Kanchana and family in Melbourne, Australia

A big hello to everyone from me, Thushara, Boo and Nipu. We are in Melbourne, Australia now . We came here on 17th March and settled down in North of Melbourne and since then having a busy life . We are here to complete Thushara’s post doctoral training and will be here until January 2011. Kids have started attending the Westgarth Primary school and Thushara joined the Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public health as a visiting fellow. I am also invited to join a research project at Victoria University and looking forward to get more exposure in my research career. I am meeting many people in environmental field and also enjoying nature here. When we came here it was sunny and beginning of autumn but now it is the cold winter.
We are lucky to live just opposite to a park full of tress and many birds including Cockatoos, Laughing Kookaburras, lots and lots of Rainbow lorikeets, Australian Magpies and many Common Mynahs (introduced). We had a day tour to Dandenong Mountains where you feed free ranging birds. It was a nice experience to carry wild birds on your hands and feed them.
We should thank all the friends who supported us to settle down in Melbourne and without there support it would not have been easy. I also had the opportunity to visit Bird Australia and few parks and learn the management of parks by local communities.
We all are doing well and getting more experience and meeting many interesting/friendly people and making more contacts while we all miss our lovely mother Sri Lanka! Thanks to skype I know ECO-V is keeping well under the safe hands of Harsha. Indika and other volunteers are there to help him. They have had a very useful and interesting field trip to Kumana and looking forward to get the write up from Madhubhashini and I will add it next time.