A brush with nature

There’s a great little park in West Melbourne that rises towards the city.

It’s here that a local beauty therapist walks her dog of an evening.

Several times of late she’s seen bats flying towards her.

They fly over the park on their way to forage for fruit.

“I don’t mind going out after dark,” Wisuittasee said about the park. She feels safe here. 

The bats get her to look up at the night sky in wonder. 

“Their wing spans are huge,” she said. 

The park is on Eades Place. It’s a very pretty triangular park with the city skyline in the distance.

People come here to exercise, meditate, hang out of trees and walk dogs.

One regular is Cian. He slings an exercise rope from the trees three to four times a week to work on an injured shoulder.

Sometimes he hangs upside down like a bat.

“I saw one yesterday,” he said. “It came out from head height. It was making such a racket. It was a little startling.”

The park is just over a rise from the Flagstaff Gardens where possums are in residence.

“I come here because it’s a bit quieter,” Cian said. “I fit here on a little patch of green.”

Once while he was sitting on a bench at the Flagstaff Gardens a possum came up and bit him on the toe.

“It was nice to have a brush with nature,” he said philosophically. “It didn’t break the skin.”

He said that bats got a bad rap. “People think of them as pests.” But he said animals held a mirror up to humans to show how ridiculous we were. 

“They haven’t learned their good manners yet. I hope they never do. We are the intruders.”  •