We have become quite used to seeing potoroos and wallabies in and around our garden at dusk. We are so close to the national park and Sisters Beach is so quiet that they are not afraid to roam around. It’s less common to see them during the day but sometimes it happens.

This morning I was upstairs at the computer, Naomi was out and she had left Teddy downstairs. He started barking a lot and after a while I thought that the tone of his bark was different. It wasn’t his “Mummy left me” bark and it had been going on too long for him to be barking at someone walking past the house. I went down to investigate and found Teddy at the front door barking madly at a wallaby who was nonchalantly eating flowers right in front of the house. He was not in the least bit worried by Teddy or me either. I didn’t open the door because I knew the noise would scare him off and also that I’d spend the rest of the morning chasing Teddy round the neighbourhood.

I crept upstairs to get my camera and somewhat to my surprise the wallaby was still there when I got back so I took several photos. Eventually he hopped away, still unworried by having an audience. I went back upstairs and glancing out of the window in the stairwell I saw that he was grazing just below me. I put my long lens on the camera and took a few more pictures. They are not very good because he was so close to the house that the angle was awkward. The window sill blocked some of the view.

I’ve cropped and edited these photos a little because he was in the shade most of the time.

I think that these are Bennett’s wallabies but I am not totally certain. I haven’t learned a lot about wallabies yet. There are also Pademelons, otherwise known as Rufous Wallabies in the area. Both species eat grass, shrubs and young plants. I’ve read that the Bennetts Wallabies eat mostly grass while the Pademelons have a slight preference for shrubs and young plants. We can confirm this because they have already polished off Naomi’s potted mint and parsley and had a go at her potatoes. They are also partial to daisies and geraniums. Naomi says that she has seen a female with a joey grazing in the garden of the house over the road. It is early for the Bennetts to be breeding but I believe the Pademelon’s are.

Wallabies are a lot calmer than the potoroos who always panic and take off when they see us. The wallabies are not afraid to sit and look at us and only move off if we get too close or make a lot of noise. They obviously know that the dogs can’t get out the front door!

Further Reading

https://wildlifematters.org.au/Bennetts_Wallaby.htm

https://www.wildlifematters.org.au/Tas_Pademelon.htm