Dawn has three new friends in Darrell, Charlie and Itchy, the bilbies who now call the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast home.

Named after the bilbies’ number one fan, chocolate manufacturer Darrell Lea, Darrell is part of the Sanctuary’s education centre where local school children can get up close to Australian wildlife.

By making Darrell and Charlie part of the education centre, the Sanctuary hopes to teach the 20,000 Australians who visit the centre each year about the plight of the bilby. By April 2004, Currumbin will also be home to a bilby captive breeding program. As bilbies breed quite successfully in captivity under the right conditions, Currumbin Sanctuary is hoping to be able to send lots of joeys (baby bilbies) to the safe area protected by the Save the Bilby Fence.

Itchy the Bilby has his own display in the Sanctuary and is not part of the education centre. Because bilbies are nocturnal, Itchy is kept in a dark environment so that visitors can see him when he is most active.

For information on Currumbin’s bilby breeding program, e-mail or visit the Currumbin website.

Darrell

Darrell & Charlie

Itchy

Itchy's Display