In 2024 the Environment Team at Bengalla discovered three determined wombats had taken up residence within the mine’s forward works area. Lyndsay McGrath, an Environment Graduate told HSEC Conference attendees what they did to relocate the pesky furballs for The Pitch.
The Pitch gives mine employees under 30 the opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas and projects.
Lyndsay was about a year and a half into his graduate program when the wombats were discovered and he was tasked to lead a team to relocate them.
“I was tasked with setting up monitoring cameras around site to find out if the wombats were active or not. We identified there was one male, one female and one joey located in that area so an ecologist was brought in.
“He advised a passive method of blocking certain burrow entrances to encourage self-relocation but wombats are nothing if not stubborn.
“Instead of moving on like we hoped, they doubled down and dug more burrows and after weeks of this it was clear we needed a more involved solution,” said Lyndsay.
There was also a bigger question Lyndsay needed to answer. Even if the wombats relocated on their own, where would they go? On one side was a mining operation and on the other side was water infrastructure and a highway.
So, there was no safe natural corridor.
“That’s when we started discussing relocating the wombats to one of our offset properties.
“Now we had a plan of where to take them, another realisation set in. There is no relocation procedure for wombats.
“Let’s put that into some perspective. A wombat is a nocturnal, burrowing, aggressive, 40 kilograms of pure mass and can move at 40 kilometres an hour at top speed – that’s a school zone.
“But, what a thrilling challenge.”
Lyndsay and the team went out to the offset land they planned to release the wombats to ensure the burrows were structurally sound and the release site was ready for some new tenants.
Next was getting the wombats from a to b.
“We started with cages and trialed different food types for two months but it turns out wombats are picky eaters and the traps were completely ignored.
“So we pivoted towards a more tailored method…. A thin sheeted corridor fence encased all the active burrows on the site and prevented any re-entry once the wombats left. It took the wombats time to get used to the new burrows, but eventually consistent patterns emerged, and the cameras picked up that they were using them and we knew it was working.
“We reviewed the footage each day to make sure the burrows were being occupied and set the traps before dark monitoring from a distance using thermal imaging.
“But wombats are alert. They didn’t even come out any of the first nights we set the traps. If they sense something is off, they’ll stay in their burrows for up to two days… as you can imagine this made our job incredibly difficult.
“We were constantly wondering if they were still inside, did we miss them, are we losing our minds, all questions were valid! But eventually our patience paid off and five months and some decent pockets of weather later, I am happy to confirm we successfully captured all the wombats.
“All three were assessed and transported by professionals and released safely onto the offset property.”
The female wombat was relocated first, then Benny – a large clever male wombat responsible for over 20 burrows on Bengalla’s site – was relocated after several months. He was quite the escape artist!
All three wombats are burrowing and living their lives to the fullest on the offset property.
In his presentation to The Pitch at HSEC, Lyndsay reflected on the project and the learnings they will be able to use down the track.
“This project showed me something important. When the mining industry applies its capabilities of people, equipment and time we can achieve outcomes in the environmental space that are otherwise too difficult or too time consuming to try elsewhere.
“There are so many takeaways including the use of blast bags. Small, inflatable bags used in drilling operations were repurposed at the front of wombat burrows to control their entry into those spaces. It was a perfect example of using the mines tools and integrating that into conservation efforts.
“This project wasn’t a check box. This was a genuine hands on wildlife relocation project delivered in house right alongside a mining operation.
“Being someone so early on in their career, this experience has been a standout moment realising how integral mining is to the environmental space, pushing the boundaries of rehabilitation. We are not just complying, we are setting an example of what can be done and should be done.”
