Airdate: Quoll Farm

Tasmanian documentary Quoll Farm will screen on ABC next month.

This is the true story of a family of charismatic quolls that live on an abandoned farm in a hidden corner of Tasmania, and one man’s extraordinary devotion to save them.

In Tasmania lives a rare and wonderful marsupial, the Eastern Quoll. Already extinct on the Australian mainland, their numbers are declining in Tasmania, their last refuge. Invasive predators, a changing climate and human encroachment threaten their numbers. Soon these animals could be lost forever. But could humans also help them survive?

Simon Plowright, a naturalist, and filmmaker spends a year on an abandoned farm in a hidden valley looking into their world and uncovering their secrets. Living alone in the wilderness may seem like an extraordinary step, but Simon knows this is a unique opportunity to study this enigmatic and often misunderstood marsupial, and more importantly, to see if there is a way, he can help them survive. Is it just possible that given a chance they would choose to live alongside us?

Production credits: A Wild Creature Films and Smith&Nasht Production. Principal Production and Development Funding from Screen Australia. Developed and produced with Screen Tasmania. Production Funding from the ABC, Smithsonian Channel, ZDF/Arte and NHK. Filmed in association the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Producers Simon Nasht and Nick Hayward, Writer and Director Simon Plowright, ABC Executive Producer Leo Faber.

Sunday February 14, 7.40pm on ABC.