Australia, I salute you!!

[avra]

Ah.. no.. a chinchilla is a rodent. A wallaby is not

[Rushton]

Erm...

This is a wallaby

They look pretty similar to kangaroos, but are much much smaller. (and also cuter )

[Cat-Eyes]

grunty said:

Deer kill way more people than kangaroo's. Why - because someone put it in their little heads to cross roads when cars appear.

If you want dangerous to cars, meet the wombat. Truck vs Wombat, wombat wins.

Also, chinchilla to me is a breed of cat...

Speaking of kangaroos and wallabies hanging around, on Kangaroo Island they're EVERYWHERE. At one of the campsites there we had kangaroos trying to steal our food at the table, there was basically a kangaroo or a wallaby per person trying to nudge them out of the way.

[Swallow]

They used to have a saying (probably still use it) in the police force. They were driving low carrige cars when my Dad was working for them, this was the highway patrol. Anyway, when they were driving over the medium strip chasing down cars or other such antics, they'd bust up their undercarriage somewhat terrible. So when they took it into the shop they used to say "I hit a wombat."

My father was the only one who actually did, earning him the nickname "wombat"

I was also listening to the radio the other day, and they were talking to Jackie French about one of her children's books which was on the New Yorks best seller list. It was that cute one about a wombat, and they were discussing how the book had to be modified to include a little note on what wombats were and where they were located and the like, because Americans in general just didn't know what a wombat was. Some thought French had made them up. Anyway, it led them to talking about a story one of them had heard from an Aussie who back packed about the US. This woman was sitting by a campfire in Colorado, having just admitted, that yes, her accent wasn't Austrian, it was Australian. And as it always happens, someone has to tell you a story about their time in Australia.
Well this one guy told her "Beautiful country, that Australia. One of my favourite memories is of seeing a flock of wombats fly off into the sunset..."


teheheheeeee, can't you just see them too? I have this beautiful image of a wombat waddling faster and faster trying to take off... So i think we should all drop the "Pigs might fly" to "Wombats might fly" because they are by far cuter

[Lucy]

I think most people over here have a dream of going over to Aus for a few months. One of my friends went last summer and said it was amazing. She went on a camping tour type thing...but again, she spent so much money. I'm in the same boat as DO and Grunty. I'm the same with Canada too - I'd love to visit the northern regions, and the pound is strong against the Canadian dollar at the moment aswell. I guess technically if I start saving now I could do something in a few years time when I've finished my degree, but it would mean a really strict lifestyle and at the moment I'm not prepared to do that. What's the point in being a student if you can't go out and do spur of the moment stuff with your friends? Not to mention the alcohol costs
As much as I'd like to visit Aus, I enjoy travelling around Britain, especially as it's so do-able! I mean, the longest train journey I've taken (with no connections) was 6 hours, but that was from Brighton to Newcastle; almost from one end of the country to the other. Shame trains are so godamn expensive. I can't even comprehend being in somewhere as big as Australia or America.

[Kangaruth]

I don't understand what the exchange rate has to do with it. A Swiss Franc is worth pretty much the same as an Australian Dollar, but even when you factor in the exchange rate, things here are much more expensive than in the UK.

That's why they pay me extra to be here

I'd love to go to Aus and NZ, but all the money I've saved will inevitably be spent on supporting me while I write up my thesis. *sigh*

[Arctic Firefox]

flit said:

So i think we should all drop the "Pigs might fly" to "Wombats might fly" because they are by far cuter

How true; and how terrible that wombats (especially the hairy-nosed variety) are in danger of extinction according to a recent report. I used to listen to the "Muddle-Headed Wombat" programme on ABC radio when I was a child - it's still such a delightful series!

[grunty]

cute little wallaby. so its like the kangaroo squirrel?

[Cat-Eyes]

I'm giggling my head off here about the 'flock of wombats fly into the sunset'. Heheheheheheeee..

[DragonMornir]

My surroundings you ask Grunty?? Hehehe!!

Well. Im north of Flitness and her description of where she lives, around 3-5hours depends what way you drive and what traffic is like, but yeah.

I live within 15mins of Sydney, so yeah. largest capital city in Australia, rediculously srawled out , as in to cross east to west of Sydney would take a good 1.5 hours if not longer, i forget the population numbers but i think its around 8million. I live in what is considered by some Sydneysiders i expensive suburb, but my parents own their own place, and its one of the more cheaper properties in the area. I have a pool, a large backyard , which is big enough for my dog to exercise herslef in, and shes a Dalmatian. I live in suburbia, There are trees down all our streets, a rediculous amount of speed humps and roundabouts, albeit not comparable to some of the ACT roundabouts hehe!

My closest train station if a 15 min drive, and my closest bus stop if a 5 min walk. there is national park 10 mins walk from my house, and it sprawls for kilometres. I live 4 houses from a main-ish road, so there are cars going up and down it all night. I see a few birds in trees. bats in habit my next door neighbours tree, and i see the odd rainbow lorrikeet or magpie. Its when i go for a drive out of the city that i find more "Australian" type stuff, like open country roads, farms, curvy roads, untouched beaches, green mountains, snowy mountains ( albeit only in winter, and only in one area). Going north it gets warmer, and west i find The Blue Mountains, and the temp gets more and more extreme. It, however, has never snowed within 50kms of my house. ever.

If you drive country roads, for me atleast, is when you see kangaroos. My firend and i were on a country road and one just jumped out if front of his car and we almost hit it. It is incredibly scary, they are pratically all muscle and very strong creatures.

But yeah thats a bit on Sydney... and at the moment it is damn cold, for us anyway.


Oh and Aussie music rocks!! I love AC/DC, Crowded House, The Veronicas, Midnight Oil, The Living End, Sarah Mcleod, The White Room, The Angels... there has been a lot of good Australian music. AC/DC is classic stuff

[Lauren Hedgehog]

rigel said:

We have wallabies on our campus Which are smaller than kangaroos and a kind of grey colour.

Two years ago we had a crocodile in the Uni pond/lake thing, it was eating the ducks . It was only a baby one though, it had somehow escaped from the croc breeding program on the roof of biology building and made it's way down to the pond.

[catwhisperer]

haha... that's funny. I'm doing a biology assignment on crocodiles and it seems every single website has something to do with the croc hunter. bah!

[grunty]

thats dudes a bit odd. anyways, so wallabys are pretty much australian squirrels.

[Rilla]

...except that wallabies, though smaller than kangaroos, are quite a bit bigger than squirrels. And they don't live in trees.

[grunty]

i like squirrels...

[Kangaruth]

Yaaay for the squibbles!

I sent a postcard to a squirrel, once. I saw him every day when I walked to uni, so when I went away I sent my housemate a postcard to leave out for him. He must have taken it away, because it wasn't there the next day!

[Cookie Lover]

Wow. That sounds like the sort of thing I'd do.

[Rilla]

Kangaruth, that's so cute Maybe I should send a postcard to the magpie that comes and visits us...

[Lix]

umm maybe i should be the one to point out if you're looking for free accomodation in australia you're in the right place. we have members in most cities

[Gambit]

ok, just going back to the original topic for a moment, i do believe im the first of the Taswegians to make a mention on here (i do appologise if im not) but Tassie is a beautiful place with lots of forests, mountains, lakes, rivers. Its really peaceful and not too hot like the rest of the mainland.....pity its so far away

[Lix]

too hot? bah ita 14 degrees here!

[Kangaruth]

We'd call that the height of summer back where I come from! Although Forecast-Fox is telling me it's 21 degrees in Geneva today and I thought it was pretty chilly myself. I must be getting soft!

[grunty]

Geneva Wisconsin? Or Geneva wherever-the-heck-ur-from? lol its 78 degrees here.