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<\/a>The last sighting of a platypus in the Torrens was recorded little more than a decade later \u2013 it was declared extinct on the South Australian mainland in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
But now there are plans to reintroduce the elusive monotreme to the city\u2019s river, which has been extensively rehabilitated in recent decades.<\/p>\n
The purple-spotted gudgeon, touted as a canary in the coalmine for platypus habitats, has already been reintroduced and is thriving.<\/p>\n
It is hoped the platypuses will join them within a couple of years.<\/p>\n
Prof Chris Daniels is the presiding board member of Green Adelaide, the statutory body in charge of the project. He says the river was so badly degraded it would be impossible to return the habitat to its original form, as other rewilding schemes might attempt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a different situation,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Torrens was always very difficult to manage. When Adelaide grew around it we effectively destroyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was called the city of stenches in the 19th century because \u201cit was so poor at managing its sewage\u201d, Daniels says.<\/p>\n
Sewage farms alleviated the stink but the Torrens kept going downhill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were dealing with flooding, pollution, the creation of a dam, erratic flows, stormwater \u2026 [it was] ecologically destroyed,\u201d Daniels says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been completely massacred by the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Restoring the river<\/h2>\n
But over the past 20 years the Torrens, an 85km stretch from the hills to the sea, has been rehabilitated through waste management, better management of water flows, wetlands, revegetation and the reconstruction of creeks.<\/p>\n
With the urban river \u201ccompletely reformed\u201d, Daniels says, conservationists wanted to know if they could bring back its \u201cpremier animal\u201d, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), which is also an \u201cumbrella animal\u201d that can improve the ecosystem for other natives.<\/p>\n A scoping study released in July looked at water depth, quality and temperature, protection from predators including cats, foxes and dogs, availability of food sources such as yabbies, prawns, shrimp and small fish, whether the banks were good for burrow-building, and so on.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t perfect. Some sections are better than others. The study recommended some improvements. But it\u2019s possible, the experts say.<\/p>\n Daniels is confident they will overcome all the obstacles.<\/p>\n There is plenty of food, he says, and the purple-spotted gudgeon \u2013 a \u201ckind of platypus-lite\u201d that uses the same habitat \u2013 was successfully reintroduced to the Torrens in November after a century of absence.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my Walter Mitty moments I do imagine that you\u2019re somewhere on the river \u2026 you\u2019re walking your dog \u2013 on a lead \u2013 in the early morning, just at sunrise \u2026 down into the water you\u2019ll suddenly see rings appear and then up will pop this little brown thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be very active, buzzing along the surface, then it\u2019ll dive down again \u2026 it\u2019ll drag its head and face through the stones looking for mayfly larvae and little prawns and yabbies and things like that.<\/p>\n \u201cThen it\u2019ll pop to the surface again. If you\u2019re really lucky, you\u2019ll see it pop out, look around, then scoot into a hole in the roots of a river red gum. That\u2019s its burrow. It might be in there with several puggles.\u201d<\/p>\n David Cobbold knows the joy of platypus spotting. He and his partner, Narelle MacPherson, run the Warrawong wildlife sanctury in Mylor, south-east of the city, and they spotted one the first time a real estate agent took them on a tour.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I see one I pinch myself,\u201d he says. Cobbold is bewildered at his journey from an arts and law graduate in Tasmania.<\/p>\n \u201cI am some bumbling fool from Hobart who ended up with 42 acres of the most insane Australian paradise,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd whenever I see a platypus I think \u2018how the hell did I get here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Warrawong has three underwater observatories and unfinished breeding facilities that need external investment to complete. Cobbold says the occasional platypus escapee can be spotted nearby but likely ends up as fox food.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more successful we are, the bigger the problem gets, in that we are in a confined space,\u201d he says. He would welcome being a part of the Torrens plan.<\/p>\n A wild population on Kangaroo Island, where the platypus was introduced in the 1920s, may be one source for reintroduction to the Torrens.<\/p>\n But the state environment minister, Susan Close, says she expects Warrawong will be involved in discussions once they get to the logistics of breeding and moving the platypuses.<\/p>\n Close says what she loves about the project is \u201cwhat that says about what we\u2019re capable of doing\u201d.<\/p>\n We hear about the extinction crisis, about climate change, she says, but the platypus means saying to people \u201cyou can turn things around\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have fixed the Torrens, not perfectly, not entirely, but to the point experts are saying we can reintroduce the platypus,\u201d Close says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a story that says there\u2019s hope, and that\u2019s worth more than the story itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018How the hell did I get here?\u2019<\/h2>\n