Belconnen is dying.

I have fond memories of Canberra's kangaroos. I took this photo of Kangaroos at the Belconnen naval base on my way to work one morning in 2005. Seeing kangaroos grazing in the middle of the suburbs was a unique part of the Canberra experience.

I'm saddened that in May 2008 500 kangaroos on the Belconnen naval base in Canberra were herded into an enclosure and killed. You can still see the circular killing area just south of the buildings.

The government's rationale is that grazing and kangaroos threatened the grasslands, which are home to three endangered species.

Photographs of the kill.

If the comments on riotACT are any indicator the public in Canberra views kangaroos as pests. The first page of Google search results for "canberra kangaroo" or "canberra kangaroos" is mostly articles and pages about the cull.

May Day

To celebrate May Day somebody bought tulips and left one on each persons desk last Thursday.

According to the Wikipedia article, it would have been appropriate for Sean to chase down and kiss whoever left the flower there, but since it had been there for a while no kiss was exchanged.

It was a bit droopy, but Sean gave it to Louise who put it into water. That was just what it needed. It is almost a week later and it's still strong.

New Arrival

Louise and I would like to announce the arrival of Bindi Jayne Burford. She was born at 38 weeks at 12:38am on the 3rd of May (National Scrapbooking Day). She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and is 19 inches tall.

Both Bindi and Louise did really well throughout the birth and recovery. Thanks to the support of Overlake's hospital staff and our doula Debra, the birth was as close to our birth plan as we could have hoped. Labor started just in time and lasted for 6 hours. We had a natural delivery with no pain medication. Sean helped Louise and Bindi during the birth.

We're back home now after spending two days recovering in the hospital. Ebony is helping us remember to wake up every few hours to feed Bindi.