This is a family book for the dear young. Mum is a koala, Dad is a red kangaroo, and the children - a wombat, numbat, echidna, quoll, wallaby, bilby, possum, quokka and little antechinus - certainly don’t take after their parents. In fact they’d never be seen together, because some are nocturnal, some are solitary, they live in different habitats, and if they were seen together the quoll would, without a doubt, gobble up a few siblings. This book is a gentle introduction to these animals, and children can spot them in each illustration, then find out more about them.

My friend, children’s author Christobel Mattingley once remarked that her son, who was living overseas at the time, observed that Australians say ‘hop’ a lot - hop up, hop over, hop in, hop out - and I wondered if it was because we have a lot of animals that hop. I began thinking about the things we say to toddlers.

Just after WW2 my father bought a slab of bush near Cape Paterson in Victoria. He was told it would raise no more than a snake to the acre. There were snakes all right, sometimes we could see their wiggly tracks on the sandy soil by the gate. If they showed themselves they were quickly dispatched because you don’t want snakes round the house. The area was alive with birds, skinks, blue tongues, echidnas, possums, bull ants, bees, flies, march flies, butterflies and mosquitoes. There were rabbits galore and kangaroos in the top paddock. Shooters asked permission to go spotlighting.

My father, helped by my teenage brother, cleared the land by bulldozing, bashing down and burning the scrub. He painted W Honey, Wood Merchant on the door of the truck, and sold the timber in Wonthaggi. The woodshed, axe, chopping block and the whine of the circular saw were part of our lives. The soil was grey and sandy, not very fertile, but with the addition of superphosphate the pasture grew.

Behind the house Dad left a patch of bush. Around us grew wattles, flowering gum, boronia, donkey orchids, greenhoods, spider orchids, pin cushions, egg and bacon, all the Gippsland wild flowers, which I pressed and sticky-taped into a botany book and labelled for my Girl Guides collector’s badge. I was collecting plants that would vanish from our farm. Native flora and fauna gave way to European plants and animals.

In those days children had more experience of the bush. They might be part of a farming family or stay with relatives on a farm, or go camping. The naturalist Crosbie Morrison edited a magazine called Wild Life and the children’s radio show we listened to every afternoon, 'The Argonauts',

had a segment by Tom the Naturalist. At Wonthaggi State School, I belonged to the Gould League and our teachers entered our bird drawings in competitions.

Do you like my honeyeaters?

Many popular books had Australian animals as main characters: Blinky Bill, Bush Cobbers, The Muddleheaded Wombat by Ruth Park, (serialised on 'The Argonauts'), Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding, and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs. This was a funny adventure, with bush creatures ingeniously woven into an original bushland fantasy. No dainty fairies with diaphanous wings for May Gibbs.

                   Recycling ideas too

In 1978 I published a calendar of illustrations. The picture for May was ‘Return to Returnables.’ At the time milk bottles were being replaced by the Tetrapak, so I showed my little animals happily using and returning milk bottles. When I explained my idea for Hop up! Wriggle over! to editor Sue Flockhart, I showed her this illustration. (I still don’t think we’ve got the milk container right).

Australia’s animals are extraordinary. I’ve tried to show them accurately, so this book can be a gentle introduction to them, and children will look for them in each illustration and want to know more. Our animals are very appealing. Their charm was proved again in 2014, with baby Prince George and the bilby, then koala diplomacy at the G20 meeting when powerful world leaders loved having their photo taken holding a koala.

Another influence - Max by Giovanetti. He’s a funny, spirited, furry, uninhibited little hamster-esque animal that first appeared in Punch. As a child I loved Max and I thought if my animals could be engaging, like Max, children would like them.

This took longer than you’d think because I was continually distracted by fascinating information on the internet. (Check out the Cape Melville leaf tailed gecko, found by Dr Conrad Hoskin - by eyeshine!) Thanks to the generous contributors to Google, I had invaluable reference, and a constant source of procrastination.

Trevor Evans talks about the Tiger Quoll but also the Eastern quoll, a beautiful little animal.

Did you know the numbat, which lives on termites, regularly needs to moisten its long pink tongue? This wonderful video is from the BBC Natural History Unit.

At Healesville Sanctuary I photographed and drew, but the sanctuary didn’t have some animals, some were asleep, and others weren’t very obliging. Thank goodness for Google.

This book was a present from my parents, my name written on the front in my mother’s gentle economical handwriting. Published by Whitcombe & Tombs it’s a collection of Mahood’s pages for children, from the magazine Wild Life. Her conversational writing is perfect for the earnest young artist. Here she describes the echidna’s feet.

In the natural history display ‘Wild’ I could see most of the animals in relation to each other, even if they were on opposite sides of the room. What I found brought me up with a shock. Each animal is classified under a heading: Endangered, Vulnerable. Secure, and the poor misshapen thylacine: Extinct.

Like so many illustrators I listen to Radio National while I’m working. I heard a program by the CEO of The Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Atticus Fleming, on the effect on wildlife of feral cats and foxes. I could hardly believe my ears. He says it’s estimated that there are 15 million feral cats in Australia, and each of them kills around five animals a night - mammals, birds, reptiles, and frogs. The good news is that if sanctuaries are created, the native animal population can bounce back. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy at it's sanctuary ‘Scotia’ has 8,000 square kilometres, cat-free, fenced off with a 6’ fence. It now protects 30% of Australia’s numbat population, and that’s just the numbats. The Conservation Ecology Centre, Cape Otway, is doing valuable research on quolls and koalas. Bush Heritage, Land Care, Trust for Nature and the Australian Conservation Foundation are also working to preserve our native fauna and flora.

Hop up! Wriggle over! is dedicated to Wendy and Alan Reid. Alan has forty years involvement with the Gould League, and fifteen years with the Australian Conservation Foundation. In 2005 he was awarded an AO, the citation – ‘For service to environmental education in Australia’. Alan and Wendy have welcomed friends and family to Flinders Island, in Bass Straight, for wonderful holidays and adventures.

Amongst other Gould League publications Alan wrote the Banksias & Bilbies nature diary. This well-used copy is kept by our friend John Golding, who observes the round of the seasons from year to year, in the Otways.