Dubbo zoo: Platypus Conservation Centre development plans lodged

Plans for a new centre in regional NSW, to help save platypuses at risk of death due to drought, bushfires and other climate threats, have been revealed.

Dubbo is set to become home to the largest platypus rescue facility in Australia, as part of plans to help save the species from the threat of extinction.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo has lodged a development application with Dubbo Regional Council to build an $8.8 million Platypus Conservation Centre, which the zoo’s director Steve Hinks says will be of national and international significance.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo director Steve Hinks says the Platypus Conservation Centre will help save the species. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“This new Platypus Conservation Centre will be the first of-its-kind dedicated to this species and will have the capacity to hold more platypus than all the zoos and wildlife parks combined,” Mr Hinks said.

“No comparable facility exists that can support a catchment scale rescue of platypus. In the event of severe drought, the facility has the capacity to hold an insurance population large enough to prevent local extinction.”

Up to 65 platypuses will be cared for in a refuge at the Conservation Centre, which Mr Hinks said would include a state-of-the-art smart lab researchers will use to monitor reproductive behaviour and platypus biology “like never before”.

“The catalyst for this development was the black summer bushfires and recent severe drought,” he said.

“Taronga Zoo received urgent requests from landholders and government agencies to rescue platypus stuck in dried up streams between fire fronts during these climate events.

“With climate change only predicted to increase the frequency and intensity of these events, this Conservation Centre is ensuring capacity to secure a future for the platypus.”

Plans for the Platypus Conservation Centre at Dubbo. Picture: Dugald Saunders MP

If action is not taken, platypus numbers in the wild are predicted to plummet by 50 per cent over the next 50 years, Mr Hinks says.

“Drought and climate change are major threats to platypus viability and future in Australia and the threat we are combating with the development of the Platypus Conservation Centre.

“Platypus suffer from additional threats such as urbanisation, river pollution and entanglement in anthropogenic debris, such as yabby traps.”

An artists impression of the Platypus Conservation Area. Picture: Troppo Architects

According to the DA plans lodged with council, the Platypus Conservation Centre will also include an exhibit and walk-through area for tourists to see the animals in action for the first time at the zoo, which does not currently house platypuses.

The Platypus Conservation Centre has been funded by the NSW Government and if council approves the development it’s set to open in 2022.