Bonorong

A few months ago, we found a bettong hiding in our chook shed. There was clearly something wrong with him. He wasn't making a great effort to run away, and when he did, he fell over sideways. Oh dear. It didn't look good, but we wanted to get him to someone better qualified to assess him. We tried a couple of local wildlife rescue numbers with no luck, but one of them suggested calling Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. It's well on the other side of Hobart from us, and it was after hours, so I didn't hold out much hope. However a very helpful and friendly bloke answered the phone and said he would send a text message out to wildlife carers in our area to see if anyone could collect him. A short time later another helpful and friendly bloke named Jonas called back, and I was able to drop off the bettong to him at the end of our road. The poor creature did not survive, but I was grateful that his end was kind.

I've been keen to visit Bonorong for ages so we finally dropped in on the weekend. If you want to see Tasmanian wildlife up close, it's a top spot. We saw a baby wombat, Tasmanian devils, spotted-tailed quolls, eastern quolls and many more. The site has beautiful views back to Hobart and Mount Wellington. And I'm happy that the entry fee goes to a good cause, supporting care and rehabilitation of native animals and helping kind people like Jonas to help our native wildlife.