John Mauger described as an "odd" day at the farm. He wasn't wrong.
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It started out normally enough, with Mr Mauger spying sheep on the wrong side of a fence at his NSW Southern Highlands property.
The animals were using the space opened up by a wombat hole to slip through, so he brought a load of rocks over to block it.
What happened next stopped him in his tracks.
"I couldn't see it [the sheep] because it ended up being between four and five metres into the hole, and about two metres underground.
"I don't know how it managed to get its way down there."
With 400 other sheep to worry about, one sheep lost down a long wombat hole seemed too much trouble, but as Mr Mauger drove back to the house he decided to have a crack with the tractor.
Having enlisted the help of his wife, Vicki, and son , Mat, the Maugers managed to rescue the sheep from its situation - but it took four hours.
"He was covered in red dirt, and it took him a while to get his bearings because he'd been in dark so long," said Mr Mauger.
"He went over to the other sheep and they took off - they didn't want to know him.
"But I checked him yesterday and he was eating fine. It's just going to take him a few days to get over it.
"We had to have a go, we couldn't just leave it laying there - it would have been a pretty cruel death," he said.
"In the end, they're food, but we do try to take care of them while they're with us."