The Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat is one of the rarest species on the planet with only around 200 individual animals remaining. The Wombat Foundation is the only charity dedicated exclusively to saving this species, and we need your help to find them a new home.
Currently, almost all the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats are in one location only: Epping Forest National Park in Queensland, Australia. A handful are in a second site at Richard Underwood Nature Refuge also in Queensland. In these protected areas, the surviving animals are free to burrow, mate and live happily. However, there is always the risk that a single event like a fire, flood or disease outbreak could wipe these wombats off the face of the planet.
We want to fund the acquisition of a third and larger protected site to secure the future of the species. Our vision is of multiple communities of wombats living across their historic range.
We know that this is an enormous project and a very ambitious goal but we’re determined to achieve it. We’ve raised a lot of money towards this already but now we need your help and support to give it the extra push. Actually, the wombats need you.
They need you to pledge to show that you, like us, cannot imagine a world without Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats.
We are a completely volunteer-run charity with a Registered Charity Tick from the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission. All the funds from this campaign will go directly to help fund the acquisition of a new Home for the Hairy Noses.
Help us build a future for wombats and show that it is possible to save the world’s critically endangered species.
Your pledge will work in two very important ways: it will demonstrate community support for the government to progress work to identify a suitable site for the wombats and it will directly contribute to the purchase of a new home for the wombats when a suitable site is found.
The Wombat Foundation is working with the government and with other stakeholders to find a site with the right vegetation and soil conditions for the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats. This requires extensive assessments of possible locations and we cannot say definitively when a suitable site will be found.
We estimate that a new home will cost about $400,000 to acquire, but this depends on the final site chosen. One possibility is that the wombats are introduced into an existing national park or government-owned land rather than land being purchased. In this case, the funds would be used towards revegetation and associated costs.
The Wombat Foundation has been a registered charity since 2004 and we have invested in in-the-field conservation and research to protect the wombats. We have raised $150,000 over the years to put towards the purchase of a new home for the wombats.
We know that the $20,000 we are asking from the community in this campaign won’t get us all the way to our overall target of $400,000. In an ideal world, we’d be able to raise up to $150,000 from projects like this, add the $150,000 from our past fundraising, and seek potentially $100,000 from other sources like corporate sponsorship.
We believe that whether we raise $20,000 or more from this project, this will make an important contribution and show just how much the community supports progress in finding a suitable site for the wombats. We cannot provide a timeframe when we will find this site, but we are determined and tirelessly working towards this goal. We will include a separate accounting line in our audited financial statements for this purpose.
Photo: Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Queensland
In the 1980s there were only 35 Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats left on the planet. Since then, the population has grown to about 200. This has been achieved by measures to protect the wombats in their natural habitat.
With your help, we can achieve a future where the wombat numbers grow to a point where they are taken off the critically endangered list and live sustainably across their historic range.
For this to occur, we need to secure more land for them to live.
In 2009, the first Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats took to the air. They were moved from Epping Forest National Park in Queensland, Australia, to Richard Underwood Nature Refuge. This was an historic step but not without its challenges. The site is considered too small to sustain more than about 35 wombats.
The Wombat Foundation is seeking a third, larger site as a new home for wombats. This is dependent on the goodwill and input of many different stakeholders, including government. It is likely that significant work will be required to revegetate the suitable site once it has been identified and acquired.
We cannot promise a timeframe for identification and acquisition of a site, but we can promise that your funds will be dedicated exclusively to the new home for the wombats.
Photo: Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Queensland