Eddie the echidna released after surviving swim from Bribie Island to the mainland
A juvenile echidna which is believed to have completed an epic one-kilometre swim in waters off Queensland's Sunshine Coast has been released back into the wild.
The female echidna, nicknamed Eddie, was returned to bushland on Wednesday afternoon after spending weeks in care.
Eddie captured the imagination of residents after she was found in an exhausted state on a rock wall at Golden Beach last month.
The echidna was believed to be the same one spotted a few weeks earlier stranded on the battered tip of Bribie Island where the ocean has broken through in three places since 2022.
Eddie was released at Lighthouse Reach, about 5km south of the breakthroughs, with the location selected to give the native animal the best chance of survival.
The release was coordinated by Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Board (PPCMB) spokesperson Jen Kettleton-Butler and licensed wildlife carer Sybelle Foxcroft, with support from the Caloundra Coast Guard.
"The last time I saw her, she was on her last legs. She is [now] looking fit as a fiddle," Ms Kettleton-Butler said.
Caloundra resident Dave Cairns found the echidna lying on its back against a rock wall on May 24.
He contacted Ms Kettleton-Butler, who had previously filmed what appeared to be the same echidna during erosion inspections on Bribie Island.
The animal was taken to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, where she was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia — a condition linked to water inhalation.
Eddie required round-the-clock care in the hospital's intensive care unit, with a spokesperson saying she had "quickly stolen the hearts of everyone here".
While it's a rare sight, echidnas are able to swim by using their back feet to paddle and steer themselves and using their tiny snouts like a snorkel.
Wildlife experts believe the animal may have been swept off the island by rising tides, or could have entered the water in search of food.
Before the rescue, Ms Kettleton-Butler and Ms Foxcroft had conducted dusk searches along the isolated northern spit, concerned for the echidna's safety as the land continued to erode.
The echidna was not located at the time, but other wildlife, including reptiles and small marsupials, were observed on the ever-shrinking tip, which is now approximately 400 metres long and 20 metres wide.
Coastal scientists monitoring the site have warned the entire tip could be lost over time, along with the reptiles and small marsupials that still inhabit it.
"Eddie is our ray of hope," Ms Kettleton-Butler said.
The state government recently allocated $20 million for urgent repair works to the island, which also acts as a natural barrier against storm surges for low-lying communities on the mainland.
The works will involve pumping approximately 100,000 cubic metres of sand to infill the two most recent breakthroughs triggered by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred earlier this year.
An inner sandbank will also be constructed inside the first breakthrough, caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth in 2022.
The sandbank is aimed at reducing the wave energy entering the Pumicestone Passage.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said Caloundra residents had been "rightly concerned about community impacts".
"We are taking swift action to ensure they are protected," Mr Bleijie said.
Ms Kettleton-Butler said it was a "bandaid" ahead of the next storm season.
"These are just sacrificial sand dunes. If we get hit by a storm, there's no doubt they'll get washed away," she said.
"But the whole idea is that these are the temporary measures that they can implement right now while we design the long-term solution, [which] is going to take a lot of planning, a lot of community consultation, and also a fair bit to get through the approval process."
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