In a heart-wrenching scene, wildlife carer Pam Turner found herself sheltering 20 orphaned kangaroo joeys in her living room as bushfires raged toward her Grampians property on Boxing Day. These joeys, hand-reared by Turner after losing their mothers to car accidents, fence entanglements, and shootings, huddled together, alert and frightened by the roar of sprinklers fighting back the encroaching flames. For these young kangaroos, too large to evacuate yet too inexperienced to survive alone, Turner was their only lifeline. Leaving them behind was simply not an option. But as she activated roof sprinklers and braced for a long, tense vigil, she knew that for countless other creatures, there would be no such guardian angel.
A Landscape Transformed by Fire
The Grampians, known as Gariwerd to the traditional owners, is no stranger to bushfires. Forest Fire Management Victoria reports that since 2006, at least four major conflagrations have scorched approximately 85% of this cherished national park. While fleet-footed kangaroos may have a fighting chance to outrun the flames, wildlife experts warn that smaller, slower, or burrowing animals face catastrophic mortality rates. Those that survive often limp into shelters, traumatized, starving, and nursing burns from superheated earth. The road to recovery is long and arduous.
Climate Change Amplifies the Threat
Wildlife Victoria CEO Lisa Palma pulls no punches in her assessment: “Our wildlife are on the frontline of climate change. They don’t have anywhere to escape to from fires. We desperately need more action on climate change, and more support for wildlife from governments to try to limit the damage being done to our precious native species before it’s too late.” The increased frequency and intensity of bushfires, driven by rising global temperatures and prolonged droughts, is compressing the time frames in which ecosystems and their inhabitants can recuperate. Species that once thrived in the Grampians’ diverse habitats are showing alarming declines as the fires return again and again, too quickly for populations to rebound.
“Most of the animals we work on, there’s a peak time about 20 years post-fire, where they seem to hit their straps. The problem with climate change [is] having one big fire after another over very short periods of time.”
Dr. John White, Wildlife Ecologist, Deakin University
A Biodiversity Hotspot Under Siege
The Grampians is a bastion of biodiversity, home to an astonishing one-third of Victoria’s plant species and critical populations of endangered mammals like the heath mouse and southern brown bandicoot. Long-nosed potoroos and antecinus, small carnivorous marsupials, also seek refuge in these ancient hills and gullies. But as Dr. John White warns, even a 20-year recovery window may now be a vanishing luxury as the gaps between major fires contract. In the charred aftermath, feral predators like cats and foxes move in swiftly to exploit the weakened survivors, compounding the devastation.
The Path Forward: Protecting Wildlife, Preserving Wilderness
Kelly O’Shanassy, CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, minces no words in her prescription for safeguarding the nation’s irreplaceable fauna. Stemming the twin tides of land clearing and fossil fuel emissions must be the top priorities:
“There’s two things we can do that will really help save wildlife and help protect people. Let’s take real action on climate change. We need to stop digging up and burning fossil fuels, like coal and gas and oil to power our lives. The second thing we need to do is stop bulldozing the bush.”
Kelly O’Shanassy, CEO, Australian Conservation Foundation
For the courageous wildlife carers on the frontlines, like Pam Turner, the mission continues one precious life at a time. But without swift, meaningful change to address the underlying causes of these increasingly savage fires, how much more of Australia’s natural heritage will we lose? As climate change tightens its grip and the bulldozers rumble on, the call to action grows more urgent by the day. The future of the Grampians’ wildlife, and perhaps the soul of the nation itself, hangs in the balance.
