PART 5
Sally, Ronnie and their Daddy arrived home and soon were sitting in the kitchen where Daddy explained to Mummy what had happened at the council office.
‘That’s terrible’ said Mummy, ‘what are we going to do? We can’t just let the wood be destroyed.’
‘I think the first thing we should do is to make sure that all our neighbours know what Mr Dev and the Mayor are planning.’ Daddy said.
‘You should also go and see the local newspaper. I’m sure they’d be interested in this story.’ Mummy added.
Sally didn’t think that any of these ideas would protect the wood. ‘Come on Ronnie, we need to think up a plan!’
In Sally’s bedroom she sat at her computer with Ronnie standing beside her. She typed into Google, “rarest animals in Australia” and hit enter.
Looking at the list that appeared both Sally and Ronnie were very surprised that so many Australian animals were described as rare. Sally looked at her brother and smiled, ‘There MUST be an animal here we can find in the wood.’ They both began looking at each animal.
‘Lets see’ said Sally reading from the screen, ‘Bridled Nail-Tail Wallaby’
‘No, it lives in Queensland’ said Ronnie from over her shoulder.
‘What about the Eastern Barred Bandicoot? It’s so CUTE!’
‘Cute yes, Western Australian it isn’t!’ said Ronnie looking down the list.
‘Here’s one!’ said Sally, ‘the Numbat!’
‘What a funny name! It’s cute though, it looks like a squirrel with stripes!’
Sally looked at her brother with a glint in her eyes, ‘More important Ronnie, it’s ONLY found in Western Australia!!’ She began to read the screen to Ronnie.
‘The Numbat is a small mammal with gold and black stripes and a long fluffy tail. A fully grown female is not much bigger than a man’s hand.’
Ronnie liked the sound of the Numbat even though it had a very funny name!
‘It says here that Numbats used to be very common and lived all over Australia. But in 1871 people bought Red Foxes to Australia and they started to eat Numbats’
‘Why did they bring foxes to Australia?’ said Ronnie.
Sally sighed as she thought of all the little Numbats, ‘I don’t know but it was a really stupid thing to do. It says here...By 1910 the Numbat had disappeared from all of south-eastern Australia and were confined to a few small pockets in the south-west of Western Australia. In 1982, with less than 200 individual animals left, the Numbat was named the world’s most endangered species!’
‘Wow’ said Ronnie. ‘Something so rare must be difficult to find. Do you think we can find some in our wood?’
‘Of course we can because I have a plan! First we need my makeup kit that I got last Christmas and we also need to borrow Mummy’s camera.’ Sally also printed a photo of the Numbat. ‘You bring the photo of the Numbat and the makeup kit and I’ll go ask Mummy for her camera.’ And off she raced leaving Ronnie wondering what her plan was.
Ronnie was completely puzzled as to how these things would help them find a Numbat in the woods but he went along with his sister anyway.
Before too long they were beyond the fence and walking down the track. They hadn’t gone too far when they saw the grey rabbit sitting on the track, just as they had the first time they’d walked this way.
Sally said to Ronnie, ‘Shhh, stand perfectly still Ronnie.’
Ronnie stood still and watched as Sally slowly walked towards the rabbit making a squeaking sound. The rabbit watched Sally and then started squeaking back. Sally squeaked again before turning to Ronnie and waving him to come closer.
‘Show him the picture of the Numbat’ Sally said.
Ronnie did as he was asked and watched as the rabbit looked closely at the picture while at the same time twitching his nose.
Sally squeaked again. ‘I’m asking him if he knows of any animals that look anything like the Numbat.’
The rabbit squeaked again and Sally listened intently. ‘He says that there is an animal that lives in the forest that’s similar but it’s just a common Possum.’ She squeaked again and the rabbit replied.
‘What did he say?’ said Ronnie.
‘He’s agreed to take us to the home of a Possum friend of his. We need to follow him but to do it quietly.’
They followed the rabbit as quietly as possible deep into the wood and it wasn’t long before they came to a clearing beside a small dried up creek. The rabbit squeaked and waited and before too long a possum appeared in one of the trees and grunted to the trio below.
Sally grunted at the possum, ‘We need your help Mr Possum to save the forrest.’
The possum grunted back to Sally, ‘Me? How can I save the forrest and how can you speak possum speak?’
‘We rescued a fairy and she granted my brother and I one wish’ grunted Sally.
‘I see’ grunted the possum, ‘what did your brother ask for?’
‘Super-human strength’ grunted Sally.
The possum shook its head, ‘I could have guessed!’
As Sally explained to Ronnie what they had been saying the possum was joined by a mother possum with two baby possums clinging to her back.
The possums descended from the tree and listened to Sally grunt as Ronnie showed them the photo of the Numbat.
‘There are no Numbats in this wood’ grunted the mother possum which her husband nodded his head in agreement.
Sally explained to the possums the threat to the wood and the need to make people THINK that Numbats lived there. She explained that she had brought with her some makeup and as possums were very similar in size and shape to the Numbat perhaps they could fool people.
The possums thought this to be the funniest thing they had heard but were willing to help in any way they could. Soon the father possum was standing perfectly still with his tail sticking straight out, as Sally applied makeup and Ronnie held the photograph of the Numbat so that Sally could copy what it looked like.
‘There’ said Sally, ‘it’s the best we can do’ standing back to admire her handiwork. ‘All we need now is a photograph.’
Sally got Ronnie to kneel on the ground and hold out his hand as if feeding the possum. The possum pretended to eat from Ronnie’s hand while at the same time making sure his colourful tail was sticking out. Once Sally was happy with the pose she took a picture of them both.
‘Perfect’ said Sally and using the screen on the camera showed the possums the photograph that she had taken.
‘I rather like the look of myself’ grunted the possum as he shook his fluffy tail and all of Sally’s makeup started to fall away.
‘Thank you so much Mr Possum,’ grunted Sally.
‘Anything to save the wood’ grunted the possum and his family grunted agreement. ‘Perhaps your brother could help us with something?’
The possums led Sally and her brother to the dried up creek bed which they followed for about 100 metres. ‘This is our problem’ grunted the possum.
Sally and Ronnie saw that a huge tree had fallen across the creek and stopped the water flowing.
‘This has caused us no end of problems and affected all of the animals and plants that rely on the water downstream’ grunted the possum.
Sally translated for Ronnie and he got a huge grin on his face. ‘Don’t worry’ he said, ‘I’ll soon have this fixed’ and took hold of the tree and carefully lifted it from the creek. As he did so the water began running again and all the animals started to jump for joy!
Sally and Ronnie said goodbye to the possums and made their way back home where they found their parents writing letters to all the neighbours.
‘I think Ronnie and I have the answer to saving the wood FOR EVER!’ said Sally and handed the camera over to her Mummy who looked at the photos that Sally had taken.
‘Goodness’ said her mother, ‘what sort of animal is that?’
‘I think you’ll find it’s a Numbat’ said Sally but as she spoke her father was sea
rching for a photo on the internet using his laptop.
‘I think you’re right kids. That’s amazing, how did you find it?’ said Daddy.
‘And how did you get it to eat from your hand? said Mummy.
‘Never mind that, we need to get this photo to the newspapers and to the wildlife people so that the Numbat can be protected.’