Police Rescue Wallaby Found Swimming Six Kilometres From Shore

Queensland Water Police have completed a daring rescue of an Aussie icon that was found way too far out at sea.

A member of the public travelling on the water came across the wallaby off the state's south-east coast.

Deciding an attempt to rescue the animal might cause injury, they called emergency services to help get it to safety.

When Water Police arrived, they were a whopping 6.2 kilometres from the nearest coastline.

Acting Sergeant Gene Hill noted that the wallaby was fatigued and swimming in circles before they started the delicate process of getting it out of the water.

Queensland Police

Once it was on board, the team nicknamed her Dawny, after legendary Australian Olympic swimmer Dawn Fraser.

"We treated this call as urgent as any other call," he told ABC. "I think she was so relived to have somebody bring her out of the water, she didn't resist at all.

"She was very relieved to be in the boat. It was a great sense of satisfaction."

The wallaby was wrapped up in a towel to prevent her from losing heat and nursed until they got back to the shore.

Queensland Police

"I gave her lots of cuddles on the way back to shore and she didn't object in anyway, and I think she was happy with the attention," Acting Sergeant Gene Hill added.

"It was a good feeling all around."

Once they were back on solid ground, Dawny was a little disorientated, but after a while she was able to hop away to live out the rest of her days... hopefully on shore.

This certainly isn't the first animal found very far out at sea that needed a helping hand.

Fishermen about 800 metres from Geraldton's Point Moore Lighthouse in Western Australia discovered a kangaroo swimming in the water last year.

Offshore Fishing WA-Geraldton

Staff from GG Wildlife Rescue Inc have posted how the Offshore Charters WA-Geraldton coordinated the rescue on Facebook, with a spokesperson saying: "Got a call from Kim at Offshore Fishing, the boys had found a kangaroo floating near death off shore.

"These bloody legends knew quickly they had to help this big boy so one of the lads jumped in the water and tied a rope to the kangaroo and pulled him on board.

"They called me to meet them at the wharf and since they had nothing to contain him in they tied him to a wharf pole."

The boat's skipper, Kim Wheatley, told Perth Now they had to perform CPR on the poor roo, resulting in nearly a litre of water being coming from it. There's no word on how it got there but thankfully these guys saved its life.

Topics: News, Animals, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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