A Manx rotary club has been thanked for its donation which is making a difference to the lives of Australian animals.

The Native Animal Rescue Group (NARG) in Braidwood Australia, which is affected by the bushfire crisis, has passed on its gratitude to Rushen and Western Mann Rotary club for its £1,200 donation.

The group was prompted to raise funds through bag packing at the Port Erin Shoprite after reading an Examiner story about Bidda Jones, who grew up in Port St Mary and is now the chief executive of Australia RSPCA.

She had appealed to the Manx community for help towards the wildlife in her town, which has a few Manx connections.

The club received a message from Bidda saying their donation had been received by NARG.

She said the charity’s president, Bill Waterhouse, told her that they now have over 150 feeding stations for wildlife in fire-affected areas.

It is buying food with the help of donations like the rotary group’s, with local volunteers distributing food to land-holders who can put food out for wildlife.

She wrote: ’The main species benefitting from supplementary feeding are eastern grey kangaroos, red-necked wallabies, swamp wallabies and wombats.

’We have now had a decent rainfall in the area, so the fires are out here, but there was so much rain that many wombats have been brought into the care of NARG because their burrows were flooded.

’These animals will eventually be released back into the wild, but NARG will care for them in the meantime.’

She added that many of the charity’s release sites were burnt in the fires and therefore it will be some time before there is enough decent habitat to release wildlife into.

Although the rain has helped plants to regrow, feeding will be needed for ’many weeks’ to ensure recovering grass and shrubs are able to re-establish.

Bidda added: ’Many thanks again for the generosity of the rotary club and the Ladies Division in raising money for this cause.

’I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you all went to such an effort - and the lives of many animals will have been saved as a result.’