Many people know about Casuarina Harbour’s resident dingo, Marley. But have you ever wondered how he came to be living at the harbour? Well, here is his story, as told by his ‘owner’ Kevin (who gave his permission for this story to be published here):
Marley was born approximately April 2010. He was found near FMG Fortescue’s Solomon Hub mine (about 60km north of Tom Price) in the Pilbra region of WA. His mother had been run over, leaving three young pups.
I could only save Marley as he tried to hide between some rocks. They were too young to survive on their own. Marley was not yet eating solid foods, so as I was away at work driving a loader, he had to come with me to work on the loader and living on iced coffee as it was all I had out there. When he was young he could comfortably fit in a little workers lunchbox esky. It did not take him long to gain a bit of trust. Within a week he would follow you around like mad, good at tripping you over.
Once I took him home to Harvey he was met with two loving kids – a five year old girl, Neave and a seven year old boy Lloyd, who were ecstatic to meet him. They both named him Marley after a movie they had been watching of a mischievous Labrador, which became fitting, It beat the name Brownes, after the iced coffees I had been calling him.
Marley was great with the kids, even allowing Neave to dress him up. As time went on, Marley developed some rather annoying habits, like pinching and hiding one of every shoe, never a pair, chewing extension leads, turning the kids room into a den, with the help of the kids of course. If you were the person who locked him in somewhere, he would find something that was yours and only yours, and chew it up. He once ate the seat in Jane’s Nissan Patrol for locking him in.
As he grew he always came everywhere with us – out on the boat fishing or skiing, camping and loved running beside motorbikes. Once I started a new chapter in life buying an old World War 2 navy vessel, things changed for Marley a great deal. Moving from a farm and large farm house to a little boat in Bunbury in 2013. It took Marley a little while to adapt as dingoes don’t like being moved around. The main thing Marley didn’t like, and to a point still doesn’t is large groups of people.
Over this time he learnt to climb the ladder up to the boat. He wasn’t over keen on going down the ladder. Usually he would wait at the ladder in the morning to be carried down. During the restoration of the boat, Marley has managed to lay in every thing from fibreglass resin to paint, or he would come back proud as punch because he’d rolled in something that stinks, which then means shower time. He hates showers. For someone who is usually quiet, he whines and howls the whole time he is in the shower.
In the time Marley has been at the outer harbour, he has made many friends and has also had a few run ins with the council rangers. About a year ago I had to shift the boat away from Bunbury to a yard in Australind industrial area. I have taken Marley to the new block several times and he is fine at night on the boat, but during the day he paces back and forth along the fences whining and howling. I watch him looking at the top of the fences knowing full well he can jump them. As much as I miss having Marley around all the time, he has made the harbour him home and is much happier there than anywhere else.
Thanks for permission to share this lovely story.
