Recovery in full swing at Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary despite natural disasters

In the wake of the devastating floods the inundated the Kimberley at the beginning of 2023, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in the central Kimberley has made significant strides towards recovery.

A skeleton crew, assisted by volunteers and contractors, has cleared 18 tonnes of debris, removed 1900 feral stock, and has repaired critical utilities such as water and electricity since flood waters receded.

Despite suffering several setbacks during recovery over the past 12 months, including unplanned fires and intense storms, the conservation team has achieved notable outcomes and is optimistic about the future.

“The scale of what was achieved was utterly outstanding,” AWC assistant operations manager Chloe Kobel said

Sanctuary manager Stella Thomas added: “Sometimes it feels like we’re playing disaster bingo but we don’t let it get us down.”

Before the floods, Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary housed one of Australia’s most remote and fully equipped research stations for ecological research.

But once flood waters hit, the sanctuary suffered severe damage with approximately 95 per cent of its facilities affected as invaluable research archives and equipment also succumbed to the floods.

Only four houses and a workshop survived, limiting the infrastructure to accommodate a mere 10 per cent of the usual team during peak seasons.

A week-long clean-up effort, involving nine volunteers from Disaster Relief Australia and eight AWC regional and national staff, removed a mammoth 18 tonnes of debris from the sanctuary.

Ms Thomas described the aftermath as if “someone had picked everything up and then dropped it.”

Despite the challenges, the team has made significant headway in recovery, including the completion of prescribed burning across many hectares of the property.

In addition to the restoration efforts, the team faced unexpected late-season fires and the loss of the Mornington airstrip hangar roof during an intense storm.

Recovery also included efforts to destock the area through mustering and aerial shooting, restoring the biodiversity monitoring program, and renovating flooded staff huts.

Despite the hardships, the commitment to conservation remains strong, with plans to hire new ecologists and rebuild the research station.

“Over the next few months, we will focus on renovating flooded staff huts and getting them back to a liveable standard,” Ms Thomas said.

“We’re all holding our breaths waiting to see what this wet season brings but hopefully we can just continue moving forward with recovery.”