9-11.June.2016 (Day 4-6)

You say G’day and I say hello.

It has been a whirlwind couple of days and I’m happy to report I’ve successfully made it to my semi-final destination in Darwin, Australia!

We spent our final day in Canberra playing tourist some more. Visiting aboriginal art museums and seeing Parliament to learn how it works (or doesn’t, according to our snarky guide).

Ceremonial mask worn by Torres Strait Islanders

It was sad to say goodbye to all my new friends in Canberra, but it was time to get to work! I got on my last few planes rides for the next few months.

A hop, skip, and a jump to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Fortunately for me, Australians are out-of-control friendly and my co-host-research-advisor picked me up from the airport at 1am and let me crash on his couch for the night.

Side note: most of the NT, Darwin included, are 30 minutes behind Canberra time (meaning 14.5 hrs ahead of Phoenix time). I’ve asked several people the reason for the weird time-zone, “Downe-know” [I don’t really know the answer to your question] is the favorite response

Darwin is a much different climate from Canberra, and a heck of a lot different from Arizona.

Thick palm trees and mangrove swamps are the norm in Darwin

My gracious host, Dr. Keith Christian, is original from Texas but has been in Australia for 25+ years and is an environmental physiologist working out of Charles Darwin University. Luckily for me he’s allowing me to use his lab space for all my immune tests. 

I was originally planning on doing it at the field station after I heard they had a special hood that makes a very sterile environment.

I changed my mind when someone from the station emailed me: “I checked the hood for you and it’s working great. You might want to wipe it down a bit before using it though; I just chased a few bats out of the vent that looked like they’d been living in there for a few months.”

Field work is not the best place to seek a sterile environment.

Keith and I took an early morning walk and I was blown away by the view one block from his house.

Darwin, Australia

After cleaning and packing up we headed to the university so I could pick up some keys and get acquainted with the lab area. We also went to ‘tea time’, which is exactly what it sounds like. Luckily for me, I found someone who drinks coffee and recognized my plight.

How I love thee Starbucks.

After tea and biscuits (cookies), we drove out to the field station.

Middle-point ecological research center, about 1.25hr from Darwin

The field station used to be where the park rangers lived and worked. The University of Sydney bought the buildings ~10 years ago and now it’s used to house all sorts of scientists conducting field work, mostly on cane toads these days.

I came to the perfect place to find my study species, it wasn’t more than 5 minutes before I spotted the first little bugga’ of the trip!

Cane Toad (Rhinella marina)

These things are huuuge, adults can be up to 4 pounds! One of the reasons they’re so particularly nasty is that there aren’t any native predators here in Australia. Local carnivores try to gobble them up and normally die from toxic secretions that come from their parotoid gland (the big bulges just behind their eyes)

One of the only cons to working out in such a beautiful, and remote, location is the spotty services. aka the internet was ‘broken’ when I got to the station. Luckily they say the power is ‘generally reliable’.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, don’t worry. I wasn’t eaten by a salt-water crocodile, just living in some parallel universe where wi-fi doesn’t exist (I shudder at the thought).

 I tried my best to keep my eyes open, but after finding my way to where I’ll set up my cot all summer. I was done for.

My home for the next 7 weeks

Most of today were spent getting accustomed to the surroundings. This place is a cane toad research Mecca. Every room, walkway, and office has some type of cane toad research taking place.

Raising cane toad tadpoles with mosquito larva predators for an experiment

Tadpole juveniles for another, long-term experiment

Adult cane toads being housed outdoors

The lab space I’ll be using here is all set-up, my bags are finally unpacked for the summer, and tonight I’m so excited to start field work (and report back on all the awesome animals I see).