Carer gives wombats a second chance

Updated

For more than 12 years, Donna Stephan has been selfless in her endeavours to help and protect the vulnerable wombats of the New South Wales wild. But after a brush with death she now finds herself looking for help to ensure what she has worked so hard to build is never lost.

"We nearly lost you," was a sentence Ms Stephan never expected to hear.

At 43 years young and completely healthy, a recent bout of double pneumonia had her knocking on death's door in a hospital bed.

It left her rattled.

"Being a typical female I burst into tears when the doctor told me. I've never been told 'we nearly lost you'. I thought it was a cold," she said.

Among the myriad of things running through her mind — her partner Phil and her two children, Jade, five, and Rebecca, three — was her wombats and the haven she had built from the ground up to help them.

Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary, located by Lake George about 40 kilometres from Canberra, has been Ms Stephan's life for more than a decade.

It was built in 2004, but Ms Stephan expanded the operation when she was made redundant from her role at IBM two years ago, and was able to devote 100 per cent of her attention to her endeavours.

"It was either lose the sanctuary or become a charity … it's actually been one of the best things I've done," she said.

"You can't waver; you don't have that option. It has its ups and downs, but I wouldn't change it for the world."

The decision to buy the land and build the sanctuary came as a shock to many of Ms Stephan's family and friends.

"Everyone told me I was crazy … everyone thought I'd lost the plot. For me it's heaven." she said.

"My lifestyle isn't normal, my life is far from normal. But if you're going to do this with these animals you have to be 100 per cent committed."

'It's full on, all the time'

Wombats that come through the sanctuary can be there up to three years, depending how young, injured, or traumatised they are.

Some of them never leave due to injury or age.

Soldier, the sanctuary's heaviest member at 40 kilograms, is a permanent resident.

"He was beaten with a tyre iron and has brain damage," Ms Stephan said.

"I don't put them down if it's due to human cruelty, I don't believe in ending their life because of that … as long as they have a quality of life here."

Then there is Mama Bear, who was found earlier this year in a crate beside a creek with scarring over her head and chest.

"I would never put her back out there because of her age … so she just plods around the sanctuary," Ms Stephan said.

Four more wombats have come into Ms Stephan's care in the past month, bringing the current head count to 35.

"It's full on, all the time," she said.

Some wombats previously treated at the sanctuary make appearances from time to time whenever they are sick or injured.

"I've had one female came back; somebody got hold of her and she came back eight years later to get help. It took nine months to fix her up, put her back up and out she went," Ms Stephan said.

"They want to be on their own, but if something happens to them they know where to go."

A lot of her additions come from people who have stumbled across the marsupials and decided to keep them on as pets — an act forbidden under Australian law.

"Typical for me is a phone call saying they found a wombat a year ago, they kept it, but now it's attacking them and I have to come get it," Ms Stephan said.

"When they get to a certain age people realise how dangerous they do become. And the more you withhold a wombat from doing its natural thing that only festers into aggression.

"So it's generally a 'come fetch it or I'll shoot it'."

Wombat school

The aim of the sanctuary is to get wombats rehabilitated and back out into their natural habitat.

To do that, Ms Stephan has established her own education system: wombat primary school, wombat high school, and wombat university, and finally, wombat honours degree.

Primary school is when mothers leave their joeys in the burrow and go off for an hour or two each night.

"When they get to a certain age, I put them in the burrow and I leave them. That's how in the wild they would develop independent skills, to protect themselves when they're not with their mother," she said.

Wombats get their own enclosure with a burrow once they reach high school.

"They have a grazing area to interact, get to learn about the bush, know about the bush … that's a whole system," Ms Stephan said.

"We can change the environment for them, open up certain areas, so two females can meet up with each other so they can interact.

"Wombats are all about territory. They kill for territory. If you don't raise a wombat with the proper skills, you may as well just put them down."

Wombat university is when they start to interact with each other, and an honours degree is pre-release.

"By the time they go into pre-release stage they know how to protect themselves against other wombats, warning signs, probably had a bit of conflict," Ms Stephan said.

"They know the burrow is their territory and how to protect that … and all of those things are so, so important if they're going to survive out in the wild."

Round-the-clock care for wombat residents

The days are long at Sleepy Burrows.

Ms Stephan is up and on the go from 6am, making sure the current 17 juvenile and "pinkie" wombats have their bottle-feed.

At the moment she is up to 35 bottles a day between just 10 of them.

Then it is on to exercising the younger wombats, cleaning out their boxes, and getting through nine loads of "wombat washing".

"Then I go to the wombat hospital and I clean and do all the animals there … I take all of them out into exercise yards while I clean," Ms Stephan said.

"I finish that about midday, then I've got to do a round of bottles again. And then I clean the outdoor enclosures, I refresh water bowls, do poo patrols, see if there's any damage. And if there is damage it needs to be concreted — I know Rapid Set intimately."

Then it is on to cutting grass for the wombats to feed on, more washing, and exercise for the juvenile wombats.

All this, combined with her normal motherly duties, does not leave much spare time.

"It is exhausting," Ms Stephan confesses. "I go to bed at midnight and then I'm up at 2am for a round of bottles for the very, very small ones."

Backup imminent

Ms Stephan's recent bout of ill health made her realise that without her, the wombats at the sanctuary have no-one who can carry on with their full-time care.

She was lucky during her recent incapacitation, thanks to a friend who was able to help out briefly, but it is no permanent solution.

"If I died that night, no-one else would know what I do," she said.

"I need other people to know what's in my head. It's no good for the animals with me being the sole person who does this," she said.

Ms Stephan is now eagerly awaiting the arrival of a third year veterinary student from the University of Sydney to take up a volunteer stint.

She hopes it becomes an ongoing arrangement.

"She will live out here and be my shadow for two weeks. And I can't wait," Ms Stephan said. "It'll be lovely to have some help.

"I've had a lot of requests in the past, but just haven't had the capacity to deal with them.

"But from being sick I realise I need to put more effort into different areas to work better for the wombats as a whole … and I think it'll be very beneficial to the students and the wombats in the near future, and will encourage more young people to possibly do this one day."

Topics: human-interest, animals, gundaroo-2620

First posted