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Waterfall Springs Wildlife Sanctuary is a non-profit organisation that works with Government wildlife agencies, major zoos and community groups as part of a unique partnership working together to help save Australia’s endangered species. Located in Kulnura on the Central Coast of NSW, Waterfall Springs is a privately owned property that has been dedicated to wildlife conservation initiatives.
Our current projects are focused on the recovery of endangered wallaby species, in particular, the ‘central and southern’ form brush-tailed rock-wallaby listed as endangered in NSW and critically endangered of extinction in Victoria (Federal Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).
 Our key objectives are to put in place best practice captive breeding facilities in support of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby and to conduct innovative managed breeding programs aimed at generating sufficient new animal numbers to provide for eventual release into the wild to help secure and sustain declining brush-tailed rock-wallaby populations. We are also committed to providing practical and responsible community education relevant to the plight of endangered native species and to actively promote that wild habitat preservation is the primary means for ensuring the long-term survival of Australia’s vitally important wildlife.
Since its establishment over ten years ago, the Waterfall Springs Conservation Association has invested significant financial and volunteer resources into constructing over thirty purpose-built enclosures that replicate as closely as possible the natural habitats of the rock-wallaby. Our ground-breaking animal management systems and technologies have also set the scene for reintroduction of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby. Intensive breeding facilities combined with extensive research and husbandry expertise in the captive management of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby have positioned us as the core facility for the Central Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Recovery Program and an integral partner in the Victorian brush-tailed rock-wallaby recovery effort. Through our commitment to securing the future of brush-tailed rock-wallabies in New South Wales and Victoria, we will strive to ensure the enjoyment of this iconic Australian species well into the foreseeable future.
 In 2003, Waterfall Springs planned, implemented and funded the rescue and repatriation of 33 ‘central form’ brush-tailed rock-wallabies from Kawau Island in New Zealand. Ancestors of the wallabies had been taken from their natural habitats in the Blue Mountains of NSW and exported to Kawau Island to form part of the Governor's private menagerie.
Facing extermination when introduced species were to be eradicated as part of a plan to restore the natural ecosystem of the island, a dedicated team of wildlife volunteers began the long process of obtaining statutory approvals for their rescue. Following eighteen months in quarantine at Waterfall Springs, the Kawau Island brush-tailed rock-wallabies were entered into a managed breeding program. This foundation group of rock-wallabies continues to breed successfully and their offspring are now being relocated to partner zoos and sanctuaries to support the wider brush-tailed rock-wallaby recovery effort.
As the captive breeding program progresses, offspring will eventually be reintroduced back into their natural wild habitats along the eastern mountains of NSW in an effort to regenerate declining populations. Waterfall Springs is one of only four organisations in the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Recovery Program specialising in the breeding of this species, including Adelaide Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. Other partner organisations in the brush-tailed rock-wallaby recovery effort across NSW and interstate include Taronga Zoo, Western Plains Zoo, Currumbin Sanctuary, ARAZPA, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Forests NSW and Parks Victoria, and the NSW and Victorian Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Recovery Teams.
 We are currently conducting recovery programs for three populations of endangered brush-tailed rock-wallabies under the direction of the state government managed breeding programs.
1. Brush-tailed rock-wallaby ‘central form’ (repatriated from Kawau Is New Zealand). A number of animals from the Kawau Island group have been provided to Earth Sanctuaries and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to support co-operative brush-tailed rock-wallaby breeding programs.
2. Brush-tailed rock-wallaby ‘central form’ (New South Wales)
- Once common around Sydney and the Blue Mountains this group of ‘central form‘ brush-tailed rock-wallabies have disappeared from most of their former range.
- The recovery program involves the selective capturing of a small number of young animals from the wild to participate in a managed captive breeding program.
- Once matured and conditioned, the offspring from these animals will be safely reintroduced into wild habitats in NSW to supplement existing and develop new brush-tailed rock-wallaby colonies.
3. Brush-tailed rock-wallaby ‘southern form’ (Victoria)
 Less than twenty‘southern form’ brush-tailed rock-wallabies remain in the wild in Victoria and approx twenty-six breeding animals now exist in Australian zoos.- As a partner of the Victorian Recovery Program for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby ‘southern form’, Waterfall Springs is conducting an accelerated captive breeding technique known as cross-fostering.
- This technique involves the removal of ten-day old new born joeys from their mother and placing them into the pouch of a surrogate mother of a different but closely related species. The donor mother is then free from the burden of carrying pouch young allowing her to breeding cycle to begin again.
- Young are now routinely transferred at 10-14 days of age. 75% survive to weaning.
- The cross fostering process adds an additional wallaby to the population every fourty days.
- Waterfall Springs aims to produce eight offspring per year for eventual re-introduction into safe wild habitats in Victoria.
Waterfall Springs is also involved in recovery programs to save two other species of endangered wallabies; the bridled nailtail wallaby and the yellow-footed rock-wallaby.
Ph: +61-2-4376 1385 Email: waterfallsprings@redranger.com.au
Web: www.waterfallsprings.com.au
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