Trowunna: a heart-shaped island home for Australian native animals

The sanctuary's primary goal is wildlife conservation, education and rehabilitation but it is well known for its Tasmanian Devil conservation program and rightfully so.

Facial tumours in devils were first discovered in 1996 and it is estimated the disease wiped out up to 50 per cent of the species population.

The state and federal government introduced the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program in 2003 as an official response to the threat of extinction of the species.

By the time STDP was introduced the Mole Creek sanctuary had been breeding the world's largest carnivorous marsupials for 20 years.

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It has been a pioneer for Tasmanian Devil's conservation, breeding and friendly-image worldwide for four decades.

The STDP program was set up because according to the University of Tasmania 65 per cent of Tasmania's devil populations were affected by the facial tumour disease and populations in the eastern part of the state were hit hardest.

The disease is extremely rare and one of only a handful of known cancers in the world that can spread like a contagious disease.

There are two strains of the disease, the first discovered in 1996 and the second in 2014 in the state's south-east.

Signs of the disease begin with small lesions or lumps in and around the mouth before they develop into large facial and neck tumours. They can interfere with feeding and the affected animal may subsequently starve to death.

It is spread by the transfer of living cancer cells as devil's bite each other, which happens frequently in fights over mating and food. Other ways of transmission may include the ingestion of infected carcasses or the sharing of food.

Ahead of the park's 40th birthday last year, sanctuary owner Androo Kelly said when the facial tumours struck Trowunna was world's ahead in breeding devils.

It has bred more than 500 devils for 19 generations through studbook breeding, for a genetically robust and least related kinship system.

Claiming the title of the longest breeding program of any Australian native animal.

"We were the ones that taught and trained everyone else on how to care and how to breed devils, that's what we're renowned for," Mr Kelly said.

"We've changed the way devils can be managed and we've taught literally the world that.

"We're always ready in case there's a need for insurance, which we've done effectively with the Tasmanian Devils, we've bred devils now for 19 generations.

"Part of Trowunna's work is to reinforce and augment wild populations. Because we breed under studbook conditions, that's where we are unique."

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For the last 15 years he has conducted two courses a year, to about 200 participants from parks, zoo and sanctuaries, to teach them devils best practice and management.

The STDP aims to ensure an enduring and ecologically functional population of devils in the wild in Tasmania.

It does this through a number of ways including captive breeding programs, such as Trowunna's, advocacy and ambassador programs with international zoos.

A part of the ambassador program, in 2006 Trowunna delivered four devils to Copenhagen Zoo for the birth of Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik's first child Prince Christian.

Mr Kelly said Copenhagen was the only zoo outside of Australia that was allowed to breed devils.

"The devils in captivity, once they grow confidence, which is where you manage them so they have to have that confidence, that's a healthy happy animal in captivity," he said.

"We've worked to change the image of devils and the fact they are a very shy and timid animal, rather than the vicious animal people perceive them to be."

The Wright's opened the Tasmanian Wildlife Park and Koala Village in 1979 before Mr Kelly took ownership in 1993.

He has grown the park from five hectares to 40 hectares and expanded its conservation programs as well.

However devils are not the only animal the sanctuary helps in its conservation work.

The park is internationally recognised for seven conservation programs, including its work with devils, quolls, birds of prey, bandicoots and more.

"We want people to interact but we don't want to exploit the animal...everything we do the animal comes first," Mr Kelly said.

"We've been doing it for 40 years...40 years ago it was almost considered no way you at a zoo you would be able to touch an animal.

"We're a pioneer in saying no here's an animal, come up close to it, interact with it ethically."

Since 1979 the sanctuary has rehabilitated 163 orphaned wombats back into the wild.

"Obviously there's been some that couldn't be rehabilitated, there's a handful of those that have stayed here long term, they're the ones we decided to try breeding because there's very little [numbers] of anyone who had bred wombats successfully in captivity," he said.

"We do that because one, no-one really knows much about wombat's reproduction and how it works and two, the population of wildlife can suddenly be seemingly unhealthy and crash."

As part of its conservation work to ensure the survival of quolls they breed threatened Spotted Tail Quolls and vulnerable Eastern Quolls, which became extinct on the mainland in the 1960s.

Trowunna is considering releasing some locally and has already reintroduced the Eastern Quolls back to the mainland through a trial program with Australian National Parks and other organisation.

Forty of the quoll species bred at the park were released into New South Wales' Booderee National Park, near Jervis Bay.

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