Rare footage of extinct Toolache wallaby

This silent short film captures a long-forgotten moment from Australia’s wildlife history – rare footage of the now-extinct South Australian Toolache wallaby.

The wallaby featured is believed to be the very last of her kind: a female Toolache, filmed in 1936, just before her species vanished forever. Shot on 16mm film by museum curator and Field Naturalists Society of South Australia member Bernard C Cotton, this recording was created the same year the Tasmanian Tiger was lost, marking a tragic era for Australian wildlife.

With her distinct black-and-white facial stripes and soft pale-brown pelt, the Toolache was known to be timid but fast, easily outrunning land predators. However, the devastating impacts of hunting for sport and the clearing of its natural swampland habitat, along with the introduction of a European predator, the red fox, brought about the Toolache’s extinction.

Recently digitised by the NFSA, this film is mostly black-and-white, but ends with a poignant surprise: around 30 seconds of the only known colour footage of the Toolache wallaby. While time has affected parts of the colour segment, the well-preserved black-and-white frames offer a remarkable glimpse of the Toolache in motion.