The future of an Australian wildlife icon is looking more hopeful thanks to two of the Murrumbidgee's most passionate family forces.
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The Altin family and Casella Family Brands have collaborated in a project to build a start of the art sanctuary for the Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby at Altina Wildlife Park, which is now open to the public.
Altina officially opened its new wallaby enclosure on Monday in the hopes to contribute to the future survival of the endangered mountain dweller through a breeding program that is already showing signs of success.
"We are trying to do what we can for an Aussie species that is considered endangered in NSW," Rebecca Surian, animal and operations manager at Altina Park said.
"We've had the wallabies for nearly a year now and since being here they've already had three babies and they have pouch young again so in the next couple of months we will have another three babies."
Casella Family Brands sponsored the construction of the enclosure, donating a generous $81,300 toward the build. A small price to pay to play their part in ensuring the animal that inspired their world famous Yellow Tail wine range label survives for generations to come.
"Altina Park has such an amazing development that we thought it would be a great complement to have a world famous animal part of the enclosures here," Daniel Casella, commercial manager said.
Casella Family Brands approached the wildlife park three and half years ago to build the sanctuary Mr Casella, son of Joe Casella explained.
"It was a vision we had that the enclosure had all the right aspects to support the animal," Mr Casella said.
"It is a world famous marsupial now so for people to come to the spiritual home of the wine and see them looking so healthy and vibrant it's really great."
The wallaby is now highly endangered as a consequence of introduced species such as foxes and feral cats preying on the naturally shy marsupials. Competition for food from rabbits and feral goats has also played a part in further preventing the wallaby from recovering numbers.
"We are very honoured that the Casella family asked us to get involved with this program and we are very happy that the wallabies are breeding well," Gloria Altin, co-founder of Altina Wildlife park said.
"It's just a great partnership between the two businesses and we are very happy with how things have started."
"It really is a testament to the passion of family owned businesses." Mr Casella said.
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Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
