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BRED TO SUFFER: CALL TO CLOSE AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL BABOON COLONY

Animal-Free Science Advocacy

Key Facts:

• The National Baboon Colony at Wallacia is Australia's only baboon breeding and research facility, publicly funded, managed by Sydney Local Health District and approved to hold up to 165 baboons.
• FOI documents reveal a night house in poor repair with drainage problems and noxious odours, widespread lymphoma, and a baboon found the morning after giving birth prematurely overnight carrying her deceased baby; she died shortly after.
• A NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development inspection dated  June 2025 found the Animal Ethics Committee non-compliant with the regulations and relevant standards.

This International Primate Day (1st September) Animal-Free Science Advocacy (AFSA) is calling for an end to the breeding and use of baboons in research in Australia, following disturbing evidence about conditions and deaths at the National Baboon Colony at Wallacia in western Sydney.

Freedom of Information (FOI) documents obtained by AFSA reveal unsettling issues with housing, husbandry and animal health at the publicly funded facility, while a former worker has raised further concerns about the care of mothers and babies and overnight monitoring.

The National Baboon Colony is Australia’s only dedicated breeding and research facility for baboons. Managed by Sydney Local Health District, it is approved to hold up to 165 baboons and supplies animals for medical research, including pre-eclampsia studies and xenotransplantation from pigs. FOI inspection records describe the main night house as being in a poor state of repair, with drainage problems and noxious odours. Other records refer to ammonia smells in older pens. Concerns about environmental enrichment and housing also appear in correspondence, with one organisation describing itself as “underwhelmed by the facility in general” and "expecting higher standards of housing and husbandry for non-human primates".

A former worker described the housing as “appalling”, saying “It is not natural housing.” She also called into question the lack of overnight monitoring and its impact on mothers and babies, sharing with AFSA a photograph of a mother clinging to her baby, Wilfred, who later died from lymphoma (cancer). In one document, AFSA discovered that a baboon had given birth prematurely in her cage overnight, with staff only realising the next morning when they found her carrying her deceased baby in two parts. Shortly after, she too died. The documents exposed baboon deaths and disease, including widespread lymphoma and the management of older animals.

Concerns also surround the Animal Ethics Committee’s operations. A recently released inspection report by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, dated June 2025, found serious deficiencies in the AEC’s operations. The inspector stated: “I am not of the opinion that the business is being operated in compliance with the regulations and the relevant standards”. Concerns included non-compliant AEC quorum and meetings, inadequate records and procedures, unmanaged conflicts of interest, failures by researchers to report to the AEC, and previous issues remaining inadequately addressed.

Prospects for these animals remain grim; Australia has no national retirement or sanctuary program for primates, meaning they can spend their entire lives in the research system. “Taxpayers fund this facility, yet the public knows remarkably little about the lives and deaths of the baboons kept there,” said Robyn Kirby, Primate Campaign Consultant with AFSA. “There is no justification for continuing to breed highly sentient animals for invasive research when animal-free methods are advancing rapidly. The National Baboon Colony should be closed to breeding and research and retirement programs be urgently set in place.” 

About us:

Animal-Free Science Advocacy (AFSA) is Australia's only national organisation solely dedicated to the replacement of animals in research and teaching. 

Contact details:

Robyn Kirby

Primate Campaign Consultant

[email protected]

0466 234 526