The name of the game at Ian's sanctuary

Ian Womack has named all 237 animals and counting on his 100ha farm at Carlton River.

When first driving along the short driveway into the main part of Eventide Sanctuary visitors meet characters such as Susan the merino sheep, William the Highland cow, Archie the alpaca and Billy the goat.

As he goes around the property in his ATV, the sheep, goats and cattle follow him, albeit often a couple of hundred metres behind.

But Ian’s sidekick Wally, a stray dog he rescued in Cape York in 2014 during his travels around Australia, is the one animal who is almost always by his side.

“Sanctuary life is quite hard because a lot of people offload old animals that are sick and at the end of their time,” Ian said.

“It’s a battle to keep them happy all the time when a lot of them come to you with existing problems.”

Before settling in Tasmania and opening Eventide Sanctuary, Ian served in the British Army as a Royal Engineer and served in Afghanistan.

“After doing that and settling back into the civilian world, I decided to head over to Australia and get a year-long visa while I was still young enough,” he said.

“I bought a Toyota Land Cruiser and worked and travelled all my way around Australia, a lot of which was very remote travel.

“I stopped from town to town and would do a bit of work in each place before moving on.”

Ian said taking in Wally gave him a new direction in life and something else to focus on.

“I saw the benefits of what that did all those years ago and from that point there was always a seed in my mind to do something similar, giving animals a better life, but on a bigger scale.”

He eventually settled in Tasmania at the end of 2019 after “he fell in love” with the state.

“The biggest reason for me was the climate because I’m from the UK originally; I did live up in the tropics for a bit but it was far too hot for me.

“And with what I wanted to do with the animal sanctuary, Tasmania was the best place.

“To get a 100ha farm around 30 minutes from a capital city is very hard and on the mainland you would pay a lot more.”

Ian opened Eventide Sanctuary in early 2023 while balancing his day job as the head of engineering at the Tasman Hotel in Hobart.

But since August 2024 he has been solely focused on the farm.

“I didn’t fit very well into corporate life and mentality.

“I’m a very hands-on, back-to-basics and lead from the front kind of guy, which the staff loved.

“But it was time to go full-time with it as it was getting too much to handle both.”

Ian said the transition was hard for him.

“I don’t get any other form of assistance in any direction at all, apart from what I can generate for myself here on the sanctuary.

“To keep all the animals fed and watered with just that money coming in is hard.”

Eventide’s main income derives from guided tours and people camping on the property.

Earlier this year Ian took to social media to ask for assistance at a time when he said he was at “ground zero”.

“I had a couple of community open days that hundreds of people came to, but it’s whittled down to a very small group of people who actually help.

“I have people who come and deliver food for the animals, I collect waste and organic foods from supermarkets twice a week and I also do the recycling scheme where local pubs and venues store their cans, which gives me a tiny bit of weekly income for feed as well.”

Ian said he also has people he can call to assist him when conducting large school tours.

“Most of the assistance has been from people who have visited, done a tour or stayed here and have been inspired by what they’ve seen.

“Lots of them have had different skill sets that I’ve been able to call on for different things.”

Ian’s future plans for Eventide Sanctuary were to turn it into a full-fledged agri-tourism operation with a visitor centre and on-site cabins.

“There are some absolutely beautiful spots here which would make for absolutely magical locations for weddings and events”, he said.

“People are keen to find a place like this where they can do an event and know that it’s going to a nice cause, not just some corporate company.”

Ian said that despite the challenges he continues to face with Eventide Sanctuary, he had still fulfilled the main goals he wanted to achieve more than ten years ago when he was travelling around Australia with Wally.

“My vision was for people to come here and visit the animals where they want to be.”