WHERE REALMS COLLIDE

Recently landed: Where realms collide

In continuation of a naming tradition, twining arrival with performance,of course the next little ringtail joey to come into care was going to be named after something to ever remind us of the recent Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s performance. As Sophie Rowell, Merewyn Bramble, Blair Harris with Timothy Young played Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major Op 47, a Wildlife Victoria transporter was collecting an orphaned joey from a veterinary clinic in Kensington. To quote Sophie, in the program notes, as “the expansive warmth and optimism” swelled, presented under the mantle of Romantic Echoes, transporter and said ringtail were on their way to us at Tiny but Wild.

Continuing reading on Marginalia.

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2nd of April, 2026

Please meet Echo, an 87-gram joey, all softness and a dash of trepidation. Echo, in mythology, might have been the nymph who fell for Narcissus, but to us they are a cluster of notes, a “perfectly nervous, nimble” scherzo, a flutter of keys “nestl[ing] down into a gently flowing song”. And once they settle, who knows what they’ll be; it is up to them.

And Hubert Sparks, a White-striped freetail (Austronomus australis). From his armpits runs two perfect white ribbons of fur, two racing stripes of intense luminosity. His tail, as the name suggests, free, and fine in circumference. His face, a world of expression, reveals why they are sometimes described as mastiff bats in guide books (as in, their wrinkled faces resemble mastiff dog muzzles). His fur, so soft it is near impossible to feel. Velvet, light.

A marvel in every sense, both.