Episode 1 Kangaroo Dundee

HE CALLS

Deep in the heart of Central Australia

lives a family like no other.

This is Brolga...

..a man who has sacrificed everything to give

orphaned kangaroos a second chance at life.

Some people, they think that's a bit strange,

a bloke being a mum to an orphaned kangaroo.

But I do it because I see what other people don't see.

I see that little joey call out for help.

From his tin shack hidden in the bush,

Brolga raises his babies, until they're ready to be released.

Just as with any family, no two days are ever the same.

-There are highs...

-Yippee!

Good catch.

..and lows.

Get away from my sanctuary.

-New arrivals...

-Wow!

..and emotional departures.

To watch the mob, now we've released them,

this is the best part of it for me.

In this series, we'll see what life is really like

for Australia's most unusual mother and his kangaroo family.

They're cute, they're really fluffy and adorable,

and they love their mum.

Welcome to the world of Kangaroo Dundee.

It's 02:00 and in his tin shack,

ten miles from Alice Springs, Brolga isn't getting much sleep.

A few days ago, he took charge of two orphaned joeys.

He's called them Rex and Ruby.

And, just like human babies, they need round the clock care.

They often call out during the night...

HE MIMICS KANGAROO CALL

..which is a baby kangaroo's call to its mum...

so it's important for me to take them to bed,

to get up through the night,

to help them overcome that, what must be immense trauma

of losing the only thing they've ever loved at such a young age.

Brolga's shack lies on the edge of his kangaroo sanctuary.

With no power and few mod cons,

he's devoted his life to caring for orphaned joeys.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

This is little Ruby.

Little Ruby was rescued out on the highway.

Little Rex over there was also rescued out on the highway.

A huge number of kangaroos perish on Australia's roads each year.

But tucked safely in their mothers' pouches, Rex and Ruby both survived.

Now, Brolga's determined to give the orphans a second chance.

What little Ruby and little Rex need most of all is someone to be

there for them, someone to pick them up when they're crying out.

What I want most for Ruby and Rex...

..is a happy, healthy childhood.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

RUBY CALLS

You can hear little Ruby

making a very satisfied sound

of having a nice gutful of milk.

It's a bit like a little wheeze,

but I don't think she wants any more, do you, hm?

She's had enough.

Right now, Rex and Ruby need constant care.

But they can't live in the shack forever.

Brolga knows from experience it will take around six months

of intensive training to get them fit and ready for release.

Now, all going well, the plan is to get little Ruby and Rex

out to the wilds of my kangaroo sanctuary.

KANGAROOS CALL

While Rex and Ruby sleep off their feed,

Brolga sets off on his daily patrol of the sanctuary.

Today, 28 kangaroos live here.

HE MIMICS KANGAROO CALL

Many were hand-reared in Brolga's shack.

Now, they have 90 acres of prime Australian bush to call home.

Brolga hopes that in a few months' time,

Rex and Ruby will be able to join them.

They'll live the rest of their lives at the sanctuary,

it's not the wild, but it's the next best thing.

Come on!

The sanctuary that I've built here is a free-range place.

It's not a zoo or a wildlife park, it's a...it's a refuge.

Brolga's been running this sanctuary for four years.

But turning his dream of a kangaroo refuge into a reality

hasn't been easy.

I didn't have a lot of money to throw around

so I built the whole sanctuary myself.

It took me two and a half years to build it,

seven days a week, 45 degree heat during the summer.

I bent 450 poles.

I put up two and a half miles of chain mesh fencing.

I dug a trench two and a half miles long to sink in mesh to stop

the dingoes digging under.

Dingoes aren't the only threat.

Australia is home to millions of kangaroos,

and many people consider them pests.

People have chucked rocks at my car.

They've taunted me in the street because I drive around with

a car saying Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre.

I don't give a stuff about that.

I'm here to protect my family - the kangaroo.

With Brolga out on patrol, the most recent additions to his family,

Rex and Ruby, have crept out of bed to check out their new home.

Until recently, they'd never left their mothers' pouches.

Now, they're taking their first tentative steps on the shiny

floor of Brolga's shack.

Like a child's first visit to an ice rink...

..they're rooted to the spot.

First to let go of the handrail and start exploring is Rex.

It's a slow but steady technique.

Or in Ruby's case, just slow.

Brolga's morning patrol is almost over.

There's just one last roo to check on.

Roger!

85 kilos of pure muscle.

Roger was one of the first kangaroos to set foot in the sanctuary.

Today, he's risen to the rank of mob boss and is

designed to deliver a knockout blow to any male he sees as a threat.

And that includes Brolga.

I was Roger's mum.

And that's why he's got no fear of people.

But fair dinkum, I've got fear of him.

Roger's grown up around me his whole life, ever since I rescued him

as a little pinky about eight years ago.

I called him Roger.

Sort of had these big ears that just flopped over at the end.

It made me straightaway think of Roger Rabbit. I'll never forget it.

It made me crack up. It was pretty funny.

Like Rex and Ruby, Roger was orphaned on the highway.

When he was rescued, he was a fragile, hairless little baby,

or pinky, who fitted into the palm of Brolga's hand.

Times have changed. Today, Roger is a formidable adult kangaroo.

But to Brolga, he'll always be a baby.

I still look at him as my child.

I rescued him, I raised him.

I spent all my money at the time fixing him up at the vet.

Today, it's not really a relationship like mother and child

unless you've got a real delinquent son.

Hand rearing a male kangaroo and keeping them can be dangerous

because they grow up around the girls

and they will one day want to attain the position of alpha male.

And that's what Roger is.

He's the alpha male here and today he doesn't look at me

like his mum...

Whoa!

Today, he just wants to kill me.

Every day, he wants to drive me out of his territory

and away from the girls.

Roger's journey from orphaned joey to leader of the pack is

a kangaroo success story.

But, like most mums, Brolga's not expecting thanks.

Mad as a cut snake, you are, mate.

With Brolga back from his rounds and the joeys tired

from hopping practice, it's time for refreshments...

kangaroo style.

When the baby's in mum's pouch, it's too young to actually come out.

It can't drink at the waterhole or where it'd get water,

so Mum sticks her head in the pouch, and swaps saliva with the baby.

So, by giving the baby a bit of my saliva the baby actually,

like Ruby here, thinks I'm Mum.

I'm her new mum.

This saliva swapping keeps the joeys hydrated,

but it's also important bonding between mother and baby.

Gaining Rex and Ruby's trust early on is essential.

Brolga has to teach them

everything they should have learned from their mothers.

How to hop,

what to eat...

..and how to socialise.

BIRDS CALL

They're all vital lessons.

Without them, the joeys won't survive on their own.

Looking down from my height to this tiny little thing less than

a foot tall, you can't help but think of her as a little child.

I've got to be Ruby's mum.

To some people, they think that that's a bit strange - a bloke,

like me, 6ft 7 tall,

being a mum to a little orphaned kangaroo.

But I do it because I see, maybe what other people don't see.

I see that little joey as it's clambering on my leg,

that's a call out for help, that's a call out to say,

"I want to be picked up.

"I want to be held close to your body just like I was in Mum's pouch".

I'm glad she's with me and I'm going to do 200% effort

to get her through and give her that love.

After a tiring day, Rex and Ruby settle down for a rest.

But for Brolga, there's no time to relax.

Dusk is when kangaroos become active in the wild.

So, instead of putting his feet up,

Brolga's heading out on highway patrol.

He's on the lookout for kangaroos which have been

injured at the roadside.

Some nights I come out here just patrolling

the sort of most well used areas around Alice,

especially out to our prison, which is about 20ks out of town.

Prison operates 24 hours a day obviously

so there's a lot of night shift workers travelling out here.

Everyone's in a rush.

I don't know why they're in such a rush to get to work. I wouldn't be.

Part of Brolga's work is trying to raise awareness.

He wants to help people to avoid collisions by spreading

the message to slow down.

I drive really slowly when I'm out here.

The old girl doesn't go that fast anyway, so I'm quite lucky.

But going slow and sort of keeping your eyes peeled to...

that kangaroo shape on the side of the road.

If you really pay attention you should be all right,

but if you're flickin' through the radio stations, watch out,

you're going to come a cropper.

With so many kangaroos struck by cars each year,

there's always a chance that there's a joey in need of rescue.

Sometimes I come out here

and there's a little joey just sitting next to his mum.

All these car headlights going past, no-one stopping and he's...

It reminds me of like little Rex and Ruby sort of hanging off

my leg when they want milk, he's reaching up to anyone

saying "help" but no-one stops so, that's why I come out here.

Kangaroos are attracted to the road by the lush green grass

growing at its verges.

We built the road through their habitat.

That's the problem.

It's often a lonely drive in the way that many nights you come out

and nothing happens, but...

the one night I don't come out here, I know it'll be the one night

there's a little joey that needs my help.

It's been a long but, thankfully, casualty-free night for Brolga.

With two orphans already in his care,

he can't stay away from his shack for long.

Rex and Ruby have been living with Brolga for just over a week

and they still need feeding every four hours.

It's up to Brolga to make sure they get all the nutrients

they would be getting from their mothers in the wild.

The most important part of rearing a kangaroo is it must be

a low lactose milk, and cow's milk is the worst stuff you can give them.

It's far too rich for their little bodies and far too much sugar.

I don't have access to a refrigerator

so I get a dried powder formula that you make.

The regular contact of feeding gives Brolga a chance to

get to know his joeys better

and he can already tell that they're very different characters.

I can see it in Rex, now, with his behaviour...

it's funny, he's only learning to hop,

but he's also saying, "I'm a boy"

and he reminds me so much of Roger when he was a baby.

He's often sitting back on his tail, sort of doing this,

but he's pint-sized and often falls over when he tries to do too much.

Little Ruby, she won't leave me alone.

When I put her on the ground she only wants to

go for a hop for a couple of yards, comes running straight back

and, although it's only early days, she's a sad little baby.

You can see she misses her real mum still,

yet really wants to bond to me.

So, she's really latching on to me to get that love back.

HE STIRS MILK FORMULA

For now, Brolga's doing all he can to be the mum that Ruby craves.

Everything Brolga knows about looking after orphaned kangaroos,

he's learned by observing the mothers who live in his sanctuary.

I don't read books on kangaroos,

I don't read journals.

I go out in the bush and study the animals right up close.

One female Brolga is particularly close to is Ella.

I look at Ella like she's my teacher.

She's the one who educates me

on what a perfect mother in the kangaroo world is like.

Over the last five years that she's been of breeding age I have really

become a better carer watching her and how she commits to her joey.

Already a mum of five, Ella's latest baby is a plucky little fellow

called Terry, who's starting to outstay his welcome in her pouch.

Terry's a joey that's about eight months of age.

At about eight months of age, the mother kangaroo, in this case Ella,

is going to evict her baby

because he's just too heavy to keep on carrying through the bush.

He's probably weighing about three to four kilos at the moment,

and that's about the limit where Ella can safely carry him.

What a fantastic mum she is.

It's amazing with the kangaroos, because when Terry was born

nearly eight months ago, a tiny little pink baby about the size

of a jelly bean, that little baby, by itself, by instinct,

climbed all the way up to find the pocket

and then climbed in Ella's pouch.

That little baby, what we call a pinky,

didn't even resemble a baby kangaroo at all.

When Terry was born, he was just a bundle of cells,

only two centimetres long.

Unlike humans, who give birth to small but fully formed young,

kangaroo babies are only partially developed when they're born.

The rest of their growth takes place in the safety

of their mother's pouch.

Looking into the pouch of a kangaroo is like looking into an alien world.

The mother's pouch is like an incubator.

Slowly, the baby will grow and over the coming months

that tiny little embryo will develop

into what looks like a kangaroo.

At about three months, you can really start to see

the characteristics that make it a kangaroo.

Very long legs. Big hands.

And the feet, you can see pads on the feet.

Almost like a running shoe.

At about four months of age, you can see eyes opening for the first time.

And between four and five months,

a fine layer of hair goes over the baby.

It's at about five months of age, when a joey, like a jack-in-the-box,

sticks its head out of the pouch for its first view of the outside world.

Brolga knows better than anyone,

just how important the pouch is to a baby kangaroo.

For a little orphan that's lost his mum,

he still requires a lot of nurture and a lot of love,

and the security of something wrapping around him

like he would have in Mum's pouch.

As Brolga can't offer his orphans the safety and security

of a real pouch, he's training them to use

the next best thing - a pillowcase.

Sometimes the joey peers into the pillowcase

and sort of looks at you like "that's not Mum's pouch".

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Come on, mate. That's it.

At first, the joeys aren't quite sure

this is a skill they can master.

A baby kangaroo can't go legs first.

It can't put that leg in. That doesn't work.

It's designed to stick the head in and somersault.

And that's what I've got to teach a new joey.

With training proving tricky, Brolga has to give them a helping hand.

And as they peer in I put my fingers behind their back legs

and turn them over, get them to somersault in,

like they'd somersault into Mum's pouch.

Perfecting the pillowcase technique takes lots of practice.

It's almost acrobatic.

They soon get the hang of it.

This may look like fun and games,

but for Rex and Ruby it's a vital step in their training,

and provides them with warmth and security.

Little Rex and Ruby here, love their pillowcases.

The way they look up to me and say, "Mum"...

makes me feel really special.

The love that they give back to me and how they look up at me...

makes me feel wanted.

This age that Rex and Ruby are at now, they're cute,

they're fluffy,

they're really funny and comical.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

And they love their mum.

Next time on Kangaroo Dundee,

Rex and Ruby embark on the tricky art of toilet training...

Kangaroo wee sort of cuts through all the grease

and grime on the floor.

It's the cleanest part of the shack.

Brolga gets on the wrong side of Roger...

He sees me as another...

Oh, geez!

And we meet Brolga's friend in Alice Springs,

fighting to save the lives of tiny orphan joeys.

Come on, my man. No wonder you were called Elvis.

You're a mover and a shaker, aren't you?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd