Today's plan is to visit the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary (pronounced “Bon-a-rong”). We are booked in for the night tour which starts at 5pm. We thought we would go about lunch time and have a look around before the evening session.
Consequently, a slow beginning to the day. Club Wyndham is right on Seven Mile Beach, so a walk to the beach was a must. Being inside Frederick Henry Bay, the beach is very flat and stretches for kilometres (as it says seven miles) to the north and south. Pretty quiet this morning with only a few people out walking. We saw more people running along the track behind the dunes than we actually saw on the beach. It's a great swimming spot for families. Not too many waves to worry about.
If we had only gone to Bonorong in the day, we would have been disappointed. It was hot and consequently most of the critters were doing the sensible thing and were resting up somewhere in the shade where they couldn't be seen. Birds could be seen in their cages, but apart from that, the obvious attraction for many tourists were the Forester Kangaroos. As the season is so very dry, with little grass anywhere, they were very keen to be fed by the visitors.
Bonorong was established in 1981, primarily as a rehabilitation-focused centre for native animals, and is still the only such facility in Tasmania dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of all native, endemic and migratory species, receiving rescued animals from all over Tasmania. In the early days, there were quite a few "exhibition" animals (hence the forester kangaroos whose natural environment is north-eastern Tasmania), but these days all animals are rehabilitated and released to the wild, with the only permanent residents being those who would be unable to survive - one of the star performers being a very yellow, albino black cockatoo.
In addition to the sanctuary, Bonorong also runs a Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Facility, the latest building opening in November last year. The hospital was set up so that you could see into the clinics and operating room, with a self-guided tour set up - ‘The Journey’ allows guests to follow in the footsteps of an injured animal, from its rescue, through the rehabilitative process and on to a successful release. While we were there, a Fairy Prion, that had crashed onto the deck of a ship was being examined.
Our night visit was when things came alive, starting with the feeding of a baby wombat and then on to the kangaroos (again), the Tasmanian Devils, possums, echidnas and quolls. The star performer for the night was most likely the blind Echidna who ate out of your hand.
It was a great night.
