The Sydney Royal Easter Show and the Easter Bilby!

The Royal Easter Show in Sydney

Hello Elementary Friends,

Happy Easter to you!  I know that our Colorado friends are experiencing one of those amazing spring snow storms that have them digging out just in time for Easter!

Helen - I am sure that our trees in our backyard are bent over!

Here, however, it is beautiful!  It is finally cooling off, and we can tell that autumn in Sydney will be gorgeous.  I have spent this week in Autumn Parent Teacher Interviews (we call them fall parent conferences in Colorado).  It is a time for teacher and parents to sit together and review progress of their child.  I have always been a HUGE proponent of this practice as it solidifies a strong parent/school partnership for the year and encourages success for the child.  I have been impressed with the parents commitment to attending the interviews this week!  Out of 22 children, I have completed 18 successful interviews!  Only four more with 9 school days left in Term One!

Last weekend we attended the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  

The photo above is of the Grand Parade - it was a fascinating spectacle of hundreds of livestock animals being paraded around the field in precision order.  I have never seen anything like it - how they got those animals to all behave and walk in order was marvelous.  There was only one unruly calf who had to be removed from the lines.  This spectacular sight involved creatures ranging from newborn lambs and Shetland ponies to Brahman bulls and Clydesdale stallions and was staged with such skill that it seemed to take place without a hitch!

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is the largest event held in Australia, and the sixth largest in the world. It is estimated that around one million people will attend the Easter Show this year.  The first Easter Show was held in 1823 by the newly formed Agricultural Society of New South Wales, with the aim of encouraging the colony's rural industries.

The Show has been held every year since 1869 except during the severe outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1919 and between the years of 1942 and 1946 when it was interrupted by World War II.  Traditionally, the Show began on the Friday before Easter, was closed on Sundays and Good Friday and packed up the Tuesday following Easter, the Tuesday being "Children's Day" when goods such as showbags were reduced in price.  It is now held the two weeks just before and after Easter each year.  It is held on the grounds of Sydney Olympic Park - the site of the 2000 Olympics.  The grounds are a perfect spot for such an event, and Mitch and I commented that it is good that Sydney is continuing to utilize the venues of the Olympic Games in such an efficient manner - there are beautiful apartments (fully occupied), restaurants, park areas, and shopping - all open and busy!

Instead of Cotton Candy - Fairy Floss!

The evening ended with a large fireworks display!

The Easter Bilby Instead of the Easter Bunny?

For most children in Australia they are visited by the Easter Bilby instead of the Easter Bunny!  What is the Easter Bilby?

Bilbies are native Australian marsupials that are endangered. To raise money and increase awareness of conservation efforts, bilby-shaped chocolates and related merchandise are sold within many stores throughout Australia as an alternative to Easter bunnies.

The first documented use of the Easter Bilby concept was in March 1968 when a 9-year-old girl Rose-Marie Dusting, wrote a story, "Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby," which she published as a book 11 years later. The story helped catalyze the public's interest in saving the bilby. In 1991 Nicholas Newland from the 'Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia' also developed the idea of the Easter Bilby to raise awareness about the environmental damage that feral rabbits cause and to replace the Easter bunny with true native wildlife.

Here is little education on the endangered Bilby:

Bilbies, or rabbit-bandicoots, are desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores; they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonization of Australia, there were two species. The lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s; the greater bilby survives but remains endangered.

Bilbies have the characteristic long bandicoot muzzle and very big ears that radiate heat. They are about 29–55 cm (11–22 in) long. Compared to bandicoots, they have a longer tail, bigger ears, and softer, silky fur. The size of their ears allows them to have better hearing. They are nocturnal omnivores that do not need to drink water, as they obtain their moisture from food, which includes insects and their larvae, seeds, spiders, bulbs, fruit, fungi, and very small animals. Most food is found by digging or scratching in the soil, and using their very long tongues.

Unlike bandicoots, they are excellent burrowers and build extensive tunnel systems with their strong forelimbs and well-developed claws. A bilby typically makes a number of burrows within its home range, up to about a dozen, and moves between them, using them for shelter both from predators and the heat of the day. The female bilby's pouch faces backwards, which prevents the pouch from getting filled with dirt while she is digging.

Bilbies have a short gestation of about 12–14 days, one of the shortest among mammals.

Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered because of habitat loss and change, and competition with other animals. There is a national recovery plan being developed for saving them. This program includes captive breeding, monitoring populations, and reestablishing bilbies where they once lived. There have been reasonably successful moves to popularise the bilby as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny by selling chocolate Easter Bilbies (sometimes with a portion of the profits going to bilby protection and research). Reintroduction efforts have begun, with a successful reintroduction into the Arid Recovery Reserve in South Australia in 2000,^[9] and plans are underway for a reintroduction into Currawinya National Park in Queensland,^[10] where there was success with six bilbies released into the feral-free sanctuary in early February 2006.

Today at school, I had a few children who brought me a chocolate Easter Bilby as a gift for Easter!

So, dear friends - whether the Easter Bunny or the Easter Bilby will visit your house, I pray that you will have a wonderful Easter Weekend and Sunday with the true meaning of this season in your hearts!

Next week's blog highlights will include:  Taranga Zoo and Problem at School - the Cockatoos are eating the children's lunches!  Don't miss it!