Animals rescuers saved a wombat stranded alone on a pile of sticks on a swollen river in Molesworth, Victoria, on the morning of Saturday, October 22, amid flooding in the region.

Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter said it received a call about the stranded animal the night before but it was too dangerous to carry out a rescue in the dark. The shelter said it was an “anxious night, hoping her island was not washed away.”

This video from Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter & Five Freedoms Animal Rescue shows rescuers hoisting the feisty wombat to safety from sticks on the Goulburn River on Saturday morning, before releasing the animal.

Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter said, “We were able to assess her, luckily she was healthy and uninjured, but exhausted from spending who knows how long on the island.” The wombat was released around 300 meters from the river, on higher ground, he group said.

A local political candidate identified two of the rescuers as Manfred Zabinskas, from Five Freedoms Animal Rescue and East Trentham Wildlife Shelter, and Tania Begg from Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter.

October 22 is World Wombat Day. Credit: Terra Mater Wildlife Shelter & Five Freedoms Animal Rescue via Storyful

Video transcript

[RIVER SOUND]

- So that's where the [INAUDIBLE] of the river normally is.

- It's right here. This is where the willows are.

[INAUDIBLE]

- So this is normally just river.

- Yes.

- Yep, that's [INTERPOSING VOICES]

- That's--

- Oh, OK.

- --1.5 high.

- All right. [INAUDIBLE]

- Well, my thinking is if I put a net in front of it--

- Yes.

- Yes ma'am. We'll do it from the other side-- [INAUDIBLE]

- Hang on, I think I've got him. I think--

- And I've got it.

[KNOCKING METAL]

- You've got him. You've got them both. You've got both. You've got both.

- OK.

- All right, Kenny, have you got the rope?

- Next tool. I think we're going to have to use the net.

- Get into the net, get into the net.

- All right. [INAUDIBLE]

- [INAUDIBLE] debris.

- Got it, got it, got it, got it?

- Up,up slow.

- All right, grab the net.

- I can't reach it.

- You're all good.

- [INAUDIBLE] you biting my brand-new net?

- Yeah. Before and after.

- That's it. I know you want to bite me. Oh. Hang on, I'll get [INAUDIBLE] to it.

- There we go.

- Oh. Lift that net up. Hand me that bag.

[SHUFFLING]

- OK.

[AEROPLANE SOUND]

- Oh.

- Got him.

- Got it, all right. I'll just sit set for a minute if you guys want to--

- [INAUDIBLE] Catch your breath.

- High five, [INAUDIBLE] Well done.

- Well done, guys.

- I expected him to be smaller.

- And less feisty. So he's a handful. I'm assuming it's a he, we didn't even check. But yeah, it's amazing how they get a bit of adrenaline going when they're being handled. Because he was quite docile on the amount of debris. But it sort of worked in our favor. We needed him to move around to get the noose under him. So it worked the way it was meant.

- Today.

- Well done.

- It's difficult [INAUDIBLE] Oh.

- No, we can probably get him--

- Over.

- Over.

- Yeah. [INAUDIBLE]

- We got it.

- Good boy or girl. Good wombat.

- I left my torch in the car. [INAUDIBLE]