04-07-2025
Only known colour footage of extinct Toolache wallaby revealed after 90 years
The film shows one of the female marsupials fenced in a paddock, likely the last living representative of her species when the footage was shot in 1936.
This is the only known colour footage of a living Tulla wallaby taken almost 90 years ago.
The film shows one of the female marsupials fenced in a paddock, likely the last living representative of her species when the footage was shot in 1936.
A digital copy of the film has been held at the South Australian Museum for 20 years, but that version is entirely in black and white.
What's incredible about the newly digitised National Film and Sound Archive copy is that it contains 34 seconds of colour footage at the end while the colour section of the film has deteriorated and turned a deep magenta in colour, it still helps viewers imagine what this fascinating creature was like to see in real life.
