More than 200 people converged on Walpole at the end of September, with one common goal – to capture a snapshot of the plant and animal life hidden in the nooks and crannies of the Walpole Wilderness Area, the only gazetted wilderness in Western Australia.
There’s nothing quite like taking a threatened species and immortalising it in cake form.
Throughout September we are celebrating Biodiversity Month, including Threatened Species Day, which was themed ‘towards zero extinctions’ this year, to highlight threatened species and their habitat needs, and honour the people who work so hard to prevent further loss.
Members of the Biologic team hit the kitchen to produce a range of culinary creations featuring some of these species, including a Banksia montana mealybug cake, intricately decorated Freshwater sawfish, Numbat biscuits and this Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish.
But master baking isn’t for everyone, so the day integrated some uneatable delights including a ghost-bat sketch and this Ode to Draculoides bramstokeri, by Joel Huey.
Subterranean Desert Dwellers
They once covered the continent, Dracula’s denizens of ancient forests. Sheltered by a prehistoric wilderness, vanishing before marching dunes. They were monsters in the dappled light, preying on the soft and ripe. Their sensitive limbs probing in the decaying litter, crushing the pitiful in fiendish jaws.
No longer.
Now they hide in an endless night, below the searing deserts that evicted them. Crawling sightless and ravenous through crack and crevice, hidden from human eyes. Except here, under the protective fig by the circular pool. They still hunt here.
Nailed It! View the gallery of creations by clicking on the side arrows below
Banksia Montana Mealybug cake
Freshwater Sawfish biscuits
Ammonite Pinwheel Snail cake
Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider cake
Soft Coral Cauliflower
Numbat biscuits
Pink Underwing Moth sandwiches
Black Magic Grevillea cake
Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Crayfish cake
