Grampians kangaroo shelter bouncing back after catastrophic summer blaze

As the 2024-25 summer bushfires tore through the Grampians, 20 joeys took refuge in Pam Turner’s living room in Victoria Valley near Dunkeld.

Video of the rescue went viral, but when the world moved on Turner was left to recover from the trauma while continuing to operate the Wildwood Wildlife Shelter for injured kangaroos on her property.

Turner has been caring for local wildlife for more than 30 years and has nursed her fair share of joeys back to health, but the impact of the fires was unlike anything she’d seen before.

“It was a really intense month while the Grampians were on fire, we had to evacuate the whole shelter,” Turner told the Brolga. “At the start of the fires, most [kangaroos] had to be euthanised because of the severity of their burns.”

Some of the kangaroos that had been cared for and released into the wild didn’t return to their stomping ground after the fires, Turner said.

Her property was ultimately spared, thanks to a sudden wind change and the efforts of firefighters.

“There were seven helicopters that were the water bombers and we’ve got a huge lake here, so they were taking water for days,” Turner said. 

“For weeks later you could walk out the front door and you could just smell the burn, it smelt like smoke, so it was a very traumatic time for me and for the wildlife.”

In January, with no dedicated facility to care for the volume of injured kangaroos and wildlife, not for profit organisations Animals Australia and Vets for Compassion set up a makeshift triage centre at the Dunkeld Racecourse. 

In the wake of this community effort, and backed by the advocacy of the Animal Justice Party’s Georgie Purcell, Turner has secured $45,000 in state funding for the Wildwood Wildlife Shelter.

The plan is to use the money to “get the shed all lined, insulated and climate controlled, and get it set up so that we can have a hospital area”, Turner said.

Months on, pockets of the Grampians are “devoid of all wildlife, that’s flora and fauna”. Trees are yet to reshoot, and Turner says the landscape will “never be the same again”.

“It’s still very black and very, very empty of life.”

Image credits: Wildwood Wildlife Shelter - Gariwerd