Darling Range Branch February Excursion Report
The WA MUSEUM is a great place to be on a hot day and so it was for a smallish Nats group from the DRB and a couple from the Main Club. We assembled in the main foyer and inspected the life-size dinosaur, Carnotaurus (meat-eating bull) and marvelled at its beautifully detailed construction along with its deep throaty roar. The Discovery Centre was our first display area and one, like so many sections of the Museum, that could hold one’s interest for so much longer than the 20 minutes that we could spare. A wealth of geological specimens was revealed at the touch of a finger in the oh-so-smooth glass topped drawers – meteorites in polished section, fulgarites (created when lightning strikes clay soil), dung bitumen (of stick-nest rats!), the cast of a dino’s footprint along with rock specimens and fossils of every imaginable kind. Then on past the continuous video for nature lovers to the far side where there were several large terrariums containing some tropical frogs and a reptile or two. Presentation plus!
Across the way to the marine/shoreline animals with a great display of brittle stars, corals, molluscs, a monster crab and heaps of other fossickers’ delights. Through into the mammals which used to enthral us all back as little people – getting close to big, hairy beasts such as a bison or camel and the Dik Dik, the weeny Ethiopean antelope and even two ‘flying’ lemurs – gliders of course. The butterfly gallery next door, housed in a long corridor is truly amazing – such brilliant colours, sizes and shapes from a wide range of climatic conditions.
On then to the shore-line bird display – the waders, the raptors, the long-legged stalkers and some of the tiny birds of the scrublands, all within accurate mock-up settings. A day at the beach or swamp!
The Aboriginal story and culture is another area that deserves a lot more time than we could afford at this point but we certainly gave it our best. Perhaps the art work deserved closer scrutiny for most was not in the traditional Australian Aboriginal style. There has been some expert tutoring along the line in the past judging by the exquisite moonlight scenes and other imaginative works. Some of us had legs for the Diamonds to Dinosaurs dept but kept it short for ‘another time’. A cuppa and a bite or two seemed more desirable for the next sortie and we gave the new display down below, Debt of Honour (our commandos in E. Timor), ‘another time’ too.
In all, a relaxing, cool (yes, ‘cool’) way to learn mountains about the World’s wildlife and amazing history. Recommended.
Kevn Griffiths