treetopswyeriver.com.au - World of Treetops

Norm Stanley, a local aboriginal artist, recently painted a beautiful work called "Yingally Wor-Ark" on a rock in front of the house.

“This painting represents TreeTops as a gathering place where people meet and stay together. The lines in the painting represent the different pathways of the different people that come to visit. And the ‘U’ shapes represent the people who come to visit.

The shape of the four outer circles I’ve painted are the shape of the Southern Cross and they also represent the footprint of Bungil, the giant creature who created this region. He transformed backwards and forwards between a wedge tail eagle and a human. As an eagle the pressure of his wings produced the hills in this region as he flew across the land. In human form Bungil moved through and created animals and plants.

My dad’s country is Western Australia and my mum is from Gippsland. I was born in Geelong. The totem in Western Australia is the wedge tail eagle and so is the Geelong totem. It’s very special that I have the wedge tail as my totem on both sides of my family. "

Nature Diary

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Nov 2007 -We saw “Magda” our huge ringtail possum again this weekend. She lives in the big tree near the balcony and came down about midnight to steal some sunflower seeds out of the bird feeders. Hadn’t seen her in a while, but she’s as cheeky as ever.

Sept 2007 - Just after sunset two koalas came tumbling down our driveway, spitting and snarling and fighting each other. They were big, so we assumed they were males fighting over territory as September to March is breeding season

Koalas exist almost exclusively on eucalypt leaves. They seldom drink water as they obtain their water requirement from eucalyptus leaves. When they breed they have a single baby born after 33 to 35 days. The baby koala called a "joey" remains in the mother's pouch for about six months and is weaned when one year old.

Koalas live in societies, just like humans. So where you see one you often see others.

Koalas are fussy eaters and only a few trees are appetizing for them so we are very lucky to have them. In the last year we’ve seen koalas on just about every stay at Treetops and our guests saw lots too as you can read in the Guest book.

Aug 2007 - We always get so many beautiful birds but this weekend we were positively spoilt! It was coldish so we just stayed inside and watched the balcony (better than TV!) – king parrots, crimson rosellas, kookaburra, magpies, red browed finch, satin bower bird, gang-gang cockatoos (in the distance), sulphur crested cockatoos, grey-shrike thrush, honey eaters, currawong and yellow-tailed black cockatoos.

Whales! Jim, our Treetops guest relations manager said we had five whales just off the Wye River beach and could see them from our balcony. Wow!!

July 2007- For some reason this weekend the usually shy satin bowerbird was around a lot, hopping between the tree outside the kitchen window and the balcony railing. If you ever come across a collection of blue objects when you're walking in the rainforest, you've probably stumbled onto the home territory of a male satin bowerbird. These guys line their home territory, called bowers, with blue flowers, and anything else they can find to attract a mate.

June 2007 - It was a cold and bracing evening as we walked through the village and just as we got back to Treetops driveway we heard the call of the boobook owl, such a lovely sound in the dark. Boobooks are of course nocturnal hunters and they feed on tiny mammals, birds and invertebrates like worms etc. Home is usually a hollow tree trunk.

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