Koala Rescue-Paringa Paddock 1973

Many years ago I had a wonderful day out with my newly acquired father in Law, Dud Foweraker.
Dud was a conservationist and environmentalist from his very young years.
In about 1973 the Murray River was in some degree of flood or high river.
Near Paringa,near Renmark is an Island called Goat Island.
I am not sure that it is still an island these days due to the drying up of a channel around it.
Some years earlier than 1973 I believe the island was stocked with some Koala Bears from the former
Koala Farm in Adelaide which had been closed.
On this particular day I went out in a boat with Dud and his friend Ray Grimshaw in an aluminium dinghy to see how many Koalas had been separated from the island by the flood waters.
Paringa Paddock was quite flooded and navigable by a "tinnie" at the time.
It was great motoring quietly through the flooded gum and box tree forest.
There were in a few places overhead, Heron's nests with young birds peering down.
I managed to get a few reasonable shots on my old Pentax Spotmatic.
We located a large male bear who appeared to have been stranded for some time in a tree not far above the waterline.
We had a red washing basket on board.
Dud managed to lassoo the bear who growled quite loudly and bundle him under the basket and then into the back of the boat.
He sat there holding onto the side of the boat with one hand until we managed to put him ashore back on the Island.
Below are some pics I took of the proceedings.

baby herons

Dud in spotting mode

Dud and Ray

Dud with Camera

Thanks Guys

My Photography Journey

This post is the first of a proposed series chronicling the steps along the way in my life in photography as a photographer.
It is proposed that this will be a video series with some text.
This first video is about growing up with my Dad who was a keen amateur photographer and his influence on me.
He was self taught in many things and stills and movie photography were lifelong hobbies amongst many other interests.

My Dad on the left and me. We were at a family wedding in the Dandenong Mountains in Victoria.Dad is holding his pentax kx film camera.My Safari suit was great for weddings in those days.

The video below is about some of the early cameras I used. I will be adding still photos of these cameras soon.
I am going to improve the resolution of this video also.
In the meantime enjoy your photography and keep up the good work.