2022 Floods Wildlife Response success sadly see’s the end of our rescue car

In October 2022 Victoria saw the biggest rainfall event in decades. A state of disaster was declared, as flood waters rose in towns and cities, thousands of people evacuated. The waters rose steadily across the landscape and remained for months. The impacts on wildlife were devastating.

The shelter was inundated with water, and we were trapped for days. Then the calls started coming in. Once the roads were passable, we hit the ground running. We started in Shepparton rescuing stranded kangaroos with Wildlife Victoria and Five Freedoms Animal Rescue.

Then there was the wombat! Found precariously placed on a pile of debris against a footbridge on the Goulburn River. Once again Five Freedoms and Terra Mater worked together to rescue the sodden wombat, and move her to safe ground nearby!

The calls continued to come in, now along the Murray River at the Victorian and New South Wales border near Moama. Stranded Kangaroos and Wallabies were reported on many small islands, and they had run out food. With the help of local landholders, Wildlife Victoria and WIRES we did the following:

• We attended to injured, displaced and stranded wildlife impacted by the floods for four long months.

• We did over 12,000km.

• We delivered around 10,000kg of feed - thats 10 tonnes!

• We helped support hundreds of kangaroos and wallabies.

• We repaired two boats and motors countless times.

• We ruined four pairs of boots, and many, many pairs of socks.

• We had to replace eight tyres across two vehicles and a boat trailer.

• We installed a new clutch on one of the cars to keep going.

• And finally, our poor, over-used rescue car gave up. After taking it through flood waters, along difficult terrain, towing a heavy boat loaded with feed long distances, and only just making it through the last feed run.
  
  Now we need your help.
  We need a rescue vehicle.
  We spent over a thousand dollars trying to repair our 23 year old rescue car, only to find the engine is irreparable.
  The shelter is now left without a rescue vehicle. Rescue calls continue to come in from the community, and it's with heavy hearts we can't attend these calls. As the landscape dries, we're reminded that we're now in fire season without an emergency response vehicle.
  We are scared about what this will mean for our ability to respond to any emergency situations. We are in desperate need of a vehicle to use to help both the community and wildlife on an every day basis.
  
  It is with much swallowed pride, we reach out to you to see if you can help us.
  We're fundraising for a rescue vehicle.
  In order to effectively carry our equipment and any injured animals through difficult terrain and country roads we need a 4x4 diesel powered, dual-cab ute preferably with a canopy.

  Market values indicate we need approximately $25,000 to get a vehicle that will be reliable for many years to come.

  https://www.terramaterwildlifeshelter.com.au/make-a-donation

  Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter inc

  BSB 633 000

  ACC 189 861 842