Albury Central fire crew rescues nine ducklings down a drain

A crew from Fire and Rescue NSW Albury Central received a call from WIRES Wildlife Rescue to lift drain lids and retrieve nine ducklings about 8.30am at the corner of Stanley and Thurgoona Streets.

Senior firefighter Stephen Osmand said apparently some people had walked past the brood "and down the drain the ducks went".

"They might have been a bit spooked," he said.

"It was a bit precarious because there were three drains running off up the road, so we had to get right into the drain to get them out."

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While mother duck scampered around above, senior firefighter Bridget McCloskey crawled into the drain and collected the nine youngsters in a basket within about 15 minutes.

"One was having a nice little rest, so we had to crawl up the drain a little bit and throw a leaf at it to wake it up and out it came," Mr Osmand said.

Seemingly uninjured, the ducklings and their mother were then ushered back towards Albury Botanic Gardens by the WIRES volunteer.

"It was just a nice little job we had this morning, bit of variety for the day," Mr Osmand said.