Ordinarily, I would continue along the freeway instead of turning onto a development road. But I want to make up time after a slow start to the day. Asphalt turns to gravel and then to graded soil in quick succession.
At first, I can’t tell what it is. There’s something lying in the middle of the road. I start to slow. It’s a decent sized ‘roo. Clearly, it’s been collected by a road train on its way through. But what’s standing over it? Is that a bird? Slower still. Bloody hell, it’s huge. Down to a crawl.
Now I can see it’s a Wedge-tail. And it’s visibly lifting the whole corpse as its peels off strips of flesh. A short parp on the car horn. I want it off the ground. It looks up at me for the first time but doesn’t move. It’s not going anywhere.
It looks nearly three and a half feet tall and glares menacingly at me as I drive off the road around it. I’m confident of the intelligence in its eyes and lock the car doors just in case it’s worked out how to use the handles.
Once past him, I accelerate again. Looking into the rearview, I watch the apex predator return to its feed. I have never seen one so brazen before.
This photo is of a juvenile who is not yet entirely sure of himself but when he reaches maturity, he will be equally as impressive as those I've seen in western Queensland.
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