Platy-project 2023.

The Australian Conservation Foundation is running their annual community-based platypus population project in September.  The ACF is asking members of the community to get involved and Rotary District 9780 is encouraging its members to consider taking part.

All the details are available at

platy-project.acf.org.au

If you want to be involved here is what you can do;

1.     Visit the website listed above.

2.     Find a location to look for a platypus.  There is a great map on the site showing you where platypuses have been seen in the past.  Make sure the site is on crown land and is easily accessible.

3.     Pack a phone, notepad, binoculars, sturdy shoes, water and snacks, warm clothes, and a raincoat.

4.     Visit the site sometime in September.  Dawn and dusk are the best time to see platypuses, but you can go any time. 

5.     Record the details of any siting, and get a photo if you can.  Record the location using Google Maps or similar.

6.     Upload the details on the platy-project website.  Even if you did not see a platypus, that is still useful information.

There have been a lot of recent platypus sightings in both the Merri and Hopkins rivers, so there are plenty of good locations around Warrnambool where you have a reasonable chance of spotting a monotreme. 

If members have any ideas or plans for a shared platypus spotting experience, let me know at bulletin.warrnamboolcentral@gmail.com and we can discuss them at a meeting.  Good luck and give us a report on your experience at a club meeting or send a selfie or you looking for platypuses to the Central Spoke.

Rotary Volvo Update.

A car can be more than a useful device.  A car purchased by a couple when they are young or have young children can become a happy symbol of shared memories and children growing up.  I am sure most of us have memories of such a vehicle in our family history.  The Volvo is probably that sort of car for Chris and Robbo.

Robbo’s Volvo has lived a life of excitement that most of us could only dream of.  The car’s many exploits have been described in these pages at length.  Great length.  Actually, to the point where members asked your correspondent to stop.  Never the less, it is a great story.  Like all stories, eventually it comes to an end.  Like all true stories, it doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending.

Recently our heroic Swedish vehicle was parked in Armidale.  It may have been parked in Armidale because if you park it in Richmond the local police don’t care if it is stollen.  Anyhow, recently a motorist in Armidale claimed that he had a ‘medical emergency’ and used the Volvo as an emergency braking device for his Volkswagen Passat.  Maybe he did have a medical emergency.  Maybe he saw the Volvo parked and decided to deal with the problem there and then, kamikaze style.  We will never know.  Given that the other car was a Volkswagen, and so was probably putting out more pollution than regulations allow, the accident could be seen as a win-win.

Robbo explains that the Volvo ‘put up a good fight’ and that the Passat ‘came off second best’ due to excellent Swedish engineering.   Unfortunately, the insurance assessors declared the Volvo was no longer worth stealing and wrote it off.  Sadly, it is curtains for the Volvo and it has now gone to the big crusher in the sky.  Fortunately, doctors are less pragmatic than insurance assessors and the Volkswagen driver has not been written off.  He is fine and under observation in Cabrini Hospital.

We have lost a sensible car that smelt of ganja and rocked to the beat of Fifty Cent, and I think the world is a poorer place for it.  Rest is peace Volvo.

The Volvo in happier times serving as transport for the Melbourne faithful.

Either the Passat after the accident, or Boré having a red hot crack at parallel parking.

The Volvo.  Come on insurance assessors, a lot of those scratches will buff right out.