{"id":1014465,"date":"2026-06-09T03:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1014465\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T03:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:07:20","slug":"hitchhiking-wallaby-returns-to-north-qld-home-after-1000km-trip-to-charleville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1014465\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitchhiking wallaby returns to north Qld home after 1,000km trip to Charleville"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tiny wallaby that was transported 1,000 kilometres from home has been returned to north Queensland, hitching a ride with a young traveller.<\/p>\n

“Little Claudia” spent the past month in the south-west of the state after being found on the side of the road west of Townsville next to her mother, who had been hit by a car.<\/p>\n

The group that picked her up was unable to find a wildlife carer until nine hours down the road in Charleville, a long way from the agile wallaby’s normal habitat.<\/p>\n

Majella Stapleton has been caring for rescued roos in Charleville for two decades and currently has 17 in her care.<\/p>\n

\"Majella<\/p>\n

Majella Stapleton says she loves animals. (Supplied: Shannon Mathes)<\/p>\n

“I’ve had lots of wallies from here over the years, but she’s my first from up there,” Ms Stapleton said.<\/p>\n

“She was just the most amazing little livewire and such a character.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Getting Claudia back to Townsville<\/p>\n

The agile wallaby, or the sandy wallaby, is the most prevalent species found in northern Australia.<\/p>\n

Balancing the ledger<\/a><\/p>\n

More than 1.7 million kangaroos could be legally shot in Queensland this year. Kim Palmer and Karen Emmott are doing their best to save the orphans left behind.<\/p>\n

Active mainly at dawn and dusk, their unpredictable movements in low light make them frequent victims of vehicle strikes.<\/p>\n

Across outback Queensland, roadkill is a common sight, and while some people make a living shooting kangaroos, a network of registered wildlife carers is dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating those that survive.<\/p>\n

Many rescues start with observant travellers who stop to check injured kangaroos or wallabies along the roadside.<\/p>\n

When Townsville traveller Willow Wells rescued an eastern grey joey near Barcaldine, she contacted Charleville wildlife rescuer Shannon Mathes for help.<\/p>\n

\"Willow<\/p>\n

Willow Wells was travelling to Cunnamulla to see family. (Supplied: Willow Wells)<\/p>\n

After dropping off the eastern grey, Ms Wells was handed another passenger for the trip back north: Claudia.<\/p>\n

“We had her in a little pouch, and we did make stops along the way at servos to ask them for a bit of hot water to mix up in a milk bottle for her,” she said.<\/p>\n

How to rescue a joey<\/p>\n

Ms Mathes said the initial group did the right thing getting the agile wallaby to a registered carer, even though it was so far away.<\/p>\n

\"Wallaby<\/p>\n

It was a 2,000km round trip for Little Claudia over the past month. (Supplied: Willow Wells)<\/p>\n

“They scooped her up and kept her warm. They tried to source some carers out that way, but didn’t have any luck,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If anyone’s travelling on the road, please stop and check those pouches if it’s safe to do so.<\/p>\n

“If you can drag the mother off the road, it’s easier to check the pouch, get the joey out.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Little Claudia was wrapped up to keep warm. (Supplied: Shannon Mathes)<\/p>\n

Ms Mathes advised pulling the joey by the tail or legs.<\/p>\n

“You want to scoop them out like a baby, but don’t do that. Just do the legs, tail, straight out, and just keep them warm,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Wrap them in a pillowcase, jumper, put them under your shirt \u2026 warmth will keep them alive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny wallaby that was transported 1,000 kilometres from home has been returned to north Queensland, hitching a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1014466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[280852,280853,18752,70,16,15,280851,280854,1717,6375],"class_list":["post-1014465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-joey","tag-joey-rescue","tag-road-trip","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wallaby","tag-wallaby-joey","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-rescue"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116717948233510089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}