Vale Eudy: Warrnambool’s penguin guardian legend

Oddball made them famous but Eudy - who died this week - and his sister Tula were the true penguin guardian trailblazers.

Middle Island Penguin Project co-ordinator Trish Corbett with Tula, sister of Eudy who died this week. The two maremmas were the original guard dogs on the Warrnambool island.

When Eudy and her maremma sister Tula were first put on Middle Island at Warrnambool 10 years ago, fox attacks had decimated the penguin colony to such a degree there were only four left.

By the 2016-17 season, the colony had grown to more than 200, such was the impact the sisters had in protecting their little feathered friends from predators.

There has been an outpouring of grief in Warrnambool this week that has been shared worldwide with news Eudy had died, aged 12.

Eudy guarded the penguins up until this past summer, while Tula was retired after eight years of service.

Their names, incidentally, come from the scientific name for Little Penguins - eudyptula.

Eudy, right, and her sister Tula, the penguin guardian maremma dogs from Middle Island at Warrnambool.

The story of the Middle Island Penguin Project was made famous by the 2015 film Oddball, named after the first maremma to be trialled as a penguin guardian on the island.

But Eudy and Tula are the true heroes of the story.

“Oddball ... was on the island for not even four weeks but she did show the project would work. But she didn’t stay on the project long-term,” Dr Corbett said.

“Eudy and Tula have been the project. They were the first pups trained to protect Middle Island and have been doing so ever since.

“They’ve now trained the new generation of guardians to take over from them.

“We should have a movie about them.”

Eudy was a character. She hated thunderstorms, and was always taken off the island if they were forecast. But if a storm hit unannounced, Eudy took things into her own paws.

“She’d get up off the boardwork, swim back across to Stingray Bay and she’d run around waiting for someone to pick her up,” Dr Corbett said.

“She wouldn’t go too far because she was so attached to the island and to Tula.

“As she got older, if she just decided she didn’t want to be there any more she’d get herself off.

“One of the times both of them escaped the island the police got them - they both ended up in the back of the divvy van.”

Eudy the original penguin guardian maremma on Middle Island at Warrnambool has died.

The public outpouring of emotion over Eudy’s death has been wide-reaching.

“We’ve had so many beautiful condolence messages and beautiful comments from people ... all around the world, not just people in Warrnambool,” Dr Corbett said. “They’ve touched the hearts literally of people all around the world.”

A public memorial will be held in Warrnambool for Eudy, once Covid restrictions are eased.

A small private ceremony will be held separately to spread Eudy’s ashes on Middle Island.

“She’ll be returned to her island home,” Dr Corbett said.

“She was so happy getting back to the island every time so it really was where she was most happy. It will be beautiful to return her there.”