Wikipedia image of the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat

Driving late last night to change irrigation taps saw a big blackish thing running along the ground. Thought it might be a large cat. It ran and jumped down into a rabbit hole. The rabbit burrow looked larger. Might it be a wombat???

Drove past the same place this night from the opposite direction and cut the wombat off from its burrow. It ran for a good 100 metres before it disappeared somewhere.

Never had wombats anywhere near here before. Perhaps found a wombat hole in the ranges when I was a teenager many kilometres away.

Well now I have them on my farm. Lots of biodiversity on my vineyards - parrots and native birds; echidnas; snakes and lizards; resident grey roos and euros; possums; have seen an emu; ducks in season when the creek flows; several species of owl, one species in particular; crows of course; magpies; all sorts of birds; wedge tail eagles fly over. Used to have a resident nest where hawks bred before a stupid neighbour shot them all ... Feral game such as rabbits, hares and foxes. Never seem feral deer, but have had one turn up IN my fenced deer paddocks and seen tracks. Rare though.

The yabbies have been gone for decades. The river has to flow for more than a few days or weeks per year (and then that if we are lucky) for them to be here.

No fish, NO WATER! But have had trout turn up in debris when the river has flooded. Someone obviously seeded a stream or dam somewhere.

More on wombats here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_hairy-nosed_wombat

Can't hunt them as they are protected. I believe destruction permits might be possible if they become a nuisance, but they aren't for me, and probably hard to get. Aboriginals used to hunt and eat them. Colonists used to as well. I know some "hillbillies" who said they make good "wombat tail soup"/