lifestyle
Equipped with a camera and plenty of patience, Pete Walsh has become an ambassador for the platypus of the Hobart Rivulet, discovers Krysia Bonkowski.
platypus whisperer A mile in THE SHOES OF A
Photos: Lochie Bevis
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n its way from the heights of kunanyi/ Mount Wellington to the Derwent, the Hobart Rivulet flows through the heart of South Hobart. On its leafy banks, along with the many locals commuting, jogging, cycling and walking the dog, you’ll often find Pete Walsh. With camera in hand, Pete is a citizen scientist on a mission to document Hobart’s most elusive residents – the platypus. Sunrise reveals Pete at his post most mornings, ready with the telephoto lens he uses to capture platypus portraits for the Hobart Rivulet Platypus website and social pages. Pete started photographing platypus during COVID-19
lockdowns, when he noticed the monotremes foraging in more exposed areas (emboldened, he believes, by a reduction in foot traffic). But his hobby transformed into activism after he encountered a platypus entangled in rubbish for the second time in a matter of weeks. “At that moment I was like, oh my god, I’ve spent so much of my life enjoying nature but not really – it’s not the same thing as caring for it. Caring is definitely an act, outside of yourself,” Pete says. He started posting his platypus pictures online and advocating for their habitat, and it wasn’t long before his reputation as the ‘platypus whisperer’ was fixed. The urban waterway, which until recently ract.com.au // JOURNEYS
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