Fans of the Greater Bilby (macrotis lagotis) were probably surprised to find that their normally reclusive hero bobbed up in the news recently despite vigorous competition from roof insulation, maternity leave, Michael Clarke, Lara Bingle and the Fev.
Macrotis lagotis — Mac for short — is an endearing character. Long-eared, silky-furred, wide-eyed, an indefatigable burrower, this largest member of the marsupial Bandicoot family is quintessentially the diffident, unassuming good citizen of the animal world.
As omnivores, Mac and Mrs Mac make no gourmet demands on the food chain but eat just about anything and, as dedicated nocturnals, they are thoroughly unobtrusive — out in the pitch black, back home before dawn.
Mac's close relative, the Lesser Bilby — let's call him Les — hasn't been seen since 1931 and grave fears are held for his and his family's welfare. As far as is known, Les went out one night, as was his wont, perhaps to put the rubbish bin out, perhaps to burrow and forage, and was never seen again.
It looks like Les is extinct, but Mac's not out of the woods either, as the Prime Minister might put it. Habitat loss and unequal competition with introduced predators have led to Mac's being listed as a vulnerable species in all states except Queensland where, like so much else, he is officially endangered. The pressures have also forced Mac inland, into deserts and arid scrub.
How did this inoffensive, by and large un-newsworthy bandicoot surface in the maelstrom of public affairs, gossip and parliamentary punch and counter punch? Well, like this.
In a conversation on 26 February with Dennis Shanahan, political editor of The Australian, the ABC's Sonia Feldhoff remarked of Peter Garrett's crisis that 'the axe had fallen'. Then, altering her image — because Garrett had not actually been chopped he'd been demoted — she changed 'axe' to 'knife'. Shanahan, with great gusto, amended the image further. Garrett, he said, had been 'gutted'.
Hitting his straps, Shanahan characterised Garrett as 'the Minister for Bilbies, Arts and Heritage'. Maybe this line came to him there and then but more likely he'd been working on that one, giving it an off-Broadway run among his press gallery colleagues before rolling it out the moment the unsuspecting Feldhoff pressed his buttons.
Perhaps he is of that school of quirky patriotism that insists Mac should replace the Easter Bunny. With Easter imminent, Shanahan could have had such weighty