FOI records and a 2025 inspection deepen scrutiny of Wallacia facility

Animal-Free Science Advocacy has called for Australia’s National Baboon Colony at Wallacia to close after obtaining records about animal deaths, disease and housing conditions at the western Sydney facility.

The campaign coincides with International Primate Day on 1 September 2026. AFSA wants an end to the breeding and use of baboons in research in Australia.

The National Baboon Colony is Australia’s only dedicated breeding and research facility for baboons. Sydney Local Health District manages the publicly funded site, which is approved to hold up to 165 baboons.

Animals from the colony are used in medical research, including pre-eclampsia studies and xenotransplantation from pigs.

FOI records obtained by AFSA describe the main night house as being in a poor state of repair, with drainage problems and noxious odours. Other records mention ammonia smells in older pens.

Correspondence also raised concerns about environmental enrichment and housing.

A former worker gave AFSA a photograph of a mother clinging to her baby, Wilfred, who later died from lymphoma. She described the housing as “appalling” and said, “It is not natural housing.”

The former worker also questioned the lack of overnight monitoring and its effect on mothers and babies.

In one document, AFSA found that a baboon gave birth prematurely in her cage overnight. Staff realised the next morning and found her carrying her deceased baby in two parts. The mother died shortly after.

Records cited by AFSA also refer to widespread lymphoma and to the management of older animals.

June 2025 inspection found ethics failures

A NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development inspection dated June 2025 found the Animal Ethics Committee was not operating in compliance with regulations and relevant standards.

The inspector wrote: “I am not of the opinion that the business is being operated in compliance with the regulations and the relevant standards”.

According to AFSA, the inspection listed a non-compliant committee quorum and meetings, inadequate records and procedures, unmanaged conflicts of interest, failures by researchers to report to the committee, and earlier issues that remained inadequately addressed.

Robyn Kirby, AFSA’s Primate Campaign Consultant, said: “Taxpayers fund this facility, yet the public knows remarkably little about the lives and deaths of the baboons kept there”.