- A Dead Roo

Cunnamulla, Qld - Australia

This morning while driving from my mine back to Cunnamulla, I drove by a variety of typical southwest Queensland sights - mile after mile (or kilometer after kilometer) of dry red dirt, some scrubby bushes, a few kangaroos, an emu, a variety of birds, including a flock of about 20 sulphur crested cockatoos feeding and being noisy about 50 feet off the road, a few cows and the body of a kangaroo I ran into last night.

I left Cunnamulla to drive back to my mine well after sunset last night. Even though the moon was either full or nearly full, it was quite dark on the dirt road to Koroit. As I was listening to Neil Young sing that rock and roll can never die, a mob of maybe 6 kangaroos seemed to appear out of nowhere, moving from left to right. One was on the right side of the road, the others were on the left. Of course I put my foot on the brakes and slowed down, however, since I was driving on loose dirt, I needed to be careful to not brake too hard and lose control. The roos stopped as my car approached, then at the last moment one hopped in front of my 4wd and, unfortunately, I hit it and ran over it. I turned around to make sure the roo's suffering was over. It was.

This morning when I got back into Cunnamulla, I mentioned I had hit a roo on the drive home. I promptly was scolded for not grabbing the freshly dead roo and bringing it back for a friend's dog to eat.

There are many more kangaroos here than people. Roos are not very intelligent and act unpredictably when being approached by a car or truck, often waiting until the last moment to jump one way or the other. I've had roos wait until after the last moment and jump into the side of my 4wd as I drove past. This roo story might sound a bit harsh or nasty, but it is so common here most rural Australians would not understand why I would even bother to tell it. When driving in a rural area it is very common to see dead roos along the road. On my first trip into the bush, I counted over 100 dead roos before I saw a live one. This is a desert with limited resources. When something dies, its body is quickly consumed by the rest of the desert - maybe a dog, a wedge-tailed eagle, kites, crows, lizards, feral pigs and of course ants.

It's all part of the cycle.

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