Helen and Geoff's Amazing Adventures

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Neeka at the Cubby

Neeka Obituary

by | Sep 5, 2020 | Cats

Neeka (2004?-2020) Obituary

Of all the cats we’ve had Neeka had the greatest need to fit in, to do the right thing. She was a truly lovely and loving cat.

We got her from the pound in 2008 when she was either 2 or 4 depending on which form we read. She was extremely skinny, had had one lot of kittens and a bad dose of flu. We were very lucky to get her. When she arrived at Cherrybrook, she had the two brown cats (Zazu & Wookie) to fit in with – which she did without any problem. At the time we got her, we were not used to cats overeating (the brown cats did not). Neeka did not move from the food bowl for 6 months and put on a heap of weight.

Neeka had been badly abused by a man before she came to us. It took many years before she came to trust me completely. When I was building in Cherrybrook, she would take off as soon as I picked up a long piece of timber or especially my blue level. How could anyone abuse such a lovely cat.

Neeka was obsessed with Wookie and followed him everywhere. He tried to show her how to live in the yard. Neeka would not go for a walk and so the walks stopped from then.

The first road trip we had with her was to Jindabyne. She was terrified and hated it. Zazu pranced around everywhere and Neeka hid in the car. At Jindy, she settled in very well and walked around on a lead.

She quickly grew to like road trips and went with us in the Avan to far North Queensland a few times. She would just settle down in the travel cage and go to sleep. (Much better in that than Zazu who insisted on being on the passengers lap.) Neeka really like to perform around the campgrounds of an evening – parading around with her tail up showing off on her lead. When we first travelled with the cats, I was worried they would not know which van was ours and might get lost if startled. Unfounded. They knew their way back to the van better that I did. When startled they would head straight for the van by the shortest path. When not startled, they could take me back on a path that would not need me climbing through hedges.

Neeka loved to meet people. She was always going over to people with her tail up just to say hello.

Neeka has slept on our bed for the five years we’ve been in Wagga. She would never presume that she could just jump up herself and needed to be properly invited and lifted up. All about being part of the pride and not doing the wrong thing. I think she was always worried about being sent back to the pound if she did something wrong.

Neeka’s death has affected me more than any other cat. I am going to miss her kindness.

Shield Shrimp

When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).

Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.

It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.

Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.

Acacia peuce

A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.

Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.

 

Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River

Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.

It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.

Mound Springs

Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.

Great Artesian Basin map Great Artesian Basin diagram