Goya Dmytryshchak
A student has sighted a wallaby never before seen in urban areas at Newport, which may be attributed to the COVID lockdowns.
Newport’s Mel Sheedy, a third year environmental science student at Deakin University, managed to photograph the swamp wallaby at Newport Lakes Park.
“I was at the parks doing bird surveys for my wildlife studies class,” she said.
“I was walking, on the lookout for birds, when I quickly looked to my left towards the lake, then forward again.
“I felt a bit of shock in the back of my mind as I offhandedly recognised a wallaby of sorts.
“I slowly walked backwards a few steps, looked back towards the lake and there it was, a swamp wallaby.”
Ms Sheedy said she froze for about a minute.
“My first instinct was to look around to see if there was anyone there,” she said.
“No one. I didn’t do anything for a whole minute except watch it, scared that it would move.
“I quickly whipped out my camera for proof.
“I also heard a dad and his son coming up, so I put a finger over my lips and told them to come over.
“Unfortunately for them, it was spooked.
“My next move was to email my lecturers, Mike Weston and Anthony Rendall, who told me that Atlas of Living Australia have no records of swamp wallabies at Newport Lakes Park, but have been recorded in urban areas before.”
Ms Sheedy said the COVID lockdowns may have something to do with the rare sighting.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” she said. “Perhaps less people travelling from suburbia.”
