One gift of COVID isolation was that animals seem to be enjoying our absence from their day to day lives. With the Hobart Rivulet within my exercise area I found myself spending more and more time along the waterway.

Even though I’d seen platypus before, it felt like something magical was happening. Every time I peered over a bank a platypus seemed to be there!

One platypus in particular seemed to zoom up to me, and as the weeks past I’d grown quite attached to our intimate meet ups and named her Zoom.

On this day I came across Zoom with a loop of plastic around her bill. In that moment my eyes opened. Where I had previously seen a platypus, I now saw the rubbish that surrounded it. 

The plastic loop may have found its own way off, but the message had been delivered. Enjoying nature is not the same as caring for it. I committed to the latter and @hobartrivuletplatypus was born.