Mount Ive Station is a sheep ranch in the Gawler Ranges in South Australia – far from civilization, and a stopover for people traveling overland in recreational vehicles. A station in Australia is what we call a ranch in the US…… often very large, since vegetation is sparse and it takes many acres to feed a single sheep or cow.
Mt Ive is located close to Lake Gairdner, a huge salt lake that was partly covered by water from recent rains.
This wallaby didn’t quite make it. The skeleton is a little gruesome, but interesting to see the underlying structure of these distinctive relatives of the kangaroo.
Dazzling sunset from the summit of Mount Ive….
Wombat caves….
Here’s a wombat, another marsupial native to Australia. (We did not take this photo…. It’s for illustration purposes.)
A word about marsupials – mammals whose young are born fairly undeveloped, but then are nurtured by their mothers in pouches. These include kangaroos, wallabies (small kangaroos), wombats and koalas, among others. The only marsupial common in North America would be the opossum…..
Stoney is an outback character who helped guide our small group, providing a story or two, poetry and music…..
He is a published author… his book is a heavy tome that relates his 81 years of experiences and wisdom. We had to buy a copy.
Henry was also drawn to the station pets, which include a couple of emus and a few goats.
Next destination is the town of Broken Hill.
Emerald Isle to the Norse Lands 