Sky blue

I photographed this insect today at the Dubbo Regional Botanic Gardens. I think it's a Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, sometimes known as Sky Blue, according to the website Brisbane Insects. They are apparently common and widespread in Australia.

Our road trip today included a stop at Coonabarabran, gateway to the volcanic remnant Warrumbungle Mountains. The town's Visitor Centre displays the fairly intact skull and skeleton of a Diprotodon found nearby about 40 years ago. The display says that: 'Diprotodon, the largest known marsupial, roamed Australia during the last one to two million years and may have become extinct as recently as 20,000 years ago'. The animal was about the size of a large rhinoceros, and is distantly related to koalas, wombats and kangaroos. The extra photo of the Diprotodon skull shows a masked blipper lurking in the background (the omicron variant of covid-19 is 'spreading like wildfire' in these parts).