This week commemorates Leadbeater's Possum Awareness Week. Victorians are commemorating the rediscovery of the thought to be extinct Leadbeater's (fairy) Possum back in 1961 by Eric Wilkinson near Cambarville.

The Leadbeater's possum is closely related to the sugar glider.

On Saturday the week will culminate with a Picnic at Cambarville and Eric Wilkinson plus other guests will be there. I am taking the drive into the mountains to take part and looking forward to it.

it DOES look a lot like a sugar glider! I am guessing that it does not have the gliding membranes?

They look so cool, sounds like it would be fun, hope u have a great time, and come back and share with us

Sounds like a great outing! Please post photos for us Ko!

What a wonderful thing to celebrate, a rediscovery. I could only imagine finding that animal in the wild after years or a century in the mahogany gliders case. Wow, have fun...absorb a lot!

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Originally posted by karensink

it DOES look a lot like a sugar glider! I am guessing that it does not have the gliding membranes?

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Exactly, but the way it moves and scampers around, it can be mistaken for a sugar glider in the wild.

Wow what a day. Left at 6am and there was gentle mist on the way up there which was breathtaking and I all wanted to do was stop and take photos.






However time was a consideration so I drove into Marysville, bought a nice pie for breakfast and then headed up to Lady Talbot Drive, where 5 years earlier I took some photos of the Beech Forest there. After 10km along, it was obvious that the entire area had been hit badly by the bushfires three years earlier so I did not continue. It would have been sad to see how the area looked now.

Before the fires



After the fires.Lots of regrowth happening but no tall trees for a very long time.



At lunch time I drove into the Yarra Valley State Forest in the mountains and met up with others at Cambarville to celebrate Leadbeater's possum Awareness week with a hike, talk and an afternoon tea. The surrounding forests are home to many species including Leadbeaters possums, sugar gliders, great gliders and mountain brushtail possums.





One of the speakers was Eric Wilkinson, the man who re-discovered Leadbeaters Possum existence 52 years ago in a nearby area when he was 22. He told us the story of how it came about and this sprightly 74 year old then joined us for a 2 hour hike to visit areas of low bushfire impact, medium bushfire impact and severe bushfire impact. The amazing tall mountain ashes were breathktaking. Out of interest, sugar gliders and leadbeaters possums prefer to live in the dead trees over the living ones.

Tree ferns abound the cool temperatre rainforest area




Leadbeater's possum

Your pics are amazing! Thanks so very much for sharing

yes thank you this fantastic!

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing!

What a wonderful, informative post. This is exactly the kind of stuff I come to this site for. Thanks for the great photos, and info.