Astroblog: Shelter from the Storm

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Shelter from the Storm

Well, I am finally back from my Secret Family Business (actually, I was back a few days ago, but running assessment tests, setting up exams and consulting with students filled up all the spare time both day and night...I've just finished reading a student essay before this post). Everybody is as hale and hearty under the circumstances as they could be, so we've come back in a positive frame of mind.

Even though I haven't lived in Queensland for over 20 years, every time I go there it is just like coming home. Sitting on my friends veranda, bathed in warm humid air, watching the lightning storms sweep over the landscape, listening to the geckos, it just reeked of topicality and it was as if I had never left.

Except for the geckos. Queensland did (and still does) have native geckos. But they were ill suited to the urban environment of Brisbane. I lived for 30 years next to a huge expanse of bushland, and I never once heard (nor saw) a native gecko (green tree frogs in the toilet, green tree snakes in the garden, but not geckos).

The geckos we were hearing, and seeing crawling up the wall, are invaders, Asian geckos. They arrived shortly before I left Queensland for southern climes, and have colonised the urban environment. They may possibly be a threat to the native geckos as well. It was a little disturbing that the "tropical" feel to Brisbane is now due to alien invaders.

Labels: housekeeping