Twilight Walk in Mulligans Flat
The endangered Eastern Quoll was successfully introduced into Mulligans Flat Sanctuary in 2016, and SEE Change Gungahlin organised a twilight walk to learn more about these creatures and their survival story.
On a cold, starry September night, 12 intrepid strangers, armed only with torches and their sense of adventure, ventured into the heart of a woodland sanctuary and found a delightful world of creatures going about their nocturnal lives.
Our guide on this twilight walk was Dr Belinda Wilson, an ecologist whose PhD examined the ‘who, what, when, where, how, and why’ of successfully reintroducing the threatened Eastern Quoll to Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary in Canberra’s north.
Belinda’s extensive knowledge of the wildlife at Mulligans Flat rewarded our efforts, and while our focus for the night was Eastern Quolls, we were delighted to find an array of other creatures hidden in the dark recesses of the woodland.
We wandered through an eerily silent nightscape until we heard began to hear a cacophony of ‘croaks’, ‘creaks’, ‘bleats’, and ‘tocks’, indicating the presence of frogs at a nearby dam. Amazingly, Belinda identified 4 types from their calls: the Common Eastern Froglet, Plains Froglet, Striped March Frog, and Whistling Tree Frog.
Further along we discovered a tiny Sugar Glider snuggled in a Wattle tree, a Wolf spider hidden on the side of dusty path (which Belinda picked up for our close inspection), and a Brushtail Possum scampering up a tree. We also managed to see four types of macropods munching their way through the night: the Grey Kangaroo, Red-necked Wallaby, Swamp Wallaby, and as a special treat, the reintroduced Eastern Bettong!
And finally, a small, dark, and brilliantly spotted shape emerged from the darkness and loped through the torch light – a Quoll! Later we even saw another!
As we headed back to our beds, the chilling cry of the reintroduced Bush Stone-Curlew bid us farewell and good dreams, and asked us to remember them
Photo: Eastern Quoll Pup by Dr Belinda Wilson