Letter to the editor
My Time on Kangaroo Island
I headed over to Kangaroo island (KI) early in the New Year looking for a week or so of reading a book, doing some walks, bike rides and generally having a relax. Instead what I experienced was 2½weeks of volunteering at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park and Aquarium run by Sam and Dana Mitchell after the bushfires in January 2020. This fire was started by a lightning strike in late December and burnt most of the Flinders Chase National Park, caused significant stock losses, destroyed more than 60 homes and a hundred of other buildings and the deaths of 2 locals.
Large contingents of volunteer firefighters, army personnel and volunteers all pulled together to help local residents, their stock and the wildlife. I worked long hours, learnt how to wrangle a koala, feed joeys and generally look after injured wildlife. I met and worked with a wonderful group of people, many of whom I have kept in contact since leaving. The work we did made a huge difference to the large numbers of native wildlife that was bought into the park, most of which were koalas.
A day or so after my arrival on KI I heard that there was callout for volunteers for a variety of different jobs. As I’m a Registered Nurse I thought I could help out at the local hospital and I also volunteer at the Adelaide Zoo and am a member of Fauna Rescue looking after injured animals to then release them so had experience with animals. I was asked if I was happy to travel out to Parndana to the wildlife park as they were beginning to get some burnt animals in and needed help. Local resident, Phoebe and I headed out the first day and after a tour around the park started off by feeding bottles to the koala joeys.
Every day I would get out to the park by around 8.30am and then start working on anything from cleaning out cages, getting fresh water, moving koalas to and from the hospital, helping to change bandages, give subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate them, triage injured animals as they were bought in by locals and rescuers, organise fresh brush and helping to sort through the immense amount of goods that were donated by people from everywhere. Early on in my time there we had to evacuate from the park as another fire came through the area but although a lot of the area was burnt, the park and nearby township of Parndana escaped unscathed. However, as some of the photos will show the road and surrounding area out did not.
After the first week, my daughter Lara joined me on the island to help as well. She is 17 years old and loves all animals. Currently she is doing Year 12 at Urrbrae so felt she could help out and learn something as well. I believed she enjoyed her time out there, met a variety of people including ‘Vet on the Hill’ star Scott, but obviously saw some animals with severe injuries that needed to be euthanized.
During the time that I spent there so many animals came through the park that we had to increase the numbers of enclosures for the immediate care of the burnt koalas, have new ‘soft release’ enclosures built and work out where koalas could be released once they were given the all clear by the vets. A hospital was needed, and this was one of the first things that Sam and Dana organised by buying a transportable which was then bought over by ferry and placed out near the enclosures. Up till this arrived we used a table in a small garden shed, the kitchen in the park, a table in the outdoor eating area and finally an inflatable hospital. After I had left, people from ‘The Block’ on Channel 9 came over and built a house in a week for the koala joeys which up till then were all living in Sam and Dana’s lounge room. This experience is something I will remember for the rest of my life and I hope to return to the park very soon to help once again and see firsthand the changes and how everyone is.
Barb
