With Mt Baw Baw’s Dingoes Words by Anita Butterworth | Photos supplied by Mt Baw Baw Dingoes
A trio of friendly, furry tour guides has become a major attraction at Mt Baw Baw, where they’re breaking down barriers and enticing visitors to take a walk on the wild side. Rowdy, Warragul and Bunji, are the mountain’s resident Alpine dingoes, living at Mt Baw Baw’s Dingo Resource Centre and forming an integral part of the resort’s green and snow season adventures. Throughout the year visitors can take the native dogs for a stroll and learn about the important part they play in the local ecosystem. The dingo walk program was initiated four years ago to help improve education about the species and their role in the alpine region. The first two dingoes arrived at the mountain courtesy of the Australian Dingo Foundation, and they’ve recently been joined by a friend. “We got two dingoes, and that was Rowdy and Warragul and that was four snow seasons ago, and we’ve recently had a third dingo added, his name’s Bunji, and he’s about eight months old,” explained Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort Acting Manager Amon Bradshaw. Rowdy, who boasts beautiful ginger fur, is an alpine/desert dingo. Warragul, who has light fur is 100% alpine dingo. Young Bunji is a black and tan Alpine dingo with a very special lineage. He’s the son of Wandi, the dingo that ‘fell from the sky’, who became an international sensation after being dropped by an eagle into a backyard, far from home.
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gippsland lifestyle winter ����
Visitors to Mt Baw Baw are able to take the dingoes for a walk around the Village’s trails, and sneak in a cuddle throughout the year. “The dingo walks started as a green season thing, and we didn’t really do walks with the public in snow season because obviously it’s a little bit more challenging. You often need snowshoes. The dingoes were at Mt Baw Baw year ‘round, but we only offered the walks in summer at the start. And then recently we’ve decided to really launch and push that product in winter. “The dingoes need to be walked regularly anyway so by inviting members of the public along we can teach them about dingoes and their threatened status so it’s a mutually beneficial thing. They need to be walked in winter as well as summer so we’re pretty excited to be able to offer it now in winter as well.” One of the aims of the program is to educate the public about Gippsland’s population of Alpine dingoes. “It’s a sensitive issue because they are a native animal and protected, but wild dogs are an invasive pest and can be controlled. So, people want to protect the specific locations of dingoes but I can confirm that Mt Baw Baw definitely has a population of dingoes at the plateau and the national park – I’ve seen them myself very recently.
