 Welcome to WA Wildlife, formerly known as Native Ark. Normally with Wikimania you get to visit exotic places and see interesting things, not just sit in a conference centre all the time. This year because we're virtual, we'll bring you a video of somewhere a little bit different and unique and try to include as many cuddly and interesting animals as we can. Hi, I'm Angara, I'd like to introduce you to Dean Hudson, Director of Operations here at WA Wildlife. Yes, that's correct, that we're all off. And you guys, to rescue you. Yes, so we're probably the leading wildlife organisation in Western Australia, and we like to think so, although we do work with one really great rescue groups. We have obviously this amazing hospital, the WA Wildlife Hospital. We also have the WA Wildlife Endurance, which is on the road every day of the year. And then we also have our rehabilitation facility and education and training centre. So we're really busy in the community doing a lot of education, wildlife rescue, but no medicine and rehabilitation. So at the moment we're in the tree arch areas, this is where the rescues come to first? Yes, so obviously we receive animals from vets, rangers, members of the public, and we at the moment receive more than 4,000 animals a year that come through this room. And so the animals will go into one of our incubators, stabilise, and then our vets will come and examine those animals before they go into the other areas. So it's really important in this room because it's the place where they first go to receive that first treatment. And those incubators don't look big enough to put a candle to them, do they? No, so a lot of the animals we get are small birds, direct plasma and circles, but we've got some larger ones, but we've got, as you see later, a number of wards for kangaroos, for emus, for pelicans, cormorants, you name it, the whole problem, we do everything from tiny little hunters right through the emus. Obviously, as I mentioned earlier, we get more than 4,000 animals each year, and a lot of these animals require some really specialised surgery, so all the pet eggs, dongle surgeries, we get a lot of seabirds being brought in with books, so they have less books removed. So the animals need anesthetics and oxygen and all sorts of things. Our surgery here too, if people come down to the depot while at the hospital, people can look into the surgery from reception, so they can actually come in and actually watch a surgery and follow right by them, which is pretty awesome. So they also say the rescue will be at the home. Exactly, and we're all about 8-year change, so if people will hopefully see an animal having a fishing book removed and they do a lot of recreational fishing, and they may not dispose of their stuff properly, they'll look at that and go, oh, hold on, that's what I'm doing. Exactly, that's what I'm doing. 100% to all that behaviour change education and having this close up. That's the only place in Western Australia where you can actually come to a tour of their hospital. So I think it's pretty awesome. We've now moved across to radiology area. I hope there's no nuclear reactions. So it's like they're hiding behind us in the dustbin, right? And Meg, isn't it? Yes, I know. One of the vets around here, you? Yes, I'm a senior vet here. So you get to look after all the animals and make them all happy and healthy again? Exactly, yes. So there's quite a few animals that come through. Some of them are very unwell. So we do quite a lot of exciting surgeries and medical procedures and things here and make sure we get them all back on the right track. And if we can't, then we are able to humanize if we need to. Obviously you don't want to do that. No, we don't enjoy doing that. So you've got x-ray machines and door digital now so they come up in there. Yeah. And what have we got? The duck environment too? We do. So I'm just about to do a surgery on a duck. So this duck came in with a broken leg. It was rescued by our friends at Seabed Rescue. And so we're going to put some pens in the leg and try and stabilize it and make it a functional leg again so it can walk. Well, that's really interesting. A specific leg duck or something more exotic? This one's a shell duck. Shell duck. A little more exotic than it's been like, but not a lot. So this is a patient in the endex welcome? Yeah. And this is our little shell duck that's about to undergo surgery. So we've removed the food. As you can see, normally they've had a nice food bowl in there with them as well. But she's just had some nice pain reliefs and nice fluids just chilling out for a little while. But very soon we'll put her under anesthetic and see what we can do about the leg. All right, so we're just going to move through to our intensive care unit. So we're going to keep the noise a little bit lower because the animals in here are quite fragile. We want to make sure they're stress-free. Are you joining us, mate? I guess so. Here we've got Nikita. So Meg can probably explain a bit more about actually what's wrong with it, but yeah, Mika, do you want to... Yeah, so basically this little guy came in after he was hit by a car and it's a very common injury for a kid. This is that they all get hit while they're crossing the road. These guys are big balls of muscle, but their beak is very fragile so it often gets fractured if they get hit on the road. And this one's quite a nasty break and they're very, very difficult to stabilize these fractures because anything you put on them in the kidney, they will try and floor it off. So the moment he's sedated is he's knocked out. He's just asleep. But we've fashioned a nice little external splint out of some polymer beads and we molded it to the shape of what the beak should be and attached it with glue and stereo strips and all sorts of things. We have to get a little bit creative sometimes. So if fingers crossed, this will do the trick. So far, he's breathing nicely. Hopefully he keeps on doing that. So this is our seabird and waterbird ward and we receive hundreds of seabirds and waterbirds every year. We've got a really cute juvenile pelican in here, little female. So she came in this morning. So you can see by the colouring, she's quite young, very small, big still and those really dark red colours will eventually turn into that nice white plumage that you normally think of the pelicans. And if you look at this one... How did she come in here? She was just found displaced, not flying on the road. So it would be fairly normal for a juvenile pelican. Probably not long left the nest about a month ago and she's probably struggling a little bit to find food and get around. This is an adult pelican. A little bit more camera shy. Yes, and this is a male pelican. A little bit different. These will come in the same way. So this one here, they've been displaced, skinny, not flying. So they can come out of all sorts of things, parasites, sometimes they might fly into power lines and get accustomed days. Yeah, so we have a number of species-specific wards. So we've just been into our seabird and waterbird ward. We've got a bird ward, a reptile ward, a mammal ward, an isolation intensive care, so all these different wards that are designed to serve certain animals. So depending on what's wrong with the animals, we get probably 180 different bird species coming up to 180 different bird species that we have admitted every year. And so we've got 24 of them out of the bullet bar. Anything from tiny birds right up. And the bats will do full work-ups on them, x-rays, fecal tests, and then our volunteers provide all the daily treatments, feeds, keeping, and then they move out into our rehabilitation areas, which we'll have a look at later, where we can assess their fitness and get them strong enough to return to the wild. There's a little one. Maybe this guy here will be enough. So let's look at the tawny frog now. So this one's the tawny frog. Yep. Do you have an arm, is he still? No, that's an arm. Yep, an arm. Yeah, that's okay. So here's what's been coming from when we knocked out of a tree in the storm. Actually, so... He's got caught up. Yep, and here was... A bobtail, isn't it? Yeah, bobtail is our single back. So this is one, and the flu, so we treat them for flu and isolation, and, yeah, as it sounds like, with the flu, runny nose, wicky eyes, sneezing, and they get the same thing, so it's actually... So he's ready to go now? He's ready to go now, so is this... So what kind of area would you release him back from? Exactly where he's found. So, obviously, each animal has, like, a reference number, so... And you can see it's got a tailband, which matches up paperwork, so this one, we've got the exact location where that one was found. And that will go... And because they're in office as well, they're briefed for life, so we need to return where they're found so that they can be reunited with mate and keep running and continue their species. Yeah, so flu has been a challenging 18 months, to say the least, and we... As a veterinary hospital, we're classified as an essential service, so we have been open every day since, obviously, COVID began. However, we've done everything we can to do our bit to reduce, you know, and flatten that curve and reduce people out in the community unnecessarily, so, on a given week, we could have up to 250 different people here throughout a week. During that COVID lockdown, when you have that lockdown, we go down to 18 to 25 people. And that's, you know, we reduce things back to their basic. All that education, training program, stop, it really is us down to the vet hospital services that we're providing, so treating signature animals. But, yeah, so if people still find animals during that time, we've still got to pay for that. Yeah. All of our fundraising, you know, opportunities dry up. We can't do any education training, any fundraising programs, so we do often tap into our reserves and we do rely on people, you know, donating to help us keep going during those times. It's been challenging, but the community's been fantastic, you know, supporting what we do. And, you know, we're committed to just keep going and making sure that, you know, there's a service for wildlife available even during lockdowns. Yeah, as we were walking out, we were talking and you mentioned that this is a relatively new area of conservation. It's not something that would have happened. I suppose I'll tell you, when I was your age, how's that sounding completely null? But, yeah, 20, 30 years ago, this kind of care just wasn't... No, so look, we really are... I think in our whole entire team, you know, really believe that we're pioneering what we're doing here. Wildlife medicine is still in the world alone in Australia. And so, you know, 30, 40 years ago, people found 600 wildlife. They'd take it home themselves and try to look after it. So, you know, our real unsung heroes of the past, the wildlife carriers that did it in their homes. Or, if I'm being perfectly honest, a lot of the time, the animals in euthanase, you know, people with euthanase, the animal that probably could have been treated now, but back then, there wasn't the option for endoscopes and ultrasounds and blood tests and all sorts of stuff. So, we're really fortunate. We live in 2021 where we can provide these amazing diagnostics. We're in one of the bird cages. Obviously, this is... This is RAF. So, RAF is one of our resident animals. So, we have... In addition to the hospital work where we treat and rehabilitate wildlife, we do a lot of community education. So, we have school groups and community groups coming down. And so, we have a number of animals on a license that they're tame and we can actually, you know, take them to schools and people can interact with them. So, RAF is very tame. If we say up and RAF will jump up there and he'll come and say hello just like he did then. And then if we say up... Hello, Ralph. You're up again. There we go. And he'll jump up. So, RAF is absolutely amazing. And you're turning around to face the camera. Yeah, he actually has done this before. No, he loves the camera. He's a bit of a show pony, Ralph. And yeah, he loved the camera. So, RAF is really good because, you know, kids are, you know, little as two or three years old. He'll sit on their shoulder. He's as gentle as anything. You know, you can offer him a sunflower seed and you'll take it out of your hands. Not a problem. So, you know, Wildlife Ambassador is like RAF is so important for what we're trying to do and to spread our messages out there in the community. RAF, when you're educating, does more than squawk and walk around on people's arms. Is there a purpose to showing the impact? Correct. So, look, all our Wildlife Ambassadors, you know, there's a story there and we tell. And obviously, so Black Hooker Two is here. You want to come over here? No. He's like, no. Black Hooker Two is obviously here in Western Australia. The Carnaby's Cockatoos, they're an endangered species and the Red Tail Cockatoos are not far behind. And the main reason that they're becoming such a, what is such a concern for them is habitat destruction. So, we're clearing a lot of the old growth forests and alarming rate. You know, we're looking at football fields a day equivalent that we're losing of their habitat. That's Australian football fields, not... Correct, not exactly. So, Australian football fields are massive, you know. Which is about three to four times the area. The normal, exactly. So, there's a lot of, you know, old growth forests that we're losing all the time and that's their habitat. You know, they need these two 300-year-old trees to be out of nest and so, if we can clear all this land and we can plant new trees, it's going to be 300 years before they can breed again. And so, that's the message that we're trying to encourage kids and even adults, you know, don't realise the impact that we're having on their habitat. And so, we've actually got... We're trying to sign all the petitions at the moment to support old growth forests. So, there's a lot of stuff that... And people don't often have that connection. They meet Rafi and then they want to save the forest. So, Rafi is so important for getting that connection with people rather than just a petition on their desk. They see Rafi, they're in love, we want to save the forest. So, he has probably more impact on conservation than most people do. So, Rafi, you're a little red tail. Are you going to take a bite of me finger? No, I'm not that silly. If you wanted me finger, you'd have it. Well, thank you, Raf. You're doing a really good job and you want to be fed, don't you? So, we'll have to go out of the cage and leave you alone. Moving on to some bigger birds. We've got a nice emu here at the moment. There's another one of your permanent residents, like us. Yeah, so we've got three resident emus. So, we've got Pete. He's our youngest resident emu. So, he's about two years old now. We have Wichie and Willow who are around here somewhere, a little bit worrying that they're not coming up to us. They'll probably come and attack us soon, but no, no, they're fine. They'll tame as anything. And so, yeah, people can come down, again, part of our education programs and they can hand feed the emus. And you can see how tame Pete is. You know, wild emus are incredibly dangerous. So, never approach a wild emu like this and never try and grab them because, you know, even Pete would weigh 45 kilos. Talons would make a big mess here very quickly. They would absolutely mess you up. So, yeah, the last emu that kicked me big gash in the arm, still got the scar to prove it. So, you don't want to get one of these guys. And Pete's a small emu. You know, they can get a lot bigger and a lot tougher than that. So. Wikipedia writes, how much do you use it? How much? All the time, especially in high school, when I was trying to pass my exams. You know, they told me not to. I think a lot of us did that. Yeah. The emus are getting in the camera. Yeah. Yeah. No, look, I'm a big Wikipedia fan. You know, the information is so easy and accessible and that's what I like about it. And I've always found the information to be pretty relevant and pretty, but you can, you know, look at something that's quite detailed or something that's quite simple and at a conceptual level. And for wildlife, you know, you can get some information about wildlife in Wikipedia. So, we use it all the time, especially when we're trying to ID things, going to Wikipedia, checking the species and you know what it is. So. Get an ID, get an ID area whether it was in its normal area or not. Hello, you want to have a bite of my phone, do you? So, this is Pete, everybody. So, yeah, Pete's our little star. He's about two years old and a camera. I'm curious, you talk about the education side of things with here. So, that must be a very big aspect of what you want to do. Obviously, conservation and protecting environment and explain to people what we'll call it progress, but it's just wholesale development and land clearing does and how it impacts the animals. Yep. But I'm curious in your education program, how much do you use with Wikipedia? What's your thought on that? Yep. Look, to be completely honest, Wikipedia is my go-to for a lot of our information. Look, with any, I think as educators and education providers with all of our programs, we've always got to factor everything, just to make sure the information we're putting out there. So, it doesn't matter what site we go to, we'll still go to multiple sites to make sure we're getting the site that's correct. But look, Wikipedia is almost always accurate when it comes to the wildlife information here in Perth and WA. The information on there almost always reflects information that's out on all the other government websites so we use Wikipedia quite a lot. It's almost a first port of call to get that information. Because it condenses everything. It condenses everything right down, makes it very easy. Exactly. And then we can, we'll fact check everything and get down to that detail. But no, look, we love Wikipedia and we always use it. Yeah. What about on the veterinary side? Look, with the veterinary side, because wildlife, there's no textbooks for wildlife medicine. So, it doesn't even exist on most veterinary textbooks, the line on Wikipedia. So no, we don't probably use veterinary medicine stuff, but in terms of educational messages, in terms of distribution of wildlife, you know, habitat, population densities, all that sort of stuff, we always, you know, we look at Wikipedia as a source. But yeah, veterinary medicine, it doesn't half-time even exist in a veterinary textbook, let alone online anyway. So, we like to think we sort of specialise in emu, rehabilitation and wrangling, I suppose if you will, we do a lot of it. And last year we had a call, there was a emu, someone's pet emu that had gotten out of the freeway. So it was actually on the news, it was walking down the freeway, there were, you know, it could have caused a serious accident, but you know, the public were really good at trying to avoid it. And then it sort of went missing for a day and it ended up being found in a local school walking around the paddock. So fortunately, it wasn't during school term, but they had exams on. So we were able to close the gates, but it was still in a 20-acre space that we had to try to catch this emu. So it was a whole day of exercise that I had to coordinate with our, you know, more experienced animal and we managed to contain the emu to a tennis court and then from there we were able to load, you know, after we let it calm down, get it into a horse float. But that was six and a half hours of trying to get this emu. And we don't want to stress them out and we very rarely, we don't like to use any sedatives and chemicals on emu so it's always going to be, you know, manual handling, but these are dangerous animals. If you handle them wrong and on that day I got a nasty kick to the arm, still got a scar to prove it. So you don't want to be messing with emus because they're very big, very dangerous and they can inflict some potentially serious, if not fatal injuries if in the wrong circumstance. So unless you're trained to work with emus, don't go anywhere near them. Leave them to professionals. Wombat, hairy nose? Yeah, so this is a southern hairy nose wombat. So they're the smallest species of wombat we have here in Australia and this is Vinny. So Vinny's nine years old. He's a good boy, but he does like to bite being a wombat and likes to play and their version of play is bite really hard which is fine for if you're a wombat not so fine if you're another human. So another one of our ambassadors who you know, educates people on the importance of preserving habitat for his species and what we can do to look after them. I'm hoping this one is friendly rather than it's not as friendly if it's whether it's venom or not. Well, I did assure you would have bring one that was venomous out to us. Does Western Australia have the most toxic snakes in the world? No. We've got a of the world's most venomous snakes. A lot of the ones are from Western Australia but yeah, in terms of venom potency you know, we don't claim that title I'm afraid here in WA. Well, that's nice to know. So it is kind of safe except for the six other species in the top ten that are here. Yeah, no. I mean, our guy's a non-venomous snake. So she's a python. Yeah, this is some pythons. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, all it's going to do is strangle me somewhere warm to curl up because it's not the best today's for. Well, thank you, Dean. That's very much appreciated the tour and the walk through and the chat about everything that you do here. Yeah. Hopefully we can look at working with you in the future and keep improving the Wikipedia content and fill in that great big gap on veterinary science that's sitting there. No, great. And look, thank you for the opportunity for us to show you guys where your audience is what we do. You know, we're really proud that we're a wildlife of what we do in the community and, yeah, we just want to make sure that, you know, wildlife have a voice and that people have these connections with wildlife so that they can go and look after the natural environment to make sure these guys have a happy and healthy future going forward. So thank you very much. Yeah, that's all right. And again, I hope everyone's enjoyed all the fluffy animals and birds and seeing that wildlife and sticking them in a cage and charging people a fortune to get in rather than a teacher to protect and, obviously, Wikipedia helps you with that side of things as well. Thank you. I'm Man Garra from Wikipedia and this is Margie. She's the curator of the museums up here at Western Australia. Hello, everyone. And she's going to take us for a walk around the museums and give us an insight into what it's like running a museum and types of things that museums actually do. I'm pleased you can join us. 2J is actually at the confluence of three three Aboriginal groups. We have the Baladong. We're essentially where we are now. This is the the very edge of their territory. But we also include in 2J the Wajak folk from the Perth area and the Eud from the north. So our local Aboriginal community want us to acknowledge that this is a home of actually three. It's fairly unique. So when we do acknowledge that we have to acknowledge that there's three groups here who are the original custodians of this area. When you have an event you do an acknowledgement which is just a welcome. Sometimes we're able to have a member of a community who can do a welcome. A welcome, yeah. But we are sort of learning and we're very happy to acknowledge the complexity of the culture that was here long before Europeans came. So how long did it take a museum before it started collecting the normal history? These interpretation states from the early 2000s we're wanting to do what we're looking at adding. So we have most of the objects in the collection are on colonial history. That's the objects we have. So that is the story we're attending to tell even though we have got some some stories about local Aboriginal people in some of our panels but we're going to add this room here one of the water's quarters. We have kitchen type things food. We're going to add Aboriginal people who are obviously cooking and living. We want to include we want to add information about that and that's around to the museum in the various areas that we've got interpretations growing up in 2J. We have you know what European toys well Aboriginal children were growing up what were they experiencing what were they doing and this is something that's really exciting and we've been advised and receiving information and we hope as part of these new interpretations that come on board soon the the voice the local voice will come through we'll look at dark history too we need to acknowledge that and also across the road in the chair and chair we're proposing panels about Noongar families included added to the panels about European explorers settlers that we have in place here. This building was originally this was a jail where we are standing here in the waters quarters it was built by convicts again convicts sent across from the United Kingdom from Britain built 1862 1864 the whole building was handed over to the the authorities in 1865 we so we know this was used as a a prison up until 1907 after which a new facility was built not far just across the road part of our museum precinct at the moment not usually over to the public because we haven't yet we're using the storage when we're allowed to open that so we have the 20th century jail this is the 19th century jail it housed Aboriginal people as well as European people but it was the local lockup although it was built by convicts it was used not only to house convicts but anyone who was misbehaving in colonial well this area was called Newcastle the original settlement of two jails further down the river stables were here on stage wasn't you're right yes true and that happened in the 19th century towards the end of the 19th century across the road from the jail there were wooden stables built as part of the the convict depot this area was where the originally where the sappers and the miners were and there were stables to hold seven horses plus outlying buildings to hold feed and equipment in 1890 the state was caught fire they were wooden with shingle roof and wooden floor boards they think there was a they call it compost heap this side of the coal fire and then the state itself so it just spontaneous combustion for the whole thing yes we it was caught very quickly we had a mill across beside us a flower mill a steam flower mill they saw the fire they tutored their whistle to alarm everyone and they actually got all the horses out no horses and they got all the equipment out too so you just lost just lost the stables but you're exactly true it's very vulnerable to fire our building here would be extremely vulnerable to fire we've just had the shingles replaced wooden shingles it's extremely not far away we had Pelham Zerve and of course yes we had a really bad fire here in the world 15 years ago now the state always had a connection to one of the characters from 2J you didn't know Joe's very connected to 2J he escaped from the lock up which at that stage was in one of the old depot buildings and he scooted down to where the magistrates house was which has now been demolished this was demolished when the standard gauge railway came through down near the current 2J railway station and that's where the magistrate lived and that's where he he obviously the horses being stored there but he took the magistrates saddle and bridle and he got away but yeah those were the stables there it was a big house and yeah obviously they had stables yeah and 2J Stuller rates or does it have Moundine Joe inside? well Moundine Joe he's named from the Moundine Hills in the 2J area he was a bushman very well he knew the area very well and what was happening 30 years ago 40 years ago his exploits were being celebrated and claimed by other parts of western Australia and so the locals said well we've got to do something to reclaim him because the legend began here this is where the legend began this is where he made his first escape and so 30 years also ago that's when the Moundine Festival it's a really wonderful colonial festival and I'd say probably West Australia's premier colonial festival that happens every year and it's great a lot of the locals dress up and yeah we celebrate the escapes of Moundine Joe the Moundine has so many permanent characters out of town he did yes I mean certainly through the 1860s 1850s he was a very good bushman and he certainly in the hills had a semi permanent cab he was a great bushman and I think he was friends with a quite a few of the local settlers and I doubt they helped him he would come back especially during his escapes from Fremantle in the 1860s he would tend to come back to TJ the WikiTown project to TJP now that started way back eight years ago it would be and that was when we went out I was invited I met one of the historical society presidents and he invited us to come out and join the CBI and bought one there and we went out to GPS located Moundine's gate there's actually pictures on Wikipedia and that was how we started that connection in the TJP which is a project which is QR codes through the museum yes it was a wonderful it is a wonderful project and what I love about it is I'm often quoted back information that we've actually put up on Wikipedia as a part of those projects there's more than 60 articles within that great that encompasses the project in the three stages that we've rolled out but it's when people come back to quote stuff that I thought I know where you've got that from you've got that from Wikipedia so it's been a really wonderful it's what it's done is put a lot of information out there historical information out there that people can access and it really informs people people's you know how they feel and because we've put it out there I can be confident that what people are learning is actually is best based on the available knowledge and the source of it we can change, add but what's there is the truth as far as we are aware at the time and I think it's fabulous and I don't think people realise how important that is so it's been a wonderful project we're really happy to have been involved this is Connor's Mill it was built for Daniel Connor around 1870 this is our second museum that the Shire of 2J has opened we have it open seven days a week and access is through the 2J business and this one has more permanent displays it does, it does we do change over a display case on the top floor but generally we've got larger objects in here we've got our wonderful steam engine which is permanently there and we have our flower milling machinery large machinery which is on display upstairs we have a police system that runs from down here operates the historic milling machinery and on the top floor we have a static display of that 2J's agriculture history well just like to thank you Maggie for showing us a round I know we're on you got to the second floor of the old mill to see what's upstairs they're going to have to come to 2J and have a look themselves it's been a wonderful pleasure to have you yeah and it's fun working on all these QR codes oh it is and it's just it's all about sharing knowledge learning so the future can learn what we did in the past and all our lovely mistakes it's so accessible too and it's a wonderful resource