AUTHOR’S NOTE

The steamship SS Bancoora was driven ashore at Breamlea in the south-west of Victoria by heavy seas on 14 July 1891. It left Calcutta on June 9 with a full load of tea, rice, tapioca, sugar and jute. There was also an unusual cargo load of exotic animals bound for the Royal Melbourne Zoo: a young elephant, a rhinoceros, six rhesus monkeys, two white cranes and six green parrots.

As they rounded Cape Otway at 2 a.m., a south-easterly gale-force wind hit the SS Bancoora and it was run aground on a reef eight hundred yards from shore.

Unbeknown to the crew, a local farmer, a Mr Milne, heard the calls for distress but was unable to cross a flooded creek to reach the beach, so he rode his horse to Geelong to raise the alarm.

IMAGE: STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA

The SS Bancoora remained stranded on the reef until August 28 when salvagers were able to get access and set up a pontoon and winching system to bring the animals ashore. The animals were then taken on to the Melbourne Zoo. Sadly, the rhinoceros only lived for a short time before dying of a back injury sustained during the shipwreck.

IMAGE: STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA

Upon reading a true account in TROVE at the National Library of Australia, I wasn’t sure what upset me the most – the preposterous idea of exotic animal acquisition by zoos, or the thought of animals suffering, who survive the shipwreck only to go into a life in captivity. This story would not let me go.

I have stood on these same windswept beaches. I have combed its shores. It’s rugged and bleak and isolated, and I could see the ship being smashed upon the reef and I could hear the wailing of the animals.

I mourned for the loss of the rhinoceros, a truly misunderstood creature, and it was my admiration for them that inspired me to write this story and ask the “what if” questions.

What if the rhinoceros washed ashore? What if a girl, who walked the beach every day, found the exhausted rhinoceros asleep in the shallows and led it home by the horn? What if this girl, named Evie, formed an immediate bond with the rhinoceros? A connection so strong it had the power to heal?

This story became very real to me, and it’s most certainly me walking in Evie’s shoes. I grew up on a farm doing chores every day and we were flooded in every winter when the creek burst her banks. I’ve tramped every inch of the beach and our farm.

Rhino is a three-year-old Indian Rhinoceros from Northern India, also known as the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros. So, yes, they only have one horn, differing from their African cousins, who have two.

Over the centuries, the rhinoceros has built a reputation for being aggressive. This is because they have poor eyesight and may charge upon an unfamiliar smell. They have even been known to attack rocks and trees, but left unprovoked they are peaceful, placid animals.

But it is no wonder they’re angry at times! Poachers are hunting rhinos to near extinction for their horns, which are made of keratin, like fingernails and hair. They are prized as weapons, and coveted as an ingredient in traditional Asian Medicine.

COURTESY: BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE LIBRARY, THE SMITHSONIAN, U.S.A.

Hand-raised as an orphan, my Rhino is gentle and docile. He loves chin scratches and ear tickles and munching on green grass, preferably after a light drizzling of rain. He’s quick to smile and bestow kisses on any unsuspecting human he deems worthy. He’s passionate about cows, adores the company of chickens and loves to wallow in mud.

Rhino is most definitely the hero of this story.

This story questions and addresses the importance and beauty in the connection between humans and animals and the profound healing love animals inspire and give to us. I hope this love shines through in Evie and Rhino.