A Walk on the Wild Side with Mt Baw Baw’s Dingoes

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. 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.

“A lot of people don’t think that we have any dingoes in Victoria, let alone an Alpine dingo, which is an eco-type of dingo. So, people are generally pretty surprised when they hear that there’s still dingoes around, they just assume that it’s only wild dogs left and there’s no dingoes. But there’s more research now discovering that there’s plenty of pure dingoes in the Victorian mountains around Mt Baw Baw.”

Alpine dingoes have a second, thicker coat of fur which grows during late autumn. It’s then shed by late spring as the weather begins to warm up. And while dingoes like Warragul, Bunji and Rowdy can live up to 14 years in captivity, in the wild their lifespan can be much shorter.

The stigma surrounding dingoes continues to cloud the public’s perception of the species, with the program working to re-educate tourists to the region.

“In a normal year we get a lot of international tourists, obviously Melbourne visitors and there’s a lot of stereotypes about dingoes. So, it’s a really good way to change stereotypes. Our dingoes obviously aren’t wild dingoes, they’re domesticated, they’re tame. But people can see that dingoes aren’t monsters; they aren’t out there to attack people. They’re actually an important part of our ecosystem. We teach people about the role that dingoes play in protecting other native animals like the Leadbeater’s Possum for example. “Dingoes are threatened and estimated to be extinct in a number of years because of interbreeding and hunting. Not many people are aware that dingoes are threatened.”

It's hoped that the unique dingo walk experience will also entice visitors back to Mt Baw Baw after two years of lockdowns, and poor snow seasons.

“It can be challenging. We just have to prepare for a best - case scenario, which is an amazing snow season. Great visitation and being incredibly busy for four months of the year. Obviously, the weather varies but we are due for a better snow season.

“Victoria’s had a couple of average seasons which thankfully combined with the fact that people couldn’t go to the snow anyway so it wasn’t as bad an impact. But I think all of the Victorian resorts, including Mt Baw Baw are looking for a really amazing snow season.”

MT BAW BAW DINGO WALKS & CUDDLES

Dingo Walks are available midweek during Mt Baw Baw's June-September snow season. The dingo walks are available from October to May during green season. More information: mountbawbaw.com.au/dingo-resource-centre