We both work part time in schools, RJ as a High School teacher.
JC writes stories, illustrates, dabbles in fabric sculpture and creates craft projects.
RJ farms organic herbs, mostly ginger but also parsley, basil, onions and rosemary when the market requires. He grows native trees and enjoys inventing better ways to do everything.
The hills at Koala Creek are very green and the grass is kept short by RJ who uses the cut grass to mulch the herb beds. The hills run into forest and there are several tracks leading down to the creek and the dam in the middle of the property.
We all believe there is a platypus there, though it has been a long time since one was seen.
When you walk by the creek you might hear plopping sounds as small lizards dive from the overhanging branches to hide in the water. They are quick and hard to see but if you stand very still you can see where they are swimming underwater towards the reeds by the bank.
Our forest is mainly eucalypt, but down by the creek there are stands of wild palms and some areas of very dense undergrowth.
The leaf mulch is thick on the ground everywhere and is soft to walk over. After rain bright green bracken and fishbone ferns try to out-grow the native grasses.
A hundred years ago this area was almost cleared of trees by loggers. You can still see the stumps of huge trees and many fallen logs lie in the forest. Some of the old logs are really beautiful, the bark is deeply patterned and moss covered and small plants grow in the bark.
Hollow logs are good to have in the forest as they make homes for small animals and reptiles.
The boys in the family (our brothers and sons) made a platform on an old stump. It was used as a tree house and a starting point for the flying fox, which was a steel cable running through the trees and used for fun rides. Two small trees grow through the platform now, but you can see the large stump in the photo.
The Koala Creek forest was once part of the local koala corridor. Ten years ago koalas were not an unusual sight, sitting high in a tree or crossing the road. Their arms look really long when they are walking on the ground. Now the town is coming closer and the space for koalas is growing smaller and smaller. They may still be there in the forest but we no longer hear them growling and grunting in the night.
The wild life that we see most often includes, lace monitor lizards, frill-necked lizards, many smaller lizards, wallabies, echidnas, possums, carpet snakes, other smaller black snakes, the occasional fox, scrub turkeys, kookaburras, forest kingfishers, noisy minors, magpies, crows, rosellas, many types of parrot and so many smaller birds. You can read about some of these animals in the Koala Creek Story Book.
The baby Boo book owl in the photo below was photographed sitting quietly outside the laundry door late one afternoon. He sat there for several hours and then suddenly dissapeared.
There are several houses on the property for different branches of the family and many other family members and friends visit us.
Recently we have had to remove some lovely trees from the bush to make way for another house and a farm shed. We intend planting many more trees to replace the ones that were lost. It might be possible to mill some of the timber and use it in building the house. That would be very good, we could say that we grew part of the house on the property.
