community,

It's not every day an endangered species comes to your school but that's what happened at Katoomba Public last month when an 18-month-old bilby called Wilson dropped by for a visit. Brought down by Save the Bilby Foundation CEO Kevin Bradley, it was a way of thanking the students, especially class 4/5P, for bringing to light concerns about the bilby's plight. Instead of being treated as one of the country's treasures, the long nosed, long eared marsupial bilby was slowly disappearing, he said. But schools like Katoomba were now officially "infected with what we call bilby fever," spreading the word about the endangered species. Wilson lives in Dreamworld where there is a wildlife park and conservation breeding program for bilbies. He's regularly out in the community as an "education animal" and loved his Mountains sojourn. Mr Bradley, who works in Charleville, North Queensland, picked Wilson up on the way, helped by Louie Vassallo from Featherdale Wildlife Park, long- standing supporters of the Save the Bilby fund. Mr Bradley said it was "more important than ever that schools like Katoomba raise public awareness". "Australia has one of the worst mammal extinction records in the world with 28 species of mammals already gone forever and another 25 per cent of our mammals are under current and increasing threat of extinction." He called the Katoomba students, who won a national competition to help save the bilby, the "change-makers of the future" working "to improve some of the negative impacts we have had through our own lack of education and understanding". "Kevin and Wilson travelled all the way from North Queensland especially to present us gifts and treat us to an inspiring and educational talk about the plight of the bilby," said teacher Tracey McManus. "Only three schools in the whole of Australia won and we were the only school from NSW," she said. After a whole school presentation, 4/5P heard about "the destruction of bilbies and their habitat due to feral animal introduction and how the foundation is rehabilitating them and the positive future of the bilbies thanks to support from many organisations, including school students," she said. Mrs McManus called it a "once in a lifetime experience for our students and staff - one that they will carry with them forever", adding that her students were very concerned to hear there were only 200 bilbies left in the wild in Queensland. Mr Bradley said Mountains residents could adopt a bilby buddy this Christmas. "It's a unique Christmas gift that will directly assist us to support our bilbies and further promote the message about bilbies and other threatened Australian animals." For more information, go to www.savethebilbyfund.org.

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