On Wednesday 10th January 2007, a bushfire devastated the Framlingham Forest.

This State Forest, owned and operated by the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, was an isolated pocket of natural bushland which was home to a huge population of native animals, including kangaroos, wallabies, possums, potoroos, reptiles, birds and of course KOALAS.

This was a very hot fire and destroyed many of the animals outright.

Hundreds of animals also survived the initial blaze only to die shortly afterwards due to extensive burns and smoke inhalation.

Still more animals have survived, but were burnt to varying degrees. A massive search and rescue project was undertaken since the fire. This project involved CFA, DSE, Warrnambool Wildlife Rescue Group, Wildlife Victoria, Help for Wildlife and hundreds of volunteers from the community and from further afield.

The volunteers, under the guidance of trained personnel, assist in the tagging of trees and the removal of injured animals from the site. More volunteers transport the animals either to the Purnim Hall Staging area, where volunteer veterinarians work rosters to assess and triage the animals, or directly to a Wildlife Shelter in Warrnambool, where trained, registered Wildlife carers assisted by volunteer veterinarians and dozens of hard working volunteers, set up a treatment hospital for the animals.

The animals were fed a protein supplement three times daily and given leaves and water three times daily. Bedding had to be changed a minimum of once daily. The babies were fed special formula and given lots of cuddles and love because they had lost their family. All this work was done at a Warrnambool Wildlife Shelter, which was just a family home. Volunteers worked around the clock to care for the animals.

198 animals were treated at the Wildlife Shelter alone. Many of the koalas went to other shelters locally and around the state, as one single shelter could not accommodate all those koalas.

Following the media attention, the support from the community has been overwhelming. After the rescue, treatment and rehabilitation continued for weeks and months. This continued to stretch the time, pockets, patience and energy of the volunteers.

Even though the bush fire of 2007 has been and gone, WWR continue to care for wildlife in their local area. If you wish to assist, please do so: Donations greatfully accepted, please go to the "important stuff" page and click on donations to see how you can help WWR.

Washing – when the shelter was at its busiest, the koalas made about 40 loads a day.

Collecting leaves – each koala requires 5kg of leaves daily. Multiply that by 50 or more koalas and that is a lot of leaves! Best species are – manna gum, forest red gum, swamp gum, messmate (stringybark), narrow leafed peppermint.

WE WOULD LIKE TO SAY A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE WHO HAS HELPED. WITHOUT YOUR HELP WE COULD NEVER HAVE ACHIEVED AS MUCH AS WE HAVE. THANK YOU