Sometimes in the evening where we live we hear a strange whistling sound. We’ve wondered what type of bird was making the sound. Apparently it isn’t a bird, it is the echidna.
The information comes from an Aboriginal colleague of my husband’s. The subject arose when H showed her a strange rock he’d found in the garden. It was unlike any of the other rocks around and appeared to have bits chipped off it. He wondered if it was an old Aboriginal implement.
The jury is out on whether the rock was some sort of digging tool, or just a rock. But apparently the land where we live was once part of a walking track used by the Aborigines in old times as they traversed down to Boonah and the Gold Coast hinterland.
And this is how the subject of echidnas came up, H’s colleague mentioned the echidnas around these parts whistling at night, “talking” to one another.
I’ve been reading up on the echidna since hearing this, and found no other reports of whistling. But we know echidnas do live around here (since we rescued one after it had been hit by a car, later released). I wonder if it is just something the white fellas have missed.
Apparently the elders who examined our rock deemed that it is an aboriginal artefact – probably used as an implement for digging as we thought. The rock has been returned to us, to rest on the land where it was found.