Bellarine animal sanctuary saves dingoes

Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary in Barwon Heads is temporarily home for a cuddly pack of dingo pups rescued from NSW.

Tehree Gordon, founder of Jirrahlinga, was informed that 47 dingoes were being kept illegally inside a house in squalid conditions.

Ms Gordon immediately began the painstaking COVID-19 permit process and set off for the border with her husband Hamish to bring the dingoes to safety.

“I was approached to see if I could help, only three of us put our hands up throughout Australia,” Ms Gordon said.

“Because it was a family and lived in confinement, I opted to take the whole family. We ended up with 16 adults and then they had puppies. So we ended up with the pups too.”

Ms Gordon said watching the dingoes settle into their new home had been emotional.

“When the adults were released into a lovely bush scene a magpie flew over and they got a shock, and then another from the wind in the trees,” Ms Gordon said.

“In the end the puppies actually encouraged the parents. All of a sudden the adults huddled together and started wagging their tales, and then they started howling. We watched them walk faster and faster, until they broke into a run. They ran until they literally collapsed in heap, totally stuffed,”

“We had a vet on hand because we knew they would be very sore. I got some of our volunteers to sit quietly with the adults for a while.”

Ms Gordon said the pups would remain at the sanctuary until the end of Summer and then join other rescued dingoes at the Dingo Conservation Centre in Castlemaine.

“Castlemaine have big compounds where they run and play and go in water. The first time one of them slipped in the dam was amazing, it was very scared and the others came and watched. Then she realised it wasn’t so bad and jumped back in and the others followed!”.

Jirrahlinga is open 7 days a week from 10am-5pm daily. The public can visit the dingoes at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Visit their website or Facebook page for more information.