​​​​​Save the Bilby Fund remains committed and determined as ever to build an insurance population of bilbies so that they do not fall from the brink of extinction.

But it’s not enough to simply continue our breeding program at Charleville. We need to find and release more bilbies from parks around Australia. We need their genetic diversity, and we need to make sure that we are constantly building the population. But we cannot do it alone.

So, we to turn to you again – we need your financial support to help us muster more bilbies. An expensive endeavour that we simply cannot even start, without the support of our bilby loving community.

Many of you will have been following the story of the bilbies since the fence was finally fixed. If so, you will know that we live hand-to-mouth and your donations go directly to where it matters – our work in the field.

Kev, the CEO, has been spending all his time at Currawinya National Park to make sure that the original six pioneer bilbies and the next twenty trailblazers have settled and are doing well. Working during the heat of the day, and grabbing whatever little sleep they can in their swags, during long hot nights, he & Cass (our PhD candidate volunteer), spotlight, trap and check our free-rangers. They have lived like this for much of the last six months, with only some recent support from skilled volunteers. 

The tiny team at Save the Bilby Fund are putting their lives on hold to achieve success.

In the winter of 2020 we must keep up the momentum and release even more bilbies. We need to achieve our goal of having four hundred  ‘free-ranging’ bilbies at Currawinya.

The least stressful method of transport for the bilbies is via plane. We will be flying up to twenty bilbies to the facilities in via Dreamworld—who support us with free vet checks and Airbnbilby—to Charleville in the New Year. The journey costs around $670 per bilby.

We also need to order food for when they are creched and will need to maintain the creche enclosures. We also need basic maintenance on the ute and the petrol for several trips to the fence and back. As you can see, the costs really do add up.

We are aiming to raise $82,000 to cover the cost of this vital program over the next four months. Once we get to $40,000, we know we can start booking the Bilby Muster.

Relying on the government alone has seen too many species in Australia slide into extinction. It is clear that it is down to us to find the resources that the governments have failed to provide for so long, to fix the mess humans have created in the last 200 years.

But together, we will fix it, and we will not rest until we can assure the future of the bilby.