Mudpoo and the Magic Tree Stump

by Peter Klein

  CAPTAIN PETE lives in the sleepy hillside village of Bethanga, on a small hobby farm with his wife Narelle and daughter Isabella. They share their home with a happy cluster of farmyard animals, including: horses, chickens, an alpaca, sheep, a goat, a cat and a dog. Pete has performed as a bush poet and a musician in the Albury-Wodonga area for over thirty years. He is an award-winning songwriter/poet and has been a teacher at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus School. He is currently teaching Creative Music at Belvoir Special School. Pete also visits schools as a performer, where he shares his enthusiastic creative skills with teachers, parents and students!

  LEON De MONTIGNIE’’s astute observation of life in Australia is recorded in his many detailed drawings and paintings. His unique artwork adorns buildings, homes and schools across Australia. His vast travels and life experiences often allow him to create his artwork from memory alone. Amazingly, he completed all of his illustrations without seeing a word of the text!

  Your adventures with Mudpoo and friends don’t stop here!

  There’s so much more to see, hear and do online.

  Whether you’re a young adventurer like Mudpoo, or a grown-up teacher like

  Captain Pete, so long as you’re a friend of Mudpoo’s, you’re invited to come and visit our website for stories, activities, songs, recipes and much, much more . . .

  We hope to see you very soon right here:

  www.mudpoo.com.au

  For Isabella, Logan, and in Memory of Opi

  Acknowledgments

  I wish to acknowledge the Yaegel elders, past and present, as the traditional land managers of the Iluka World Heritage Nature Reserve. I also acknowledge the people of the Iluka community, past and present, who have been dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Iluka rainforest and its inhabitants.

  Thank you to Kay Jeffery, for her insightful assistance during the planning stages of writing this book, to Rod for his helpful suggestions and to Leon for his breathtaking drawings. Thank you to Sam and Todd for their inspiration for the original Mudpoo Adventure stories and to Narelle, for her beautiful patience and support. Thank you to my parents, Heinz and Eleonore, who have taught me the importance of perseverance.

  Mupoo and the Magic Tree Stump

  Written by Peter Klein

  Illustrated by Leon de Montignie

  Published by JoJo Publishing

  ‘Yarra’s Edge’

  2203/80 Lorimer Street

  Docklands VIC 3008

  Australia

  Email: jo-media@bigpond.net.au

  or visit www.jojopublishing.com

  © 2012 JoJo Publishing

  No part of this printed or video publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner:

  JoJo Publishing

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data

  Klein, Peter.

  Mupoo and the Magic Tree Stump / Peter Klein ; illustrator, Leon deMontignie. Edited by Riima Daher

  978-0-9872959-0-3 (ePub).

  For primary school age.

  Adventure stories--Juvenile fiction.

  deMontingie, Leon.

  A823.4

  Edited by Riima Daher

  Designed by Adam Laszczuk

  Welcome! If you’ve read ‘The (true) Adventures of Mudpoo’, then you’ll already know who most of the characters are, but in this adventure, there are some more interesting characters to meet . . .

  MUDPOO is a happy, curious, five year old boy who loves exploring and discovering everything old and new, wherever he may be. He helps Captain Pete, Gus and Harry the dog, with all of their adventures and is (for some reason unknown to me) trusted by all animals; especially humpback whales.

  CAPTAIN PETE is an inventor and an explorer who loves going camping in his Kombi van called Gus. With help from Gus, Captain Pete shows Mudpoo and Harry some great places to explore. Just between you and me, he gets a little muddled sometimes, but he always tries to be helpful. Sometimes he makes yummy jam and he loves eating Pavlova!

  GUS is like a little house on wheels and at times (sshhh . . . this is a secret) he has been known to talk! He is officially a VW Kombi van, but he really only answers to the name ‘Gus’.

  HARRY is a rugged and reliable little dog who is fiercely loyal to Mudpoo, Captain Pete and Gus. He loves adventures and is never afraid to get his feet dirty, much to Captain Pete’s dismay when he brings mud into the house. He is one of only two talking dogs in the world. If you know about more send us a message! (www.mudpoo.com.au)

  LIZ is a family friend who lives in Nambour in Queensland. She sometimes goes adventuring with all of our Mudpoo friends. She’ll never miss an adventure if it involves watching humpback whales, or sitting around a campfire and eating Pavlova.

  ROD is an old friend of Captain Pete who writes amazing bush poetry. Shhhh, I’ll tell you a secret . . . he makes a great damper. Maybe I can ask him to share the recipe with you and me? He lives with Jess and loves blueberry pie.

  JESS is Rod’s dog and has saved Rod’s life twice (but that’s another story . . . or two). Jess can talk and do amazing tricks. She is very clever and a loyal friend to all boys and girls and animals who try to do their best (a bit like you).

  GRUMBLEGOO is . . . err . . . well . . . oh . . . ??? Maybe I’ll just let you read the story and discover who she is for yourself.

  Nobody was really certain where Grumblegoo, the smartest, scariest creature in the rainforest had come from, nor how she got there. It seemed she had lived there for as long as anyone could remember. Some say that she hid and lurked around the riverbeds, emerging only at nightfall to emit terrifying, bloodcurdling yowls that made your hair stand up straight on the back of your neck. If you ventured too near to her home you would be gobbled up as a tasty snack. Mind you, no-one I spoke to said that they’d actually seen her, just that, well . . . she did exist and that here is a story to prove it. Despite all of her fearsome ways, the animals of the rainforest loved and respected Grumblegoo. After all, she really did care for their forest. Grumblegoo wasn’t that ugly, nor could you say she was handsome, she just looked . . . well . . . kind of scary.

  On her head she had three sharp, pointy spikes, two bulging, bloodshot eyes and two powerful, curly horns. Her mouth and nose looked like a huge beak and contained sharp, ferocious, pointy teeth. She had a long, colourful, stripy tail that swished as she walked along on her powerful claw-like feet.

  Her whole body was covered in a kind of leathery-feathery material and she had sharp and dangerous claw-like hands. Her voice kind of frothed and garbled when she talked (a bit like what you sound like when you try to talk while brushing your teeth) and when she screamed and shrieked, it sounded worse than what mum, or dad sound like when they scream and shriek that you’ve put mud on their best, clean carpet!

  Okay . . . now back to the story. It was a long, long time ago when a magical Karri seed flew through the air from the far away Western Australian coast.

  It twisted, swirled and danced through air, high above the clouds, never resting. It flew high over the Simpson Desert and the Macdonnell Ranges, higher still over Uluru, until finally it descended, ever so gently, to land right at the feet of Grumblegoo; the guardian of the rainforest.

  ‘My, my,’ thought Grumblegoo, ‘this is something grand . . . a Karri seed, so far away from home, this can only mean one thing . . . it must be magical!’

  It might have been sheer luck, or it might have been something magical, but it just so happened to arrive on Gru
mblegoo’s birthday.

  “What a jolly good present,” said Grumblegoo to herself, “I’ll plant this seed and watch it grow into a tall and proud Karri tree, right in the middle of my favourite forest.”

  Grumblegoo lived in an amazing rainforest that she shared with many other forest creatures, which is now called the ‘Iluka Nature Reserve’, but at the time that this part of the story took place (over 500 years ago), Grumblegoo simply called it ‘Iluka’, which means: ‘my home near the sea’.“Grow well my friend,” whispered Grumblegoo, as she very carefully planted the seed.

  Every evening, curious koalas, slithering snakes, small, google-eyed goannas, and perky, prancing possums would sit and watch Grumblegoo as she watered and chatted to her ‘magical birthday seed.’ Her seed grew into a little tree, then the tree grew a little more and a little more, until it grew into the biggest, strongest Karri tree that anyone had ever seen.

  I’ve never seen it myself, but a friend of mine told me that it became humungous!

  Grumblegoo was proud of her magical tree and would sit quietly under it each evening and think about her world. She loved her world, the rainforest where she lived, the nearby ocean, the humpback whales that swam by each spring, the forest animals and the local Yaegl people.

  They all lived harmoniously together. She even loved the screeching sulfur-crested cockatoos and the noisy scrub turkeys. Her best friend was a bright-eyed green tree frog, called ‘Foggerty’, who would sit with her each evening, listening to the birds and the rustling of the lizards through the leaves, with the sound of the sea gently humming in the distance.

  Then it happened.

  Some say it was a long time ago, too long to be certain, but it was most probably more than fifty years ago. Suddenly, there was a horrible screeching, screaming sound in the forest. The poor bush creatures were running in all directions, white with fear and crashing into each other trying to find places to hide. Grumblegoo heard the sound too. She was fishing near the Clarence River. She leapt to her feet and ran straight towards the sound.

  A thunderous crashing and crunching sound came from within the forest. Grumblegoo ran as fast as her feet could carry her. When she saw the destruction, her eyes bulged twice the size of her head, her nostrils in her beak flared, her claws glistened, her feathery chest puffed out to twice the size of her body (she was as fearsome as any creature you’d ever wish not to see).

  “YOOOWLOOORRFFF, FROOOWLOOORRFFF” screamed Gumblegoo (louder than ten jumbo jets taking off together). As she got closer to the sound she could see what had happened; some misguided humans with a noisy machine had cut down her magnificent, magical, Karri tree.

  The humans heard Grumblegoo’s roar.

  They didn’t stay long enough to see exactly who, or what it was that was running wildly towards them. They dropped their things in terror and ran. Never were they ever so afraid. Never had they seen, or heard anything that was so scary. They ran over logs and through the forest, any way they could to escape. They were so afraid that they never, ever returned.

  Grumblegoo stopped chasing them eventually... she was more concerned about her beautiful tree. She returned to find all that was left was a tangled mess of limbs, leaves and logs, and a huge tree stump.

  Grumblegoo walked slowly towards what was left of her tree, sat down on the stump and for the first time in her life, she cried.

  It was the next day.

  All of the curious bush creatures were peering out of their hidey-holes towards the shattered, fallen tree. Grumblegoo sat bleary-eyed and sad. She hadn’t moved all night. Foggerty, the green tree frog, gently hopped over to Grumblegoo and landed on her lap. He looked up to see the swollen red eyes of his friend and the dull, sad look on her face. She’d been crying all night.

  “I’ve let everyone down,” murmured Grumblegoo, “especially my tree; it’s my job to protect the forest.”

  Grumblegoo looked miserable as she sat on the tree stump.

  “I wish I could always protect this forest and all its plants and creatures forever, so nothing like this could ever happen again.”

  Grumblegoo was so miserable that she hardly noticed the ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and the shiny swirling dust that flew all around her.

  Foggerty, who could only say, “CROAK” and “RIBBIT” and make other frog sounds, knew his friend was sad. He sat up on the tree stump, wishing there was something he could do, but he was only a little frog!

  ‘I wish I was the world’s smartest frog and that I could talk,’ thought Foggerty sadly.

  Then it happened again . . .the tree stump made a kind of ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and Foggerty was covered in a shiny, swirling dust.

  Startled, Grumblegoo leapt to her feet. It was all over in a second.

  “What was that?” exclaimed Grumblegoo, as she looked at poor, surprised Foggerty.

  “What was that?” repeated Foggerty as he looked back at Grumblegoo.

  “You . . . you . . . you . . . can talk!” yelped Grumblegoo, “You can talk!” she repeated, looking dumbfounded.

  “How . . . ?”

  “I wished I was the smartest frog in the world and that I could talk,” replied Foggerty “and there was a swirling, swooshing sound from the tree stump and then it just happened!”

  “Let me see,” asked Grumblegoo, happily surprised, “I’ll test you with a question.”

  “Go ahead,” replied Foggerty.

  “Who are you and where do we live?” asked Grumblegoo, who was still a little stunned and couldn’t think of anything really clever to ask.

  “I am Foggerty Frog, otherwise known as a green tree frog,” replied Foggerty, “and my scientific name is Litoria caerulea and we live in ‘Iluka Nature Reserve’, which is a World Heritage area in New South Wales, Australia.”

  Suddenly, Grumblegoo stopped being sad and laughed and laughed and as she laughed, her feathers fluffed up and her red eyes glowed.

  “My word you are one smart frog, even if I don’t understand everything you say, but better than that, we have ourselves a ‘MAGIC TREE STUMP’” beamed Grumblegoo.

  “We must keep this our secret,” Grumblegoo told Foggerty, and they both agreed, for now, not to tell anyone.

  Grumblegoo walked with a little skip in her step down to the Clarence River to her favourite hidey-hole to have a well earned sleep. Though she felt sad that her magnificent Karri tree was cut down, she felt sure that if she could understand how the Magic Tree Stump worked its magic, it might prove to be very useful one day.

  That day was much closer than she ever imagined.

  Anyone who has read ‘THE true ADVENTURES OF MUDPOO‘ would understand how excited Mudpoo and Harry were when Captain Pete told them they were going on a camping trip to Iluka (in Bundjalung National Park). They were going to meet up with their old friend Liz and another great old friend; Rod the bush poet and his beautiful blue dog Jess. Gus, the talking Kombi van, was so excited he kept jiggling about.

  “C’mon, pack everything,” said an over-excited Gus (he looked like a little house on wheels).

  “Hmmm,” said Captain Pete scratching his head, “I’d better check my list.”

  He fumbled through his pocket for a crumbled piece of paper where he’d written a list of everything they needed to pack. Most of the items were scattered all around Gus.

  “I’ll call out the item and you find it,” said Captain Pete to Mudpoo and Harry.

  “Three toothbrushes,” said Captain Pete.

  “In they go,” said Harry.

  “Torch,” called out Captain Pete.

  “Yes, in it goes,” said Mudpoo.

  “Map of Victoria and New South Wales,” checked Captain Pete

  “Here it is,” chimed Mudpoo and Harry together.

  “It’s important to check that we have everything we need when we go on a long, adventurous journey,” muttered Captain Pete, “did you know it’s almost one thousand kilometres from our home in Bethanga to Iluka?”

  “Wow that’s far
!” said Harry.

  “Do you think we’ll see our humpback whale friends again?” asked Mudpoo.

  “Well . . . err . . . Iluka is near the coast and humpback whales do pass by there, so you never know,” replied Captain Pete.

  On their last adventure, a humpback whale had rescued Mudpoo’s hat and Mudpoo had taught the whales the tune of a beautiful song called the Blue Danube.

  “I wonder if the whales are still singing” Harry pondered.

  “I hope so. I can’t wait to camp near the ocean!” exclaimed Mudpoo.

  Everyone was kept busy checking and loading, which was made more difficult because Gus was jiggling and chanting, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go . . . ”

  Captain Pete placed the last item inside Gus, and after checking Gus’s tyres, oil and engine, he declared, “We’re ready to go, jump in!”

  “Yippee! Hooray!” shouted Mudpoo and Harry.

  With a Brrooooommm and a Zrroooooomm away they went . . .

  Foggerty, the green tree frog, could not be stopped. He chatted to Grumblegoo every day and seemed to be able to talk, at length, about almost anything.

  “You see, we frogs are amphibians and you’ll find us on all continents on earth, except for Antarctica.”

  “I see,” replied Grumblegoo, pretending to be interested.

  Foggerty went on, “Frogs were the first creatures without a backbone to adapt to life on land.”

  “You don’t say,” replied Grumblegoo, who tried not to appear rude.

  Grumblegoo loved chatting to Foggerty Frog, but there were times when she wished he wasn’t quite so smart. It seemed he was getting smarter every day and couldn’t wait to tell Grumblegoo every new fact he learnt, as soon as he learnt it.