By Mitchell Clarke
Four juvenile wombats who were evacuated from a shelter in the East Gippsland fire zone have found refuge in a purpose-built wildlife shelter nestled in the forest behind Pakenham.
Locky’s Legacy Wildlife Shelter is a project by Lyndel Chalmers and Don Smith, who purchased the property four years ago to turn it into a haven for injured and orphaned animals.
A wildlife carer for the past 17 years, Ms Chalmers previously lived in Doncaster where she nursed possums, but had dreams to purchase a bigger property with partner Don, so they could house more animals.
“This was the first property we looked at and when we saw it, we fell in love with it immediately,” Mr Smith said.
“We were very lucky to find this place – we thought to build something like this we’d have to move hours away but here, we’re only an hour away from Melbourne.”
The shelter, which is located on 18 acres off Toomuc Valley Road and backs onto Chambers Reserve, currently houses the four wombats and two kangaroo joeys, but it’s hoped they can one day accommodate koalas.
“All the wombats that we’ve released in the past, not one of them has complained,” he laughed.
Ms Chalmers and Mr Smith opened their property on Tuesday 25 February, welcoming councillors and Rotary members to assist in building awareness around their project.
“This is a very real way that we can do something locally to help the wildlife that have been so terribly affected by the bushfire crisis,” Mr Smith added.
“We’ve just built one wombat enclosure but we want three. We have one kangaroo enclosure but we want three.”
Central Ward councillor Carol Ryan attended the open day to find out how she could help through her role with Cardinia Shire Council.
“We’re here to see what we can do to help them – it’s things like this where I think council comes in because we’ve got so many network contacts that we can really oblige and ask them to help,” Cr Ryan said.
“We don’t realise what we’ve got locally until someone gets invited out and then it’s just a matter of word of mouth.”
Cr Ryan has vowed to approach companies and various politicians to help receive funding to support the worthy cause.
“I think the work they’re doing is fantastic, without people like this, our wild animals would have nowhere to go. I really just commend what they’re doing,” she said.
At this stage, the shelter is raising funds to build a new enclosure to house the wombats once they grow out of the nursery.
To find out how you can help, visit www.gofundme.com/f/wombat-enclosure-pakenham.
