Maria Island details

I like to get close and explore texture and form when I take photographs for myself.

Here is a set of such shots from the Maria Island trip.

The Painted Cliffs - a well known sandstone feature on the island.

A close up of the weathered sandstone around the corner from the previous shot.

And another from around the next corner.

Meanwhile, over on the far western side of the island, there are the fossil beds at Fossil Bay - once quarried for limestone to make cement.

Footprints left on the beach by a Tasmanian Devil as it prowled at night.

The distinctive claw pattern of an echidna's tracks where one crossed a sand dune.

To keep sand and dirt out of their ears, wombats have a dense mat of hairs covering their aural orifices.

The striped pattern on eucalyptus trunks left by bark cast at different times.

Maria Island wildlife

Here is a simple set of images that give a taste of the wildlife on Maria Island. I could say much more and post a blog on each species, but for now I prefer to present just a short list to give a hint of the flavour.

A hermit crab climbs back into its shell as it is rescued from the tideline - there were gulls and oystercatchers about.

Bright starry flowers and fleshy succulent leaves of Pink Pigface.

A pair of Cape Barren Geese - these birds, which were becoming endangered elsewhere, had been breeding well on the island until Tasmanian Devils were introduced. No geese have produced young for a few years now. The devils were sent there to maintain a virus-free population in isolation, at the cost of them killing geese and other animals. A strange conservation strategy.

A Tasmanian Native Hen, they too are no longer rearing young due to predation by the devils.

A Tasmanian Pademelon - these marsupials are about the size of a large brown hare, or a little more. Perhaps, they are just large enough to escape from the devils, as they seem to be thriving on the island.

A Bennett's Wallaby - as she scratches her ear, her joey peeks out from behind its own tail which is hanging out of the pouch.

A Wombat lies sleeping during the day. A favourite wombat past-time. This one is lying at the entrance to its burrow.

A modern, or rather, a still extant mollusc sits on the fossilised shells of extinct molluscs.