FINE ART TEXTILES



AUSTRALIA


MARSUPIALS

Ruth studied a selection of Australian Marsupials at the Melbourne Museum in Australia over a one month period in 2012.  

        

I almost overlooked the Leadbeater's Possum or Fairy Possum.  But a friend of mine told me about their struggle for survival in Victorias Central Highlands, and when I saw how small and vulnerable they looked in the drawers at the museum I knew I had to do some work about them.

As the state emblem of Victoria they are unique and live nowhere else in Australia.  The extensive bushfires of 2009 destroyed a huge portion of their habitat, and it is troubling and alarming that logging is currently taking place in the last remaining places where they live.  Listed as endangered by the IUCN, there are thought to be roughly 1,000 left in the wild.  Urgent action is required to help these little guys who because of their diminutive size and their need to live in very tall trees, promptly went unseen after they were discovered, only to be observed again fifty years later in 1961.

I urge you to click on the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum button to contribute towards raising funds for the legal fees to stop the logging.  I have produced a knitting kit based on Leadbeater's Possum #2 as seen below, and you can purchase it in my STORE.  A percentage of your purchase will be donated to the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum or The Knitting Nanna's of Toolangi.

        
        
Leadbeater's Possums #1 & #2

        
Numbats #1 & #2

        
Striped Possum #1 & #2

        
Bandicoot #1 & #2

       
Tiger Quoll #1 & #2

      
Tasmanian Tiger #1 & #2
                        


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