Dr Robyn Coy continues her care and rehabilitation of injured animals after her Tarcombe Animal Shelter was burnt out in the January 2026 Longwood Bushfire.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Nine months after a fireball made a beeline for Dr Robyn Coy’s home and hospital on her sprawling Tarcombe property, she finally has somewhere warm and dry for herself and the animals in her care to recover.
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Still running the Tarcombe Animal Shelter on her own, in her 70s, and now with five bulging disks in her back sustained wrangling a kangaroo as heavy as her into the back of her ute, Dr Coy’s mettle is unmatched.
The Longwood Bushfire swept through the research scientist’s undulating 400 acres on Wednesday, January 7, claiming her house, her treatment centre, pathology lab, joey-rearing space, library and training facilities.
She took no time to wallow.
After all, there were more animals — burns victims — than ever, who needed her help.
She set up a makeshift surgery in a leaking horse float, in which she also slept throughout the cold and unusually wet winter.
By spring, brighter days were afoot, and not just weatherwise.
Dr Robyn Coy in the new modular intensive care unit for her animal hospital at Tarcombe Animal Shelter. She will need volunteers to help set it up in the coming weeks.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Donations to a GoFundMe fundraiser have meant Dr Coy could purchase two modular buildings to use as a surgery and an intensive care hospital unit, as well as pouring a concrete slab on which to erect a shed large enough to fit her truck inside, which was donated and built by Dandenong’s Apex Steel.
Dr Coy's new shed has enough room to house some animals, a caravan and her truck, among other things.
Photo by
Bree Harding
“After a long day of driving, I can pull my truck straight into the shed when it’s dark and I don’t have to worry about getting up on top pulling tarps over the hay when it’s just about to rain in the middle of winter,” Dr Coy said.
She is also no longer sleeping in the breezy horse float.
While she awaits completion of a housing unit currently being built on the site of her former house, which she will lease for a minimal amount from the government for the next couple of years, Dr Coy is now sleeping more comfortably in a caravan.
A new unit that Dr Coy will rent from the government is being erected on the site of her former house, which burnt down in the bushfire. Builders were adding a ramp to make it more comfortable for her than steps, after an injury resulted in five bulging disks in her spine.
Photo by
Bree Harding
A couple from Dandenong, who upgraded, have loaned her their old caravan for as long as she needs it.
It is now parked out of the elements inside the shed where her possums, joeys and wallabies are recovering, warm and protected.
In August, Mercy Hospital for Women donated two neonatal incubators once used to care for Melbourne’s sick and premature babies, to help in the rearing of vulnerable orphaned animals and rehabilitation of sick ones.
“They (the incubators) have reached the end of their working life here at Mercy Hospital for Women, but they’re still in perfect condition, so it’s wonderful to know they'll go on supporting Robyn and the incredible work she does,” Mercy Hospital Neonatal unit equipment nurse Leah Davison said.
“It’s a lovely thought that they keep making a difference, just in a different part of the community.”
The donation was facilitated by Medical Pantry, an organisation that rescues and redistributes surplus medical supplies from the Australian healthcare system, which Dr Coy couldn’t talk highly enough of, as with everyone who has supported her throughout her ongoing recovery.
“When the fire came through, my incubator melted into a puddle on the floor, and honestly I didn’t think I’d ever be able to replace it as they are such expensive pieces of equipment,” Dr Coy said.
“Incubators make a huge difference; they give us the thermoregulation that’s so critical for injured and sick animals, and can lift survival rates by up to 85 per cent.
“I’m so grateful.”
Dr Coy said the patient intake had finally slowed, but there were still ‘fence hangers’ — kangaroos that have been found tangled in fences — being brought in with infections in wounds sustained from burns in last summer’s fires.
“They’re still out there, the poor buggers, this much later,” Dr Coy said.
It’s been a long nine months and there’s still plenty of work to do before Dr Coy’s routine returns to some kind of normal, but she’s on the way.
If there’s one thing she’s most in need of — now that water and power amenities are almost restored — it’s regular volunteers.
If you can lend Dr Coy a hand to help rebuild fences and structures or have goods to donate, contact the Tarcombe Animal Shelter on Facebook.
