Category: Brush Tail Rock Wallaby

Reports on the Brush Tail Rock Wallaby re-introduction

2025 Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby post Grampians fires

2025 From Sarah Cole:

Gariwerd Pest Plant Project Officer

In the coming weeks, until we have sufficient rain to stimulate the growth of foraging foods, we are supplying some supplementary macropod foods via helicopter to our Critically Endangered Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby colony. Gariwerd is home to one of only two colonies in Victoria and its numbers are estimated to be around 20 individuals. Supplementary feeding is not always recommended and only applied in very specific circumstances, we are working with DEECA, researchers and Zoos Victoria and our feeding rates and schedules are overseen by veterinarians with wildlife specialities.

We are currently working on a weekly cycle and we would like to invite FOGG members to work in partnership with Halls Gap Landcare to create the food supplies.

There are positions available for FOGG / Halls Gap Landcare members for Tuesday mornings to assist in the packing of the foods.

We … Read the rest

Brush – Tailed Rock Wallaby site

2019 October

Rock Wallabies:

A new ranger is looking after this (Derek Sandow) and funding has been extended. There are five animals remaining, one of them is a male. In September a new young male is planned to be introduced.

Two new males were released in September 2019.… Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Site

2017 August

We hope many of you watched the recent news on TV or heard some of the interviews on radio.

A story about the Moora Creek rock-wallaby colony featured on Sunday night 12 March ABC news bulletin. It was shown in at least South Australia, QLD, NSW and possibly ACT. An online extract can be viewed in the link below.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-12/rock-wallaby-joey-gives-hope-in-western-victoria/8347322

 … Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Update

2013 Ryan Duffy
Team Leader, Cultural And Natural Values

Since November 2012, the Grampians rock-wallaby reintroduction has experienced its share of highs and lows. November  saw the largest single release of wallabies to date, with 17 animals being released at Moora Creek. This was part of a new strategy to introduce greater genetic diversity into the population which was anticipated to alleviate depressed breeding. This was certainly a high for the diverse partners involved in the Victorian Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby recovery team.

Soon after the release the program experienced a steady succession of mortalities. Wallabies are radio-tracked on a regular basis, mortalities are retrieved as quickly as possible in order to aid post mortem investigation. Few post mortems delivered conclusive results, however it appears fox predation is still one process threatening the reintroduced colony. This is despite Parks Victoria’s Grampians Ark fox baiting program delivering a Rolls Royce fox control program … Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Update

2011 Emily Bedggood
RESEARCH: A new PhD Student has begun looking at some of the important factors impacting upon reintroduction success and failure for rock-wallabies. Rebecca West began her PhD with the University of Adelaide and Conservation Ark—Zoos SA in March 2010.
She is looking at two species of rock-wallabies; the Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in the Grampians National Park, now in their third year of reintroduction and Black-footed Rock-wallabies (known to traditional owners as Warru) who will be reintroduced to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia this year.
Rebecca is using GPS collars to monitor the movement patterns of wallabies at each site to assess how they use the habitat and how they interact with one another. This will provide critical information on the possible capacity of each site and the effects of population density.
At both sites Rebecca is using experimental patch burns to look at how … Read the rest

Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby News

October was a busy month for those involved with Brush-tailed Rock wallabies. Camera work has proven useful in monitoring our first wild born pouch young Shadow’s progress. Photos showed him hopping in and out of his mother’s pouch and exploring while his mother feeds.

Only half of the population was trapped in our Autumn trapping trip so that there was no risk of trapping Shadow. Three females and a male were trapped. They were all healthy and a little male pouch young was found in animal 118’s pouch. He was about a month old at the time and a very good sign that the population is settling into their new home.

On the 20th of October five more wallabies were released into the colony. Two males and three females joined the 13 animals already at the Moora Moora creek site. The animals were fitted with GPS collar with a VHF … Read the rest

First Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby pouch young in the Grampians

The first wild-born pouch young for the population of captive bred Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies reintroduced into the Grampians National Park in 2008 was discovered in the April trapping work. The 10 day old newborn brings hope for a critically endangered species facing extinction in Victoria.

Department of Sustainability and Environment Biodiversity Officer Emily Beddgood said the research team was ecstatic to find the pouch young during routine trapping.
“It’s very exciting. The birth shows that the Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies are adapting to their new habitat and it is the first sign we have had that they are on the way to becoming a second self sustaining population of animals in Victoria,” she said. There is an existing population of about 20 animals in remote East Gippsland.

Ms Bedggood said animals were regularly monitored using radio collars, remote surveillance cameras and were trapped for health checks every six months. “We started … Read the rest