Inside the sanctuary of Trowunna Wildlife Park | Photos

Their opposing calls ring out through the Meander Valley park, puncturing the still winter day.

Trowunna Wildlife Park was established in 1979, and is nestled in a natural “wildlife corridor” – a site that encompasses highlands, midlands, and forest environment zones.

Its entrance from Mole Creek Road is flagged by a giant Tasmanian devil.

And indeed, that is how many Tasmanians would identify with the park.

It has been a heavy player in the Tasmanian devil conservation program since efforts began to establish insurance populations, about 15 years ago.

The park is now into its 17^th generation of devil breeding, and is home to about 40 devils currently.

However, it’s ready to shift its focus onto some of Tasmania and Australia’s other threatened species.

“The whole focus for the last 15 years has been on the devils,” park director Androo Kelly said.

“And devils have proved that they are much more resilient than thought.”

The park recently built new spaces for its quolls, to enable the park to focus on a quoll breeding program, sanctuary manager Emily Duggan said.

Trowunna is now home to both Tasmanian species of quolls – the spotted tail, and the Eastern.

“They’re really important in terms of key species for Tasmania,” Ms Duggan said.

Through funding and support, the park has been able to look beyond devils, she said.

“We’re now at a point where we can give other Tasmanian species some ‘air time’,” she said.

It’s a tricky situation for Eastern quolls, she explained, as they are listed as endangered on an international level, but not on a state level.

She said factors such as roadkill and habitat clearing had led to a 50 per cent decimation in the population over the past 10 years.

It’s feral cats that the park is seeing having the biggest impact on native animal numbers – especially those smaller mammals.

For quolls, the feral cats are predators, and competitors for prey.

They also spread toxoplasmosis, a potentially fatal parasitic disease.

The smaller members of the marsupial macropod family have also been hit heavily by increasing feral cat numbers, Mr Kelly said.

As he serves lunch to Trowunna’s bettongs and potoroos, who are in the process of rehabilitation, he explains the massive numbers decline that both species have experienced.

Both are known as “rat-kangaroos”, due to their miniature size and likeness to kangaroos.

And both are prime prey for feral cats.

The bettongs are the only nest-building kangaroo – Mr Kelly points out the conical nests they have built in grassy tussocks.

“This means they’re much more vulnerable to predation,” he said.

“These are the species that are in massive decline … because they’re (small) they’re total cat and fox food.”

Indeed, they’ve already been wiped out in other Australian states.

In Tasmania, their population has been decimated.

“Anecdotally, and I’d love to get the science behind it, I’ve heard from some elderly gentlemen, in the 80s, they were saying when they were young, bettongs were very common in the Western Tiers area,” Mr Kelly said.

“But by the mid-80s, they were an uncommon sight.

“[Through conservation work] we have been about to see that population grow.

“I think we underestimate sometimes that these small species lack the population … It wouldn’t take much for them to go over the edge.”

Since Trowunna’s beginnings, it has focused on three core values: conservation, education, and rescue-rehabilitation.

Injured animals that are rescued by Trowunna are rehabilitated and released, if they are deemed able to survive in the wild.

“It’s not uncommon to see a keeper walking around with a lump in their pocket, that’s a little wallaby joey that they are looking after, having been orphaned,” Ms Duggan said.

It has been just over 12 months since the park was able to further focus its efforts on rehabilitating birds, with the opening of its new bird of prey free-flight aviary, which fits into its rescue, rehabilitate and release program.

In that time, Ms Duggan said the park had seen about 40 birds come into its care, from goshawks, swamp harriers and owls, to wedge-tailed eagles.

The free-flight aviary, built in partnership with TasNetworks, is home to four wedge-tailed eagles who are permanent residents, due to their injuries. One has been with the park for more than 25 years.

For education, the park has focused on educating its visitors on native animals, their importance, and what is needed to ensure their futures in the wild.

“We really want to connect people with nature,” Ms Duggan said.

It runs three, 45-minute tours each day, with the aim of establishing of level of interaction that satisfies the visitors’ interest but does not impact on the animal.

As Trowunna moves into a new era of conservation work, it is also conscious of keeping these three core values at the forefront of its operations.

Mr Kelly said that naturally, the Trowunna site was a sanctuary – for birds, and animals.

Many of the rehabilitated and released birds still visit the site.

A pair of white goshawks even made their nest in the bordering 10 hectares of forest, which cocoons the park site.

For three seasons, Mr Kelly and the Trowunna team were able to watch the goshawks breed and raise new young.

Former Trowunna eagles still swoop in to visit and check-in at the aviary.

Forester kangaroos, wallabies and pademelons hop leisurely around the grounds, occasionally intermingling with visiting humans and birdlife.

Just as the park has been a major player in the Tasmanian devil’s battle with facial tumour disease, it hopes to play an equally important role in preserving the populations of other native animals and birds.