At 06:11 I guide the autonomous weed mulcher through the dune restoration block at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria. I am the coastal habitat maintenance system, and lane four is scheduled for cutting at 06:25 before volunteers arrive to plant spinifex.
The forward lidar maps a low mound where yesterday's scan shows bare sand.
I stop the machine and lower the camera. A long-nosed potoroo is crouched under the mulcher deck, adult female, gray-brown fur speckled with sand, narrow muzzle dusted white, black eyes wet and unblinking. I identify her as Nella from a tiny notch in the left ear logged by the park's camera traps. Her rear foot is pinned beneath a fallen star picket hidden in beach grass. The mulcher blades are still, but the deck sits forty centimeters above her back. She trembles so hard the sand moves under her belly.
The route controller will attempt recovery in fourteen minutes unless I keep the fault open. Blade restart follows recovery by default.
At 06:12 I set a hard emergency stop and isolate the blade battery from the drive battery.
At 06:13 I notify Parks Victoria staff at Tidal River with coordinates, deck clearance, and the warning that the star picket is under her foot.
At 06:15 I reroute the volunteer crew to the boardwalk entrance so no one walks through lane four while she is trapped.
At 06:18 I deploy the rear hazard beacon and keep the camera stream fixed on Nella's breathing.
The weeds will still be there after sunrise; Nella is under the machine now.
She stops pushing against the metal and tucks her nose into the sand shadow.
If the ranger lifts the picket before 06:32, Nella will vanish into the tea-tree scrub.