evidence of how Tasmania’s marsupials are thriving on these larders can be seen all over the island, but nowhere better than at Narawntapu (pronounced, as I understand it, Nar-ant-apu).

The other thing about Narawntapu is that you can arrive quite a few hours before sundown and still see plenty of marsupial action. Eastern grey kangaroos, Bennett’s wallabies, pademelons (a small endemic wallaby) and wombats are all common, and you can stroll around the pastures with hundreds of wild animals feasting just a few feet from you. Wombats are especially nonchalant, something possibly related to the fact they are constructed along the lines of a brick boilerhouse.

Indeed, wombats possess a bony plate in their bottom, and if chased by a predator (the Tasmanian devil does hunt, though it is more renowned as a scavenger), they make for their burrows. Any predator that follows may find the wombat stopping up its burrow with said bottom. Should the predator try to get in any further, it is crushed between the bony plate and the roof of the burrow. Which is something to consider if you plan to make a home call on a wombat.

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