Catastrophic start to the year for wildlife too

Our year of 2026 has not begun with the prosperity one wishes for both ourselves and others when we celebrate the New Year.

Sadly, catastrophic weather conditions have played havoc in different areas of our country with areas in Victoria facing heat events, high winds and fire as well as catastrophic flooding along the southern coast at the same time. Weather patterns are becoming more and more chaotic, extreme and unpredictable.

The planet we live on has always endured drastic climate upheaval and change. It has been the driving force of mass extinction events since life began on Earth.

The difference this time round is the accelerated pace in which things are changing. Even the most ‘sudden’ climatic changes in Earth’s history have previously taken a couple of hundred thousand years to eventuate but now the consequences of our activities on the planet have altered things at an alarming rate. Our vegetation, our soils, our rivers and seas have all been degraded, depleted or totally destroyed. The conditions we are seeing are due to an imbalance of the system and I don’t think we’re just on the verge of wheels being set in motion; we are in it for the ride now with the horses bolting before us.

January for Bohollow has been an extremely taxing one. 

The first heat event this year . . .  well we all know how that went, three major fires in the state, one in particular only a bit over an hour away. The Longwood fire had disastrous effects on dear friends who are shelter operators with one losing all shelter infrastructure, including her own house. Another had to evacuate, not knowing if when they returned there would be anything to return to.

Fire puts fear into us all. 

Fire for a wildlife shelter is our worst imaginable nightmare. The animals we deal with are not those who can be easily all be caught up, transported and ferried to safety elsewhere. Just as farmers with stock who cannot be herded and transported in a hurry, the only thing to do is open gates, cut fences and hope they get out in time.

Just before this last heat wave week, I was called to help out on a couple of private properties on request of the landowners to search for wildlife affected by the fire.

As we were heading back out of the fire-ground, Amanda from Strathbogie Wildlife Shelter received a call for a roo needing urgent help on a private property in one of the worst fire affected areas. We changed direction and headed in. Heading into hot ground is a surreal and harrowing experience, realising the loss people have suffered and knowing the loss of wildlife and habitat sits heavy in your heart as you wind through the devastation.

When we arrived at the property, we were met with Peter, the landowner. The young roo had chosen the remnants of the house to lie down, right where the veranda once was, basically to die.

Despite losing the house, sheds, contents, everything on the property, it was the plight of this poor, starving little roo that brought Peter to tears. We did everything we could on location to try stabilise the young roo and transported him back to Bohollow for intensive care with Deb, promising as we left that we would return the following day to assist Peter further.

Despite care and effort, the little male roo was just too far gone to be pulled back from the brink of death and sadly did not make it.

Next day we transported hay and chaff to a property where we’d found evidence of active animals and then went back to Peter’s.

We covered much of his land and found lots of evidence of wildlife searching for food that wasn’t to be found. The day was spent putting feed down all over the property where we knew critters had been searching. I don’t think there is much flat land on Peter’s place! It was hot, hard work which tested the stamina.

Peter has put up trail cams on some of the feed stations. The same day we put feed out, Peter bought a stack of hard plastic kiddie pools and set up water stations around the place. He set up trail cams on a number of feed/water stations to do a bit of research on whether what we are doing actually works and who will use the support.

First night, wallabies, wombats, roos. Next day birds joined in. It is helping and allows these animals to remain in their territories until things reshoot and regrow.

Peter’s land is a valuable research station for us to learn more about what we can do in the aftermath of fire, in areas where food sources have been decimated. We can guess what is needed based on what we find out on fire-ground but to have real live evidence of what works and what species are utilising feed stations is valuable so we don’t waste resources.

Work like this is truly a team effort. Peter and his wife have gone above and beyond to help the wildlife on their land survive the aftermath of the fire. He felt despondent that it was a hopeless situation for those that may be left, he felt that nothing could have survived. That poor little roo deciding to lay down on his doorstep that day awakened him to the fact that there was no food for the animals to eat.

Being able to help the wildlife which shares the land with him, Peter has rediscovered hope and it’s given him a drive to be proactive. He is making a huge difference.

Peter says he had no idea of what he could do to help and didn’t think he could do anything, before we met him that day. We did the initial day’s work but as soon as he knew what to do, Peter has kept everything going. I receive daily updates and to share the excitement and joy of seeing first hand what a difference we can all make is heartening.

Heartening and hope is exactly what we all need in what has been a pretty rough month for wildlife and people alike.

Massive thanks to Beau, Daniel and Odin for doing most of the hard lifting out on the field, to fellow carers and rescuers Amanda and Bronwyn with whom we joined forces to make up our small fire-ground crew.

I am sure the entire wildlife carer community shares the appreciation and thanks I feel for the amazing support that’s been given to wildlife shelters and rescuers all over the state the last few weeks in so many different forms.