It's their world, more than ours

The wildlife in tropical Queensland can make everywhere else seem sterile. Sit for a while on a verandah, day or night, and you'll get the impression that nature is trying to claw back your incongruous humans-only space, such is the number of bats, bugs, lizards, frogs, birds and marsupials that come out of the forest to crawl on you, fly around you, and generally disturb your enjoyment of a cold beer. My family out here is extremely aware of and concerned about man's ability to damage ecosystems, but I did have to note a favourable comparison to Vietnam and Laos, where hunting, pollution and deforestation have, from my limited observations, decimated what was probably once a very similar environment.

Aussies do know a real pest when they see one, and they put them to good use. In the case of the local hotel (pub) in Arcadia on Magnetic Island, Cane Toads are raced for the amusement and financial gain of tourists. Clearly we have a future as toad trainers - we won two of the three races, pocketing a couple of T-shirts and nearly $200!