AROUND 20 kangaroos escaped the temporary kangaroo compound on Thursday night after strong winds brought down more than 200 metres of cyclone fencing.
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But a huge response from almost 50 project volunteers quickly saw the fence put upright again to allow team leaders to continue with the planned darting and relocation for the night.
Project spokeswoman Helen Bergen said the scene was like something from a movie on Thursday as volunteers descended on the compound off College Street to lend a hand.
“It was a real emergency for us,” Ms Bergen said.
“Between 200 metres and 300 metres of fencing had blown down along the northern boundary of the compound, around 15 or 20 kangaroos were out and it was getting dark.”
While it was the greatest emergency the project volunteers had faced since the temporary enclosure went up last October, Ms Bergen said she was thrilled with the response.
“The call went out and suddenly people just started coming,” she said.
“About 50 people turned up and they pitched in to help.
“We were able to get the kangaroos back in and moved them away and then starting putting the fence back up.
“It was like a scene from a movie with all the lights from the vehicles driving back across the paddock.”
It was like a scene from a movie with all the lights from the vehicles driving across the paddock.
- Helen Bergen
Volunteers are now transporting a handful of kangaroos each night from the College Road compound to an undisclosed location outside of the Bathurst region.
It is slow, exacting work as each ‘roo is first darted with a tranquilliser before being processed, loaded on to the truck and driven to the site.
There, volunteers monitor the kangaroos until they recover from the sedation.
Licence conditions for the project issued by National Parks and Wildlife limit the number of kangaroos that can be relocated each night.
The kangaroos will kept in a soft-release compound at the new location for about a month.
The relocation site is on private land around 100 kilometres from Bathurst.
Once the first 30 kangaroos have been relocated a report will be prepared in order to gain licence approval for the mass relocation of the remaining ’roos.