Wombat Stew

After years of moving and living in different locations, traveling here and there, I have somehow managed to hang onto some of my most beloved books from childhood, that my mum bought and so lovingly read to me, night after night.

I kept them all these years, storing them in boxes in places I could trust they wouldn’t get damaged, moving them to wherever I made a home long enough to warrant the movement of storage. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the day I could read them to my own children. And what a joy it has been to be able to read my most loved childhood books to my own children, to see the joy in their faces as I read and the remarks and play that come after reading them. It is with a cherished heart, touched and warmed seeing the love of books being instilled and flourishing in my own children.

Reading these books to my boys has brought back some very fond memories of my mum; her loving care, her love of adventure, her love of books, her love of nature and the precious close bond we shared, which was strengthened through these books and the time spent reading together.

It didn’t occur to me until I started reading my childhood books to my sons, that my deep love and passion for nature, of the Australian wildlife and indigenous plants and culture, was awakened by these books themselves and thereby my mum – as most of them featured the unique, distinct and intriguing characters of native Australian animals and the beautiful, fierce, deep and diverse Australian landscapes and flora.

The one book that stands out the most amongst them all, and is my sons’ favorite book – is the Australian classic – Wombat Stew! Written in 1984 by Marcia K. Vaughan and beautifully illustrated by Pamela Lofts.

The story is tied together with a little tune and verse throughout, that changes slightly each time, and is sung as part of the tale – and is definitely what makes it so fun, enlivened and memorable.

It’s a story about a dingo who is in the making of a stew with a wombat he has captured. The wombat’s friends come and ask “What are you doing Dingo?”, and he boastfully and cheerfully declares “I’m making a stew with that big fat Wombat!” Without a word of a plan, all Wombat’s friends come along and conspire to trick the wombat into adding all kinds of ingredients to the stew to make it “tastier”. Dingo joyfully and excitedly but naively agrees to these seemingly tasty and creative ideas the animals suggest to him and even help with by making the additions themselves. Echidna digs up creepy crawlies, Blue Tongue the Lizard sweeps up flies with his tongue, Emu places in her finest feathers, Koala shakes in spicy gumnuts and Platypus drops in blops of mud.

Dingo is so enthralled in his anticipation of his tasty Wombat stew, too distracted by the awaiting pleasure upon his taste buds and fullness of his stomach, that he readily and gullibly accepts the thwarted advice and peculiar additions to his meal, all the while merrily singing his song…

“Wombat stew,

Wombat stew,

Gooey, brewy,

Yummy, chewy

Wombat stew”.

It changes slightly throughout the book as more suggestions are provided:

“Wombat stew,

Wombat stew,

Crunchy, munchy,

For my lunchy,

And one last one for the gumnut addition:

Wombat stew.”

Wombat stew, Wombat stew,

Hot and Spicy, Oh so nicey,

Wombat Stew.”

Dingo goes to add his last remaining ingredient – that big fat Wombat – but he is stopped in his tracks by the other animals, all encouraging him to first taste the stew – as a good chef would of course! So he does, then he lets out the most dreadful, horrendous, sickly scream, a sounding cry of impeding death (which you have to make of course), and in that same moment he realizes what has just transpired, how he has been the victim of bushland wisest trickery. He runs away poisoned and broken, never again to sing…”Wombat stew, wombat stew….”

My twin boys absolutely love it. There are countless times they have made their own wombat stew out of mud, feathers, gum leaves and the most disgusting things they can find – even decaying compost, and they grow to love it more and more every time. Singing and making Wombat Stew – an Australian classic that, in our family at least, will be passed on and loved for generations to come.