Kangaroos and Trains

Back in the 60s when I was a fireman, there were a lot of kangaroos on the track. It seemed that they are drawn to trains like iron to a magnet. Skippy was on TV. I really heated hitting them in the train. There must be a way to get them to move off the track.

I was remorseful every time I heard the bang. One day, with love in my heart, I said “Get off the line Skippy”. To my utter amazement the kangaroos scattered off the track. Not one was struck. So for the rest of my 49 year service that’s what I did to hunt god’s creatures off the track. If I didn’t see the kangaroos or didn’t have time to vocalize, then the familiar clunk was heard as whatever it was disappeared under the cow catcher.

If you don’t have the love for the creature, the ploy wouldn’t work. Since the creatures couldn’t hear me over the noise of the train, I believe it to be some form of telepathy, especially as the creatures would get run over if I didn’t hunt them off the line.

One night we were traveling to Moura Mine by taxi. We rounded a corner down onto a creek just before Duck Holes Road and there sitting in the middle of the narrow bridge was a big grey buck kangaroo. The taxi driver slammed on the brakes. We stopped just a meter from it. The roo wasn’t going to move. There was a long pause. I told it “Get off the road before you get run over”. Promptly the roo got up and hopped off the road.

Well that taxi driver had another story to tell. Most people dismiss this stuff as coincident. How many coincidences do you need to start to think that something else is going on? Is 99 out of a hundred good enough or is one hundred percent required. Bet you will still be sceptical. What if it was you that was doing it? Would you still be that sceptical?