An Astonishing Encounter at Ronny Creek | By Kate Butler

Ronny Creek was one of my favourite areas and during my time in the National Park, I made sure to incorporate it into my walking routes every day. The torrential rain had turned the buttongrass moorland into a raging floodplain, with hundreds of streams rushing along past and underneath the boardwalk. This made things a lot more interesting and between spotting wombats, I would also watch the water in amazement. 

It was in these streams where I encountered my very first platypus. I was walking back towards the bus stop, after a hike up to Crater Lake in the torrential rain, when I just so happened to glance down and find something strange looking back at me. I stopped dead and couldn’t believe my eyes. The platypus was less than a meter away and completely unfazed by me. He continued to swim around and forage for food; I watched him for nearly 10 minutes in total, before he eventually swam out of sight.