Wildlife rescue organisations FAWNA and Koalas in Care are yet to see the real cost to our native wildlife from the bushfires around the MidCoast and Lake Innes/Lake Cathie areas.
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"We've gone into full scale emergency repsonse, so we're in a position to deal with any injured and burnt fauna," FAWNA president Meredith Ryan said.
Koalas in Care volunteers are only today venturing into the Darawank and Minimbah fire zones for the first time to assess the situation as they had to wait for clearance from fire authorities to go into the area for safety reasons.
Christeen McLeod of Koalas in Care expects that the true toll to the local koala population won't be known for a few weeks yet.
"People should be looking out over the next few weeks for sick/burnt animals to turn up," Christeen said.
FAWNA patrolled Nine Mile Beach at Forster Tuncurry on Sunday to see if any injured wildlife would come out of the fires onto the beach. Yesterday they collected six wallabies and one injured wallaby off the beach.
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"We managed to relocate a swamp wallaby out of the fire ground into a safe habitat," Ms Ryan said.
"We've got two swamp wallabies in care, we've got a red-necked wallaby in care, and a ring-tailed possum and a brush-tailed possum. The ringie's got three babies."
The fires have brought an outpouring of concern from people worried about native wildlife. Both FAWNA and Koalas in Care have been inundated with offers of help from people offering assistance to the organisations.
"The public have been terrific in offering help" Ms Ryan said.
"We thank the public, and other wildlife groups have been terrific in offering help so we have that backup if we do need it."
Both organisations are extremely grateful for the offers of help, but say they best way people can help is by donating money, as they are both non profit organisations.
They will be needing to purchase specialised burn cream and food, primarily, and donated funds will assist greatly.
"Then we can buy food to put out," Ms Ryan said. "After the last Pappinbarrra fires (near Wauchope) we bought food for the wallabies and kangaroos and the public could collect if from a central point and if we get donations we'll be able to do that down there."
While people might want to be hands on in helping injured wildlife, FAWNA and Koalas in Care can only use trained wildlife rescuers and carers to handle wildlife.
If you find a native animal needing assistance, immediately call FAWNA on 6581 4141 or Koalas in Care on 6552 2183 or 0439 406 770, and wait for instruction on what to do next.
"But if they're in a position to, in business hours, drop something at a vet that is helpful to get appropriate care to the animal as quickly as possible," Ms Ryan advised.
Ms Ryan also asks that people stay away from wildlife rescuers doing their job, and resist the photo opportunity, as it could impede their work.
"There is also a lot of misinformation on Facebook - please make sure what is posted is fact checked first," Ms Ryan said.
To donate to FAWNA go to www.fawna.org.au and to donate to Koalas in Care go to www.koalasincare.org.au. Both websites have online donation facilities.
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Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
