Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary to reopen on Saturday September 1 after closure in March 2013
WARRAWONG Wildlife Sanctuary will reopen to the public on September 1, the first day of spring, after 2011 days of closure.
- 2010: Zoos SA partners with Ngarrindjeri people
- 2013: Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary closes
- 2017: Sanctuary acquired by WA couple
- 2018: Sanctuary goes on tour with mobile program
WARRAWONG Wildlife Sanctuary owners are embracing an enormous challenge to restore the much-loved nature tourism attraction while opening the gates to the public for the first time in five and a half years.
Narelle MacPherson said it was a “mad rush” to prepare for Saturday’s opening, even after 18 months on the job.
“It’s a pretty big challenge so it’s a little bit nerve-wracking,” she said.
“Years down the track we’ll still be working hard to finish what we started.”
The WA couple purchased the property from the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority in January 2017, long after tenants Zoos SA shut the gates to the public on March 31, 2013.
David Cobbold said the Spring opening was exciting but also terrifying.
“It’s great, it’s wonderful, we’re so happy, but there’s so much work to do,” he said.
“We could be here forever finetuning things or we could just open the door and it is what it is.
“We’re going for the latter option because we need the cash flow in order to do all of the work.”
Unfortunately the famous feral-proof fence has failed, with a fox now inside the fence, feasting on possums and potoroos.
“We do have a fox on the property at the moment, it has decimated the potoroo population,” he said.
“We had dozens of potoroos eating in that cafe garden, they were getting so tame you could hand feed them and I haven’t seen one for a month.”
Mr Cobbold said he had dissected fox scats and found possum claws inside.
“The youngest part of the fence is 36 years old, which is a very long time for a bit of chicken wire to be in contact with dirt,” he said.
“So the fox has walked its way along Stock Road having a scratch every couple of metres, it’s found a weak spot and got under.”
Zoos SA relocated many of the animals before they walked away from the partnership with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority.
But they left a few behind including potoroos, bandicoots and various types of wallabies.
The property is also home to “free-ranging” koalas and platypus.
Other animals housed on site and often taken out on tour with Warrawong2U include rufous bettongs, possums, a snake, owl and talkative cockatoo.