Point Labatt Conservation Park, SA

The location is amazingly incredible in itself, stepping out of Cherry and looking around I said to Shovel, 'honestly I'm not even bothered if we don't see a sea lion, this landscape is breathtaking.'
We were grateful to be the only visitors to the site and had the viewing platform and telescope all to ourselves. Initially, upon searching the coast line and rocks below we could only see about half a dozen or so lazing sea lions, but on closer inspection we started to notice, a dozen, then two dozen until we lost count. It was absolutely wonderful to witness these stunningly cute blubbery mammals gracefully glide through the shallows of the rock pools, navigate what appeared to be treacherous rock climbs with their flippers and laze sleepily on the sand or smooth rocks, occasionally rolling other to change sides. It was a pure delight to observe this magnificent, but threatened species in their natural habitat.

Point Labatt is home to the largest breeding colony of Australian Sea Lion in the World. Unfortunately due to over zealous poaching by First Europeans, Sea Lions were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800's, and although they are protected now, their numbers have never fully recovered and are still listed as threatened. Female Sea Lions can grow up to 1.5 metres long, weighing up to 120 kilograms and spend most of their lives pregnant.  The gestation period, unlike other mammals can be up to 18 months, at which point upon the birth of the next pup the previous pup is weened. Males can grow up to 2 metres long, weighing up to 400 kilograms and spend most of their time fighting with other males over the females. Due to this aggressive behaviour there is a high death rate among new born pups. Females are grey/cream in colour whilst males are dark brown. Sea Lions are opportunistic hunters, feeding off a variety of fish, squid, cuttlefish, lobster and penguins.  

The Wirangu Dreaming Story speaks of a Wombat (Wardu) and a Seal (Balgurda). Wombat is fascinated by the sea (Warna) but Seal warns Wombat about the dangers of entering the sea as Wombat is not a sea animal. Wombat ignores Seal and enters the sea anyhow, only to start drowning. Seal nudges Wombat out of the perilous sea and saves Wombat. Wombat thanks Seal and apologies for ignoring Seal's advice. In a show of gratitude and respect Wombat gives Seal his front legs for digging and Seal gives Wombat his flippers for swimming.