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Hope in the Spring Garden

© Gay Klok

Saturday afternoon, August 21st, 2004 The wind has been howling around the house all night and spasmodically throughout the day. Now and again there is a slight sprinkling of rain. We have had the wettest two months on record and the coldest of winters. At first I was glad to see the change in the weather pattern for we have experienced, in the past several years, very mild winters and draught conditions in many areas of Tasmania.

I felt that in the beginning, the gardens approved the return to an historic weather pattern and I, seeing the mountain [that hovers over our capital city, Hobart] covered in crisp, sparkling snow, have been experiencing nostalgic thoughts. I remembered the days, when walking to school [which entailed walking up a long private lane] the pleasure of jumping on the ice in the puddles of that rough track.

Maybe, I tell myself, the hole in the ozone is shrinking and the greenhouse effect is lessening, despite the American government and the Australian government refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol agreement. But hopes are dashed when I read in the newspapers of horrific floods, draughts, fires, tidal waves and earth movements happening in many countries throughout the world. I read, in this morning's paper, that there is to be an official laying of the horrific poison 1080 in the bush growing in the beautiful East coast of Tasmania despite the fact that the Tasmanian Devil is being wiped out by the hundreds with a cancer that eats their faces away. Scientists cannot find the cause, even the Disney corporation has donated money to the research. Some scientists believe this horrible disease is being caused by baits of 1080 laid to kill foxes. One fox was seen leaving a ship, three years ago, at a port in the north of Tasmania.

Tasmania had no foxes until three years ago. They were introduced to the mainland of Australia in the C19th to enable Australian gentlemen farmers who were settling into a new life in the "New World", to recreate the enjoyment of the hunt as their forefathers did in their "homeland", England. There have been no authentic sightings of the original fox or others in the past three years. Now and again a dead fox is found beside a roadway. These are, in my opinion, bought over dead from Victoria and placed there by someone with that irrepressible sense of humour peculiar to Australians. Not one farm animal has been attacked by foxes - badly trained dogs, yes, but no fox kill.