My parents had theirs - and I don't know what they called it, or how they came to have it, but I think it was a male - long before I was born, when they lived in Thornby Cottage. They're not pets like cats and dogs are, they just sort-of adopt you, like the wombat in this story. So much of Diary of a Wombat rings true because of their stories - anyone who's had a 'pet' wombat would no doubt agree (I'm sure the author has had one too at some stage). Pretty cool huh? I was very impressed by this, back in Grade 6, and I've never forgotten it.Īlso, and I was hoping to have more info on this for you, my parents once had a 'pet' wombat. The dingo follows, and when it tries to jump on the wombat's back to crush the neck with its jaws, the wombat will lift itself on its powerful, earth-moving legs and crush the dingo between the hard plate of the wombat's back and the roof of the burrow. Wombats use it differently - when threatened by a dingo (the dog breed the Aborigines brought with them many thousands of years ago), the wombat will run for its burrow. Koalas use this for sleeping in the fork of branches high up in trees. When I was in Grade 6 I did an assignment on the hairy-nosed wombat, and learnt about their unique defence tactic: like koalas, wombats have a hard plate of bone on their lower back.

Wombats are lazy animals - cousin to the koala, which is only awake for about 45 mins a day - and oh so adorable. This is one of my favourite picture books, ever since it first came out, and it's taken me seven years to finally get a copy - but the wait is worth it.

Diary of a christmas wombat