WILD Blog 01

The Beginning.

October 2023. We arrived in Strahan, Tasmania, neither of us having ever been here before. We had done a bit of research on the town, seen it on a map and thought 'Wilderness Area.. that sounds cool. I wonder if you can go there?'. Having found jobs in tourism in the area, we came with open minds and didn't really consider how long we'd want to stay.

We had both spent time in Tasmania before and loved it enough to want to come back. However, at that point we had never seen a Tasmanian devil in the wild. Naturally, this was one of the first things we set out to do.

Over the next few weeks, about three nights per week, we drove out towards Macquarie Heads, parked by the side of the road and waited. Sometimes we'd call it at 10pm, sometimes we'd wake up in the car at 2am. We did our best to be sensible as we both had full time jobs, but despite the lack of sightings we persevered. We also learnt to find other traces of devil activity such as footprints, burrows and poo. The latter of which is quite distinctive and, if you've been out on the Night Walk Adventure, you know it gets us pretty excited.

One night, we came across a pademelon that appeared sadly to have been hit by a car. Someone had already moved it to the side of the road (if safe, the best thing to do to protect further wildlife incidents from occurring), and although tragic we decided this was a good spot to wait for a Devil to show up- they are after all attracted to the smell of carrion and feed on dead animals. Once again, no sightings, despite how quiet and still we were- though we did hear a nig rustle in the bushes. We headed off to bed and to work the next day.

The following evening we returned to the same spot, and something interesting had happened; the pademelon had moved. It didn't take much searching to find that just a few metres away were the remains of the pademelon. Without going into too much detail.. there wasn't much of it left (to say the least). There's only one animal in Tasmania that can chew through solid bone, fur and flesh and leave nothing behind. Kaylee and I had an exciting realisation - right there, where we were both standing, had been a Tasmanian Devil just hours earlier. Maybe even more than one. This meant that there were, in fact, devils in the Ocean Beach Conservation Area. We were pretty starstruck.

Months later on Christmas eve during one of our outings, we had once again fallen asleep in our car. I woke up at around 1:30am, having dreamt that a devil had walked past and we missed it. I turned on the car headlights and couldn't believe my eyes: a Tasmanian devil stood right in front of our car. I woke Kaylee up, who looked out and saw him too. Honestly, if it was just me that saw him, I would have thought it was a dream. We were so fascinated that we didn't touch one of our four cameras we had brought along, and enjoyed the moment.

We watched as this brilliant animal stood quite still before raising his nose, picking up a scent, and following it into the darkness with that awkward but graceful trot. To this day, he is the largest Tasmanian devil we have ever seen, both in conservation and in the wild, and we named him Big Nick, on account of us first seeing him on Christmas Day. We later captured him on a trail cam, which you can see below.

It wasn't long after this that Kaylee came home one day and said 'I have an idea. We should do a night walk in Strahan.' A lot of application, planning and hard work followed; an entire years worth, in fact.

One Year later, on New Years Eve 2024, along with three dedicated guests, Whitmore's Wild ran it's first ever Night Walk Adventure on the Ocean Beach Trail.

In the four months that followed, over 160 guests went out on the trail with Kaylee on the Night Walk Adventure, and their feedback led to Whitmore's Wild becoming a People's Choice Finalist in the 2025 Tasmanian Tourism awards.

Above all we hope that those guests went on to look at the wild differently; whether it be in Tasmania, the bush back home, their local city park or the back garden, our aim is to show that there is wonder in every forest, every open plain and every nook and cranny of this natural world that we are all part of. We are showing you our wild, but yours is there too, right where you live. It can be there to appreciate, respect and care for forever. At the end of the day, we just want other people to get as excited about devil poo as we do!

Second season starts on October 21st- we can't wait to see you out there.

Josh Selby, 07/10/2025