Working out the region has been fun. Don't think postcodes. They have a magic quality of their own. If you wish to make suggestions they will be welcomed. Meanwhile, here is the list as we have so far defined it.

Baringhup | Campbells Creek | Castlemaine | Chewton | Eddington | Elphinstone | Faraday | Fryers Town | Guildford | Glenluce | Harcourt | Joyces Creek | Laanecoorie | Lockwood South | Maldon | Metcalf | Newstead | Ravenswood | Redesdale | Shelbourne | Spring Hill | Sutton Grange | Taradale | Tarilta | Vaughn | Walmer | Welshmans Reef | Yandoit | Yapeen

We must admit to wanting to be pedantic about this listing so if you can suggest the name of a locality not listed in the above, feel free to do so. We'd love to hear from you.

What is the size of a small toddler, sleeps all day standing up, and can sometimes be seen with the grisly remains of last night’s dinner hanging from its claws ready for a snack on waking up? Give up?

A sudden whoosh and a gentle wind just above my head and the familiar clackety clack of a Red Wattle Bird rings through the cold early morning air from high up in the big tree at the corner of Frances and Dolphin Streets. But that is not the sound that grabs my attention. A grinding, gravelly, whirring bird song on a low branch and only metres away demands an audience.

The White-browed Babbler is one of only two local bird species that live a sociable life, that is, they live in family groups. The other larger and more common bird is the White-winged Chough.

‘Seeing is believing’, goes the saying, but sometimes things happen which makes you question that saying and when it does, you are temporarily (or permanently depending on what you are looking at) transported to a less certain frame of mind.

Last year, within a few days of one another, I was surprised to find unexpected creatures on the road.

Fox shit! How interesting is that? Why am I wandering around Mt Tarrangower and examining the faeces of Vulpes vulpes, the Red Fox? Well, it’s all part of understanding the distribution of the Wheel Cactus (Opuntia robusta), a difficult to eradicate, introduced species threatening our bushland and farms.

“Christ! We’ve killed the missus’s cat”, groaned my father looking across the field, past the silent frozen ponies with their steaming nostrils, to the far hedge. A black cat hangs stiff in the frost.

Forget Punter Ponting, Pup Clarke and Mr Cricket, instead, think local and think nicknames.

When I recently tried to track down something or someone in reference to a local event, I realized that not too long ago, nicknames for men were common but for some reason this was no longer the case. Trying to work out who Milky Jack really was, or the given name for Dook Cox, led me to a senior local identity for help, someone who had fond memories of the days when nicknames were commonplace in Maldon.