Tarkine Devil Project
Going LIVE: 24th-28th October 2011 (COMPLETED)
Task: Assist the Tarkine Devil Project to collect scientific evidence for the distribution of Tasmanian devils in the far north west of Tasmania.
28th October 2011
Weather: Morning rain, midday mist and afternoon.. it was all over by then.
Animals: Masked owl (injured).
Devils: 130 photos of at least 1 Tasmanian devil, maybe more.
Final Report
The final day, the last chance for the team to kick off the Tarkine Devil Project with an actual devil. Success. More than 130 photos of one or maybe more devils dancing around, chewing into and dragging away the pademelon carcass that Team Tarkine Nine found and set up with a camera yesterday (see the photos below!). You beauty.
The morning started in a hurry and didn't slow down until we all hit the basketball court at Ulverstone High. At dawn, rain leaked through the myrtle canopy softening the chocolate brown mud further. Brad was first up in the hazy morning light as Darvis stirred from the floor of the longhouse. I padded down from my tent trying to stretch my eyelids open. Soon more students emerged and the pack up was on. We paused briefly to reflect on the week past and to have one last chance to enjoy a wild forest waking up. My phone rang and it was an urgent message from the office at Ulverstone High. Luke had to be at Simplot by noon to be in the running for an apprenticeship. Hmm, that wouldn't be easy. The hurried pace picked up a notch or two. Trangias slotted back together, the broom swished back and forth and whatever wouldn't fit into packs went in plastic bags to be hand carried back down the track. Darvis, Peter, Amy and Luke shot off in the car and the rest of us followed less recklessly in the bus. The final camera was checked on the road out, and bingo, the devil photo was there, in black and white. As we turned onto the Murchison Highway for the drive home Mac (Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary keeper who has been assisting all week), spotted an injured bird beside the road. We pulled over to investigate. It was a large masked owl with a suspected broken wing. Mac was thrown my raincoat and subdued it in the gutter beside the road. Tucked close to his body we drove it to Wings Wildlife Park in Gunns Plains. It is a female in otherwise good health and we'll have to check back in a few days to see if it can be rehabilitated.
As events unfolded I forgot to pass the writing pad back to students. Apologies, but this final report must be done by me, as I sit exhausted at home tonight. But it does give me the chance to thank them for an excellent week of adventure. Getting off the track, exploring soggy gullies, setting up the cameras, listening to the guitar of an evening, it was all wonderful. The students skills of perseverance and tolerance were tested at times but their support for each other and respect for the wild landscape saw them all pull through as a team. For what it's worth, I'm proud of them. And I also have a chance to thank Emma, Darvis, Amy, Peter and Mac for adding expertise in areas we all drew from. To find out more about the Tarkine Devil Project, and I really hope you do, visit the Tarkine Trails website.
And Luke made it to Simplot in time...
27th October 2011
Weather: Overcast and warm with a few late thunder claps.
Animals: Brush tailed possum.
Food: Pasta and parmesan cheese continues to be a favourite, sometimes with tuna, dehydrated peas or curry powder.
Devils: 0
Highlights: Hot shower (Liv), sitting down (Jake).
Lowlights: Breaking tree causing pain (Liv), dead animal road kill drag for devil baiting incident.
Once again the team split to pursue different activities today. But first we collected the memory cards out of 8 cameras that were placed along the exploration track late yesterday evening. Three of the cameras showed a brush tailed possum, probably the same one cruising for food each time. This was interesting as Darvis (Tarkine Trails co-owner and our guide) had never seen or heard of them here before. A really interesting find for the expedition. Add to that the feral cat and long tailed mouse and our understanding of this pocket of rainforest has increased a lot.
Team Explorers Report
We had uncomplaining pack mules for the whole day as we explored down to the Huskisson River. Along the way we found a good site on a ridge to set up camera number 20 of the Tarkine Devil Project. From there we bashed our way through some tricky scrub and dropped into a damp gully. Following this over and under logs coated in thick green moss we made it to the Huskisson. Lunch on the river bank was just in time because everyone was hungry. Soon we'd found the taped track (bright pink flagging tape tied to trees) that we thought the other group put up yesterday. But it wasn't quite that one! After a steep climb through giant stringybark eucalypts we emerged on a ridge that didn't look familiar. Using the GPS, map and compass we worked out we were on the right ridge but on an older route that goes higher up. Soon our day was over and hot showers all around. Brad and Andrew
"My feet are so sore I can barely feel my heels. I broke a tree today, it was painful for both of us!" Liv
Team Tarkine Nine Report
To start off the day the Tarkine Nine went for a walk down the track and onto the bus. It was a good change from bush bashing. We set up some cameras, and made a start on our mockumentary. With a lot of helpful cinematography hints from Darvis it was filmed by Amy (the UTAS devil researcher) and acted by us. Getting back up the hill was a bit of a slog, but we forgot all about it and finished our filming.
Highlights: Covering Ms Haywood in raspberry jam (for special effects)- she looked like a sandwich.
Shaina and Sammy
26th October 2011
Weather: really awesome, sunshine and light winds.
Animals: Potoroo and pademelon on cameras overnight (poddy and paddy) + feral cat.
Breakfast food: Mix of weetbix, wraps and jam, lollies, pasta, tuna and cheese... and porridge.
Devils: 0
Highlights: film making and making new tracks.
Lowlights: Brad's wet foot while testing the waterproof qualities of his boots.
The expedition went in two different directions today. After collecting the overnight cameras and finding paddys (pademelon) poddys (potoroos) and a naughty feral cat, Team Tarkine Nine and Team Explorers each had a task. Team Explorer had to make a mockumentary and Team Tarkine Nine set off to place two devil cameras along the Huskisson River.
Team Explorer Report
Today was an early start for some of us, not me (Luke), as we slowly got out of bed and stumbled our way to the longhouse for breakfast. Some people received a camera in the face as they we getting out of bed. Once we were up and about we got into our groups and set off. We headed up to Celery Top Ridge, filming our David Attenborough mockumentary. Upon arrival at the ridge we decided to head into the unknown land south of the ridge. We followed a nameless creek for some time before we merged onto the John Lynch Creek. We traversed this substantial creek for a couple of hours, passing through pristine myrtle forests and strangling horizontal (that's the name of a tree in Tassie, because it tends to grow and fall over itself to form a tangled mess!) patches until we finally made it onto the known track up to camp. A good day, lots of sun and heaps of fun. Jake and Luke
Team Tarkine Nine Report
We set out for the bush around 10am with all intentions of having a good time, and that we did. Up and down, in and out of everything possible... including the Huskisson River (see photos of mud bath swimming). Beautiful sunshine, great view, amazing experience and for sure the hardest day of my life. Along the way we set up two cameras for the Tarkine Devil Project. A number of foot prints and scats were found so fingers crossed we get a photo by the end of the trip. Pete the Cameraman
25th October 2011
Weather: Chilly this morning!
Animals: Captured long tailed mouse on a camera, saw a wedge tailed eagle.
Food: Too many snakes (the lolly variety).
Devils: 3 x devil scats and 1 x rear foot print in the mud.
Highlight: Some people from school (Shane, Joseph, Shannon, Gary and Jarrod) joined us for the day.
Lowlights: Running low on firewood (although this has been sorted out thanks to a monumental wood splitting effort by Luke, Cedric and Tommy- enough for many trips to come!)
Condition of camp: clean and beautiful.
Our day started early, as we were harassed and threatened to get out of bed. We all eventually got to eat breakfast, enjoying some oats and weetbix. After breakfast we split into two uneven groups. One of the groups left to meet some fellow students (mentioned above) at the road and the others went down to set up a camera and search for scats (Tassie devil poo!). It took quite a long time to find and set up a good spot for the camera. After having countless photos taken we set a bait of oats and muttonbird oil- something that smells disgusting. Luke then walked around shaking parmesan cheese and tuna onto the ground (also smelt bad). Liv
When all of us got back up to base with (clean) guests we organised ourselves some lunch. Cedric had an apprently very nice wrap which had salami, cheese and full-o-fruit biscuits in it. Then most of us prepared for our mission! Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to explore a new ridge and mark out a walking track. Darvis led our troupe of Strawbs (Luke), Tom, Cedric, Jake, Brad and Anna, with Peter the camera guy tagging along for the journey. We travelled first down into a gully marking our way as we went. Brad was in charge of the compass, Jake the map and first aid, while the rest of us set out marking with pink flagging tape. We discovered at the top of the ridge that there was a rare forest of celery top pine trees. We decided to name the ridge... Celery-top Ridge! After we celebrated our find we managed to get back to camp safe and sound without getting lost. Anna 
24th October 2011
Weather: Rain in patches and good otherwise.
Animals: Pademelon and suspected small Bennett's wallaby.
Food: Lots of pasta and parmesan cheese for tea, and small snacks through the day.
Devils: 0 (but we set 4 cameras up near the camp).
Highlights: Finding out there was a shower here and already set up tents!
Lowlights: Long uphill trek with heavy packs.
Other: Secretly sneaking the lollies, guitar being here... whoot!
Camp: Fire is warmish, kind of getting better now.
Full report: At 9.30am after packing our bags at Ulverstone High School we boarded our Tarkine Trails bus and set out into the unknown. After our longish drive through spectacular scenery we arrived at the car park and prepared to set out into the wilderness.
It was a bit of a trek up to camp but totally worth it. The camp is set up well with a Japanese style shower to save water and a very pretty long drop. We got all comfy in our nice, large tents. We sorted through the mass of food into our epic mealtime boxes.
We then set up our first sensor cameras to try to capture devil and other animal photos. Everyone cooked their own meals and washed their plates and bowls.We all sat around the camp fire. After some beautiful songs we retired to our tents. (Forecasting into the future just a little bit...) Some rebellious people played some pranks on our unsuspecting leaders.
EXTRA: BAT RECORDINGS
In addition to placing cameras to monitor devils we also took two bat recording devices from researcher Lisa Cawthen. These are specially made microphones and recorders that pick up the high frequency bat calls that are otherwise silent to human ears. We placed the devices on the deck of the longhouse and in the campsite area nearby. The recorder in the campsite area picked up the unmistakable calls of two native bat species, the Chocolate wattled bat and the Large forest bat (although it really isn't very large at all!). There are enormous blank spots in our knowledge of bat distribution in Tasmania and these recordings add just a dash more evidence to the bigger picture.
Chocolate wattled bat (photo courtesy Lisa Cawthen).
Chocolate wattled bat call as recorded in the Tarkine.
Large forest bat (photo courtesy Lisa Cawthen)
Large forest bat call recording from the Tarkine.
Funded by an Innovative Flexible Education Grant