MJOC At Narbeview Fire-Ready Working Bee
Melbourne Jeep Owners Club (MJOC) have had a long standing relationship with Narbeview Wildlife Shelter at Buxton in Victoria. Club member Rob Sharpe who lives up the road from Narbeview introduced the club to the wonders of caring for baby Wombats and other wildlife that find their way to Shelley and Rodney who run the shelter. The club has run many working bees at the shelter and many members have enjoyed helping out with all sorts of jobs, what ever they can do to help out and maybe get to cuddle a baby creature at the end of the day.
After the January 2026 fires Rod realised that their property was quite vulnerable and identified numerous work that needed to be done to get the shelter ready for the next fire attack. The recent fires came close and Rod said the atmosphere created by the fire as it approached was incredible. When the wind changed direction the air went still for about an hour before blowing from the opposite direction and during this time all the leaves in the trees started to fall to the ground suddenly.
"it was unreal" said Rodney whilst explaining the realization that he had a lot of extra work to do to get ready for the next fire. Its not if but when.
So the call came out to MJOC and Rob Sharpe swung into action to get a crew up there for another MJOC working bee.
The Donations
Meanwhile Shelley had put the call out for assistance for supplies, especially veterinarian medical supplies and not just for Narbeview but the other surviving wildlife shelters (some had been damaged or wiped out in the fires.) The MJOC members swung into action and spread the word for help.
Our members are a fantastic bunch of people and managed to obtain heaps of needed supplies. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our members and local community, we were able to deliver a wide range of much-needed donations, including:
• $1,000 worth of pet food
• Gas bottles
• Clothing and shoes (men’s, women’s and children’s)
• PPE vests and riggers gloves
• Toiletries and personal hygiene items
• Bathroom essentials
• Towels, blankets and sheets
• Sunscreen
• Snack foods
• Medical supplies for wildlife shelters
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed, including:
Animal Referral Hospital (ARH) Essendon Fields
https://www.facebook.com/ARHVetsEssendon
Chemist Warehouse Airport West
https://www.facebook.com/ChemistWarehouse
Strathmore 3041 Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/889159445406785
Our club also donated $1100 from our recent Christmas Raffle a donation greatly appreciated by Shelley and Rodney as they get no Government assistance to run the shelter. Its all volunteer work from friends, locals and clubs like MJOC and TLCCV.
Medical Supplies awaiting sorting on Shelleys' verandah
The truck about to leave for Alexandra and Yark including clothing, shoes, medical supplies and food for wildlife.
The Working Bee
The working bee managed to complete a massive amount of fire preparation to make Narbeview 'Fire-ready' including many MJOC members volunteering their time at Narbeview Wildlife Shelter, assisting with:
• Cleaning enclosure roofs and gutters of leaf litter
• Raking leaf litter from around enclosures
• Trimming dead branches from trees to keep them out of reach from grass fire
• Whipper-snipping the roadside verge and each side of the main drive way
• Building shelving in treatment room cupboards
• Sorting medical supplies onto shelves
The grass on the roadside verge at the front of the property was overgrown and touching the branches of the trees, this has now all been cleared, it now looks like manicured parkland.
The driveway had long grass and scrub along the fenceline and trees were hanging over the drive. This has all been cleared too!
Ian 'Fletch' Fletcher using the trimmer along the driveway. Both sides of the fence were cleared back and along each side of the drive.
On the Day
The property at Narbeview is surrounded by farmland on one side, and forest on the other-side and the rear. It is a great place to rehabilitate wildlife, mostly Wombats that have been rescued from their mothers after being hit by vehicles as well as possums, many birds and other creatures that find their way to Shelley at Narbeview. Shelley has now started to rescue Koalas from the nearby fire zone as well as attending to injure Kangaroos which have to be transported to other shelters or to Healesville Sanctuary.
The house is surrounded by shelters for recovering Wombats before they are re-homed in the wild as well as pens for the household sheep, chooks, dogs and others.
The verandah is lined with cages and pens which are recovery zones for Kookaburras, Owls, Magpies and others that are recovering from some sort of trauma. Inside the house it's full of baby Wombats and others awaiting their turn in the larger pens when they grow up. It's a 24/7 commitment from Shelley and her team of volunteer helpers as these creatures often need round the clock feeding and medical attention on their road to recovery.
The recent bushfires have increased the workload dramatically and there is a constant stream of injured and burnt wildlife being found as people start to get back to some resemblance of normality. Shelley races off at lunchtime to rescue a Kangaroo that has been found on someones property at Alexandra. The creature had become tangled in fence wire trying to escape the flames and was close to not surviving when shelley arrived. She managed to get it untangled and into a bag in the back of her car and back to Narbeview where she used wire cutters to get the wire off its legs and treat its badly burned feet. Then it was off to Glenburn on the Melba highway to another wildlife shelter she had managed to arrange for its future care. Shelley is not equipped to keep Kangaroos as they need special enclosures etc, All in a day and nights work.
You get a real sense of doing something that matters when you can see the difference at the end of the day. Volunteering at Narbeview is very rewarding and is a great way to support the community.
A huge thankyou to all the MJOC Members who helped out on the day.
For further information about Narbeview Wildlife Shelter visit the website and socials https://www.narbeview.com.au/