A stress injection, a sack and being dropped off in bushland might not seem like the ideal way to move home, but for some wallabies in Far North Queensland, it's worked out pretty well.
Last year, the first attempted mass relocation of macropods in Australia began in Far North Queensland, when an estimated 400 agile wallabies were moved from their home in northern Cairns.
Founder of The Agile Project Shai Ager fought for a long time to source funding and permits for her and a group of volunteers to begin the relocation process. She even took the state government to court over the matter.
But, Ms Ager said something had to be done about the dangerously large population in Trinity Beach.
"But there's heaps of green grass, so the wallabies think it's prime conditions and keep reproducing."
At one point, local councillor Brett Olds said there were about 1,400 wallabies in the fields around the Trinity Beach sporting precinct.
He said the growing population had been a problem for years.
"[But] then you have car strikes, dog attacks and all these negative knock-on effects," he said.
The first-ever attempt
Ms Ager said the first set of relocations was a huge success and proved that moving macropod populations to more suitable locations could be done successfully, despite previous evidence to the contrary.
"Before this, it was kind of known that relocation didn't work, [but] that's just because it wasn't performed in a particular way by people who knew how to manage the stress and behaviour of these animals," she said.
"My favourite part is the trail cams — actually getting to see the physical photos and videos of the wallabies thriving in the new habitats."
Next steps
Ms Ager said the first project was largely funded by community donations, but now that the volunteer group had received approval to relocate a further 400 wallabies, it was time for local and state governments to step up.
"This time, we wanted to set the precedent that a state body and a council body can fund something like this," she said.
The $40,000 proposal has now been approved by Cairns Regional Council, which Ms Ager said would cover essential costs, such as medication to help with stress, needles, fuel and some new traps.
In the wake of the first trial's success, interest in the project has spread nationally, and Ms Ager says she would like to expand the range of volunteers for the next round.
"I want to give people the opportunity to volunteer for relocation projects so that they might be able to go back to their [home districts] and perform it there as well," she said.
It's an idea councillor Brett Olds is also keen on, saying a Wallaby Advisory Committee is in the works to look at helping other macropod populations in the area.
"This is the best outcome for those wallabies, it's giving them half a chance," he said.
"Because doing nothing or going for a cull … that wasn't good enough.
Cr Olds said it was also an excellent model for low-cost solutions.
"If council did it or the state did it, that would cost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.
The $40,000 awarded to the wallaby project by the council would come from money not used in a flying fox control program.
Cr Olds said the funds came after about $250,000-$300,000 was spent on fencing and other projects to control the wallaby population.
Cr Olds said council would also be writing to the state government to request it allocates $20,000 to another project administering contraceptives to the remaining wallaby population.
Ms Ager said with new fencing and a smaller population, the contraceptions should be one of the last steps needed to ensure a manageable population at the Trinity Beach site.
