Wildlife Rescue

Yesterday we had a big one. A day of do good and feel good starting with a trip to Derwent bridge for Queenstown, Zeehan and Rosebery daycare recipients. We picked up at the Queenstown hospital and travelled to the amazing Wall in the Wilderness.

After taking in the wonder we drove to the Derwent Bridge Hotel for lunch where I was pleased to be informed that coach drivers are FOC. 'Oh how good' I thought, as I would of course being the coach driver. It's a little coach with just 14 seats but a coach nonetheless.

It is a good feeling knowing that these people and their carers had such a nice day.

Back to Queenstown, now running late which seems to be becoming the norm lately but hey, when you provide a service for paying customers which is expected to be an enjoyable one ya just can't rush 'em.

A call comes in for an afternoon pick up from Corinna and transport some track walkers back to their vehicles at Temma.... That's a bit of a travel for us but yeah OK lets go.

So fair to say we are had a really good day about to round out nicely by driving through to Burnie and enjoying a relaxing drive home with pizza. About 10.30pm, nearly home as we drove over the Yolande River bridge then on up the hill we encounter someone riding a bicycle. As we drove around I was thinking 'what a nutter, riding a bike out here at night' when I just glimpsed a Pademelon that had just been hit and killed which was obvious from the still red blood from the poor unfortunate creature on the road. 'I should check that one' I thought, but it looked too big to be a female. Female Pademelons are smaller than males and the last two we had checked got me a hand full of plums instead of a pouch, let alone a joey.

I thought I just saw something move, did I? I asked myself.

I drove on, there was no place close to pull off the road anyway but I thought about it as I drove into the Q and couldn't stop thinking about it. I pulled up at The Anchorage, sighed and said 'Azz, you go in and I'll go back and check it out'. I would only have thought about it all night so 'just go check' I told myself. It only took me a few minutes to drive back and by the time I arrived there was this tiny, pathetic little joey sniffing at its mum. Out with the pillow case, on with the gloves and grabbed the little bugger as it was tragically diving back into it's dead mums pouch. As I'm getting disproportionately large hind legs into the makeshift cotton pouch I noticed without doubt this is a little boy Paddy who's unfortunate mum I moved off the road before driving back to town with the bundle on my lap. I could feel the little joey was cold and he would not have lasted much longer alone on the road. He needed warmth which was immediately provided by my lap and tucked under my arm for the rest of the night.

For the best chance of survival this little Paddy needs to get to a care provider, preferably Bonorong, within the next 18 hours. Time to get out the phones, start ringing around and if nobody is going to Hobart well we will have to go. In the meantime there was much cuteness to be adored.

Then our friend Kiah from 'The Ship that Never was' called to say she was heading to Hobart from Strahan and would happily take 'Brutus' (No Kiah...Don't name them!...) to Bonorong on the way.

A memorable day in the world of Wild Tasmania.

Anthony.

#pademelon #wildtasmaniadventure #pinersminers #MountainHeights #wildernesstasmania