Bob's Story Poem by Francis Duggan

To raise a wildborn animals from a baby is not an easy job
You need only ask Steve and Annie Durie they raised orphan wombat Bob
Found in his car victim mother's pouch by the highway hungry but still alive
A miracle of Nature her death he did survive.

Steve and Annie loved the baby wombat and of him they took good care
And every night in turns they left bed to feed him the workload they did share
And Bob he grew so quickly into a sturdy wombat child
Great strength Nature's key to the wombat for survival in the wild..

With the fast growing young marsupial the Durie family used to play
Till Bob became territorial acting out Nature's way
Their home and surrounding garden became his territory
And he was now trying to evict his human family

Some of the strange workings of Nature Steve Durie understand
And Bob was becoming difficult and things getting out of hand
And so he took him to the nearby wood though quite reluctantly
The time had come for Wombat Bob for to live naturally.

Some five to twenty kilometres from his childhood home Bob nowadays to be found
And he sleep by day as wombats do in his home deep underground
And in the twilight he venture out as darkness cloak the sky
And head off for his feed of grass to the paddock nearby.

If Bob could tell his story I'm sure that he would say
I've fathered a few wombats my seed is here to stay
In this old wood forever my descendants will thrive
And to think that I could have died with mother it's so good to be alive.

I've cowed another wombat for to claim my territory
And I feel happy by myself my kin I seldom see
And though us wombats with humans never do mix socially
I do feel grateful to the Duries for all they did for me.

For to raise a wild born animal is not an easy job
Ask Steve and Annie Durie for they raised Wombat Bob
Found alive in his dead mother's pouch by the busy motor way
And he lives a very happy life in Kongwak wood today.