It’s a bright Monday morning at Yarra Bend Park, the largest area of natural bushland in inner-city Melbourne. Green and lush, the park gently hums with both natural and human activity: birds tweet overhead, dogs swim in the water, parents and grandparents push babbling babies in prams. Occasionally, distant planes rumble as they take off and land at Essendon Fields airport, just north-west of here. It’s easy to forget this tranquil place is right in the middle of a bustling metropolis.
Near Dights Falls, at the northern end of the park, Geraldine Hickey stops in her tracks and stares up at the trees. “There were some tawny frogmouths here,” the comedian says in quiet reverence, scanning the sky for signs. “But that was months ago.” With no sign of the birds, she walks on, her dogs – chihuahua papillon mix Harry (short for Harriet) and Koolie Lloyd (“like Dumb and Dumber”) – bounding ahead.
