This painting features the endangered Proserpine rock-wallaby found only in the Whitsunday Shire of Queensland. Generally shy and timid they rarely move too far from their rock shelters. Here the wallaby is being visited by a probe or a hive (depending on your favoured collective noun) of gregarious and noisy blue-faced honeyeaters and a tortoise carrying a phone or “mobile phone” all of them gathering and collecting spoons. Perhaps flying in to tell stories of faraway places they’ve visited to the reclusive wallaby.

I’ve read that the blue faced honeyeaters have very untidy nests and also that they create very refined and neat nests ... so perhaps just like us there are two types – the one’s who make their beds in the morning and the ones that don’t. The one common thread is that they do all seem to like a crowd and here the wallaby seems to be enjoying their company and the task of collecting together and hearing their travel stories.