It was mid afternoon, the day after the big wet, on the NSW far south coast, when Sue received the first call for ‘Galahs in trouble’ at the local caravan park.  Guessing it may be a job for more than one she took the whole family to help and lucky she did. 

When they arrived they saw a metre deep of foam washed right up on the beach. A number of Galahs were covered in the foam and unable to fly,  still others were trapped in the foam and difficult to even find.   

The caring person at the caravan park who had called WIRES had already bathed a few. Sue began to transfer the rescued Galahs to cages for the trip back to her house. Once home each one had to be washed under the laundry tap. Meanwhile her helpers were still finding and gathering up others. They were kept busy for the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening, washing, drying and housing 16 Galahs in total that day.

The next morning Sue and Michael found themselves rescuing and treating another 11 Galahs, making it 27 in the two days.   

Sue said "most seem to relax once they were being washed  and to understand they were being helped , if not co-operating at least were not objecting to the washing and  drying procedures".

Most were able to be housed outside and settled down well enjoying Sue’s hospitality and help. Three were in more trouble having ingested a good bit of the foam and were kept on heat inside. Sadly these three subsequently died but after a few days of TLC the others were all able to be released. It was a marathon effort for Sue, Michael and John with an excellent result for the Galahs.

Story and image thanks to Sue Krause