At first glance, it looked like a Duck- billed Platypus- with hands !!!!
Shaking with excitement , the waterfront roundsman tottered out into the sun and examined the stunning find more closely.
Imagine his disappointment when he found that it was not a rare link with Gondwanaland going back hundreds of millions of years , but an illustration from the back of a slim recipe book about Dutch cooking in Tasmania .
And the animal was indeed a dressed up platypus , wearing Dutch clogs and carrying a Dutch tulip!!!!!
The book was produced to mark the 350th anniversary in l992 of Dutch explorer and merchant Abel Janszoon Tasman , of the Dutch East Indies Company, first sighting of the north west coast of Tassie in l642 ; later spotted smoke on the south coast, probably from Aborigines.
During his seafaring he also confirmed Australia was an island continent and named New Zealand Staten Landt.
The Dutch ambassador to Australia, J. Cornelius, came from Canberra to Tasmania for the 350th anniversary . He said that if Abel had been offered the recipe book when he first landed, he would probably have stayed on in Tasmania and history would have taken a different course. Grannie Smith apples are included in some of the Dutch dishes , Tasmania known as the Apple Isle .
(Dutch.Tasmania. PLatypus.)
