This first leg of his ‘Tour de Love’ fundraiser will see him ride his bike from Scotts Head to Woolgoolga in early April – representing the vast distance that our local WIRES organisation is guardian over.

WIRES Mid North Coast is a group of 150 concerned locals who monitor a large area of habitat and road networks, the combined distance covers an area of approximately 8172 square kilometres – roughly the same size as Cyprus!

The small group of dedicated volunteers help save the lives of thousands of our furry, scaled and feathered friends every year, through the three Rs method: rescue, rehabilitation and release.

“From Ballards Rd to the Nambucca Servo there have been three macropods (wallabies and roos) killed just in the last 2 weeks,” Darren said.

“WIRES is a vital organisation that relies on the benevolence and compassion of members and public fundraising.” 

On top of costs incurred in order to drive out to rescue sites, members often also dip into their own pockets to set up their own rehabilitation centres with cages, incubators, medicine, hospital boxes and food.

“We are avian specialists, but we have built an avery beside our house which also houses echidnas,” Darren said.

“A bobcat came in to dig down a metre, and we lined it to make it echidna-proof.”

During our interview Darren introduces me to two of his latest lodgers – a pair of wood ducks named Daisy and Donald who are currently in the process of being soft-released back into their native habitat.

If you would like to support the amazing work that Mid North Coast WIRES does, you can donate through Darren’s crowdfunding page which has currently only raised $360 of it’s ten grand target.

“$10,000 was always an ambitious target, but whatever we raise will be greatly appreciated,” Darren said.

Alternately, if you would like to help out with might not money, you can become a volunteer rescuer.

Introductory workshops and training are scheduled for March/April in Coffs Harbour.

“Like all volunteer organisations we are short of feet on the ground,” Darren said.

“It’s a very worthwhile and satisfying experience if you can rescue, rehabilitate and release an animal into the wild.”

If you find an injured native animal you can call the local Nambucca WIRES line on 6564-8661, or the Coffs line which operates 24/7 on 13000 WIRES, that’s 1300 094-737.