It was the first day of our MATZ resilience camp at Innes National Park, and after a long day of travelling we were all eager to get out into the field. The task at hand was to go out into the park in the black of night and receive crucial data on the current tammar wallaby population. The night started with a bang with our first animal sighting being a rare and curious mallee fowl which was foraging along the rugged path. Many other roosting native birds were also found along the way, such as the clever currawong and the beautiful Red-capped robin. The path we took was also met with difficulties such as the large quantity of spider webs which we all had to duck and weave through, however this did bring some entertainment to the walk in my opinion. Eventually we arrived at an eerie old and abandoned Inneston mining village. This was where our first sighting of a tammar wallaby occurred. We made sure to identify the individual animal by looking at it’s ear tag as well as the location. For most of us this was our first time researching animals in the wild, so many new skills such as spotlighting, identifying, and GPS tracking were all learnt from the night. Multiple tammar wallabies and even some large kangaroos were found during our time in the village which made the night very rewarding.

Dylan

MATZ Member