The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve has welcomed home four southern brush-tailed rock-wallabies, nearly five months after their evacuation due to the January bushfires in Orroral Valley.
Months of preparation in late 2019 and early 2020 allowed the wallabies to be evacuated within 48 hours, when the threat of bushfires reached the area, and they have since been kept at Mt Rothwell, a conservation and research reserve in Victoria.
Senior wildlife officer Jenny Pierson said she was happy to welcome the wallabies home after their five-month stay.
"Everyone is aware of the technical aspects of moving these animals and minimising their stress and I am very impressed by how the staff pulled off an evacuation and return program like this," Dr Pierson said.
The wildlife officers' goal is to ensure the animals know how to live in the wild with minimal or no human interaction, and they monitor the animals using cameras, only intervening if there is a need to.
"The wallabies are amazingly resilient, because they have to be when they're in the wild, and they are doing very well after the move," Dr Pierson said.
ACT Environment and Heritage Minister Mick Gentleman commended the effort by all staff to ensure the safety of the animals and minimise their stress during the evacuation and return.
"It is a success story for conservation, and it is also a success story of cross-jurisdiction collaboration and the partnership between the Victorian and ACT governments," Mr Gentleman said.
He also announced that the Tidbinbilla Visitor's Centre had reopened following the bushfires and the COVID-19 restrictions, and that it had undergone some improvements while the restrictions were in place.
"Whilst COVID has been happening, the visitor centre has been upgraded, including new floors, improved fencing, and new opportunities for people to interact with the centre and the reserve," Mr Gentleman said.
The area was declared predator-free on June 8 to the relief of Tidbinbilla staff who spent hours looking through thousands of images taken by their cameras set up in the area before the wallabies could return.
After the wallabies were moved in January, the enclosure gates were left open to allow other animals to escape if the fire came through the area, but this meant the enclosures became compromised to the threat of predators like feral cats and foxes.
The wallabies will undergo a 60-day quarantine process before they can be released to their free-range enclosures, to ensure they are not carrying any diseases they might have picked up during their time at Mt Rothwell.
The next steps will be to stimulate the wallabies' population growth by restarting the breeding process which was delayed due to the evacuation.
