The concept of irony is often misused, it happens to be a personal pet-hate of mine when used in the wrong context.
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A sequence of events that, although accidental, seems to have been planned or arranged, pertains to situational irony, which is the topic for today.
Driving along the Barton Highway early Friday morning on my way to work, I love to look out over the beautiful countryside that is the Yass Valley. The injection of spring has put an electric vibrance in the landscape, making the trip much more bearable at ridiculous o'clock in the morning. This particular spring morning, I found myself involved in a collision on the notorious highway.
A kangaroo hopped out onto the road in front of a car, the car ran into the animal, subsequently followed by a semi-trailer that managed to stop in time. My 20-year-old Mazda failed to slow down and unfortunately did a friendly love-tap into the back of the trailer, totalling the front of my car.
It is the first car accident I have ever been involved in, and if it’s the only one, I am extremely lucky. I exited the car, quite shaken up, and the poor kangaroo was in the middle of the road, leg broken in three different spots and trying to hop away. I will spare the description of blood and gore, but will say that it was heart breaking to see this poor animal scared and trying to flee.
One of the cars that had stopped, got a golf club from the back of his car, ready to put the poor thing out of its misery. Lucky for all those present, a couple of cars back, a vet was also heading towards Yass and stopped to give the kangaroo an injection. At the time I was trying to be helpful, offering to assist in anyway possible, in hindsight I realise it was the rantings of a madwoman - or someone suffering shock.
I eventually got to work, having my old girl towed away for the first and final time, to my lovely colleagues standing at the door to greet me with fridays paper, and my front page article ‘Barton in NSW top five’. That, dear readers, is the perfect example of situational irony.
I know many residents that drive through the Yass Valley and it’s surrounding regions have noticed the abundance of kangaroo carcuses along the road. Kangaroo culling is an issue that continues to divide Australians, some insisting that it is necessary to keep the population under control and others that believe it to be cruel and unnecessary.
In the Yass Valley region our Kangaroo population is quite large. This can lead to environmental damage such as degradation of native grassland areas, damage to crops and fences, and also, as I am assuredly aware, hazards on roads. The process behind culling involves licensed hunters following strict guidelines.
On the other hand there is the question about animal cruelty. Do we have the right to decide what can live or die, purely on the whim that they are an inconvenience? Particularly as they have lived in harmony with the land here for millions of years.
There is a sense of irony in this itself, our Australian icon is the kangaroo, proudly displayed on our coat of arms, is that something that we want to eliminate for our convenience? However, we can all be assured that there will always be a place for our kangaroos within the confines of the zoo.
With a compelling argument on either end of this discussion, one thing is certain, while the poor animal was trying painfully to hop off the road, cars were banked up on either side of the two laned highway. This was a mild inconvenience for motorists, if we were unable to get our vehicles off the road, there would definitely have been some anxious drivers.
If it is the Barton getting its revenge, or proof that my reflexes are far too slow, more realistically it was just another accident on the highway. Either way I am grateful no one was hurt. There is a definite need for a duplication of the road - but shhh, don’t let the Barton know I said that again.