By Tanya Steele
Little Yarra CFA had an unusual call-out on the night of Tuesday 5 September.
Units were told on the journey out to Gladysvale two rottweilers had gotten stuck while chasing a wombat through a property late in the evening.
The doggy duo’s midnight jaunt was cut short when the pair got stuck in pursuit of the native marsupial who led them underneath the bottom of a bin somehow.
Lieutenant Peter Cookson from Little Yarra CFA said that when they get a call out like this, the unit gets geared up for turnout and never knows what to expect.
“We were wondering what exactly was happening and on arrival, we find two rottweilers underneath a 24 cubic metre bin,” he said.
“The dogs had been chasing the wombat around and gotten stuck, meanwhile the wombat was long gone.”
Animal Aid and the openers of the property had been attempting to coax the canines out and called in the CFA to assist.
“We were scratching our heads as well – lifting without hurting the dogs was a concern,” Mr. Cookson said.
The unit considered leaving it for the night – but then SES Upper Yarra arrived with a device that assisted the process – it lifted the bin up enough to safely get the dogs out.
“Our mates from Upper Yarra turned up and they were great, the dogs had a little bit more room to move and they eventually decided to trust us,” Mr Cookson said.
A representative from the Upper Yarra SES said the lifting device can be incredibly useful for different operations.
“We have a set of airbags that uses compressed air and they have a very high lifting capacity, we also stacked cribbing under the container once it was raised to make the area safe,” they said.
The raised space allowed the midnight responders to coax the dogs out from under the bin.
“They were wet and cold and came out one at a time – they were very friendly dogs and probably very glad they were out from under that bin,” Mr Cookson said.
Animal Aid staff from Coldstream took the dogs from there for a microchip check and some care and returned them to the owners fed and washed clean by the next day.
Little Yarra CFA rang to check on their progress and Mr Cookson said “they are probably vowing to never chase wombats again.”
The CFA turn out for many things that the community wouldn’t believe and Mr Cookson said they get lots of weird and wonderful things, “It’s not just fires – I myself have rescued an injured koala from a tree,” he said.
Throughout CFA the different brigades specialise in different things that can help in different scenarios.
“Wandin have got a good on rope rescue, Yellingbo have a rehab unit – each brigade will have their own speciality,” Mr Cookson said.
“Little Yarra has a Landcruiser with a huge pump – we can hook up to a river and supply four trucks with water,” he said.
Mr Cookson said members of the public had shown concern on the Little Yarra Facebook page for the wombat that was pursued by the dogs.
“The wombat was likely fine – he got the better of the two,” he said.
