Episode 5 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 cos 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.

And, just as with any family, each new day brings fresh challenges.

Mad as a cut snake, you are, mate!

This time, Brolga's mob comes under attack.

Get away from my sanctuary. You're not welcome.

We meet Stewie, a joey badly in need of a bath.

We won't even recognise him in a couple of weeks

when all his hair has grown back, will we?

-Go away, go on.

-And Brolga gives Rocky the brush-off.

No more cuddles, mate. Come on. Back up.

Let's turn him into a wild little rock wallaby.

Welcome to the world of Kangaroo Dundee.

It's winter at the kangaroo sanctuary

and, with the nights getting colder,

there are more animals than ever in Brolga's shack.

Not all are welcome.

It's not just me and the joeys living in the shack, it's...

Inside the walls of the shack are hundreds of mice.

It's starting to get on top of us a fair bit.

It's...it's just not...

..easy to live here any more.

Brolga's living conditions are far from ideal...

..but he's always poured every penny into the sanctuary.

Caring for kangaroos doesn't come cheap.

So, from time to time, he takes on extra work in Alice Springs.

It's not a glamorous job, but there are some perks.

There's some good news.

Over the last couple of years,

I've been cleaning buses in town during the day.

And one of the girls in the office and I are good mates.

I think there's going to be... I think there's more to it than that.

There is more to it than that.

Hello. What are you guys doing, eh?

Little Baba.

Office manager Tahnee has been looking after the joeys

while Brolga's hard at work.

You going to have a little sleep, eh? Here you go, Baba.

She loves the babies and I'm teaching her how to look after them.

-It's great to be able to share that with someone.

-Yeah, yeah.

Because they're going to need to have a run, plus mop up their wee.

LAUGHTER

-I'll call you when...

-LAUGHTER

Lots of cuddles. Lots of cuddles and love.

Lots of cuddles, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brolga and his babies have proved to be an irresistible combination.

'Tahnee and I are now dating.'

So that's really good news for me and the joeys.

That's it. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Tahnee's an exciting development in Brolga's life.

But his work at the sanctuary still has to come first.

Today, his priority

is to start training a troublesome fellow called Rocky.

Brolga plans to release this rock wallaby to the wild,

but first he has to teach him to keep his distance.

Rocky, off!

Go on, get away. You're too close, mate.

It's time for some tough love.

Back away. You're too close.

'Pushing away Rocky with a broom...'

is just a way of creating space between me and him.

Now's the time Rocky has got to, er...become independent.

And he is not going to become independent

if he keeps coming up to me when I come in his rehab enclosure,

putting down a bit of food or cleaning out his water bowl.

The broom treatment may look cruel,

but it's an important part of Rocky's training.

No more cuddles, mate. Come on, back up.

'It's a lesson for him.'

People are not good out there. You never... You can't trust anyone.

If someone approaches or comes into his environment,

I want him to run away.

So by taking something like a household broom,

which is nice and soft, but with a long pole

and just nudge him away, just gently,

and he gets the message.

No more contact.

Let's turn him into a wild little rock wallaby

so he can survive with his cousins up in the mountains.

It's a far cry from his previous home with Anne-Marie.

With Rocky now relocated,

she's managed to find some time for herself.

Anne-Marie has got her painted fingernails again.

Now I feel like me. Yeah.

But, in a house overrun with orphans,

it isn't long before Anne-Marie's back at work.

Out in the yard, eight-month-old Stewie is unwell.

He's been constantly scratching and has lost a lot of hair.

Anne-Marie has diagnosed a case of mites.

Hey, Stew. Come on, little man.

The cure?

A nice warm bath with a medicated shampoo.

There's just one problem.

Bath time! Oh!

Stewie's not too keen on bath time.

Good boy. You're not happy, but it's all for your benefit.

Well, Stew picked up a mite

and, of course, it's made him itchy

and it's made his skin all funny and he's lost his hair.

And he needs his hair to go out into the wild

cos otherwise he'll get sunburnt

and he'll dehydrate

and, um...eventually deteriorate and he'll die.

This shampoo that I'm using will help stop him from itching

and will just keep him all nice and also moisturise his skin.

Look at that. Oh, definitely looking better, aren't you?

Come here, come here.

He, um... You won't even recognise him in a couple of weeks

when all his hair has grown back, will we? Eh?

It's hard work wrangling reluctant kangaroos

but, for Anne-Marie, the rewards make it all worthwhile.

My kids have all grown up and left home

and these kangaroos actually fill a void in my life at the moment.

They're like having little babies, they're absolutely beautiful.

They don't always do what you want them to do, but neither do children.

But these, um...

Yeah, they just make your life more fulfilled,

especially when you've got a little fella

going through this sort of trauma.

He's going to be a big boy with lots of hair, aren't ya?

Eh? Yeah.

OK, mate, you're all dry

and now you can go out with your brothers and your sisters.

You're a motley little feller, aren't ya?

OK, have some apple.

Back at Brolga's sanctuary, night has fallen,

but things are far from quiet.

He's heard feral dogs barking from the other side of the fence

and is concerned for his mob of kangaroos.

It's my worst nightmare.

Feral dogs along the fence line, trying to chase the kangaroos.

There's many feral dogs roaming the bush out here.

People's pets that have now gone wild.

They've got no fear of people,

so they're actually a pretty dangerous dog.

Feral dogs don't just pose a risk to people.

Their presence can put the kangaroos' lives in danger.

Panicking kangaroos can go into a stampede

and smash themselves up against a fence.

Last year, I lost a couple of kangaroos

that killed themselves on the fence

when dogs had been around that night.

I've vowed I won't... I won't ever let it happen again.

So by chasing the dogs in the car,

that scares them away and hopefully the dogs then will move on.

So I'm on my way up... There's one! There's one here!

All right, I'm going to get right up his backside.

Get away from my sanctuary. You're not welcome.

Brolga means the dogs no harm, but it's essential he warns them off.

He's quick. Got part dingo in him, this one.

Yeah, he's gone.

He's done all he can.

For now, he just has to hope that the dogs have moved on

and the danger has passed.

It's dawn the next day

and Brolga's keener than ever to check on his mob of 28 kangaroos.

Always in the morning after dogs have been running up and down

the fence line the night before,

I come out to the sanctuary.

I like to check up on all the kangaroos,

try and see as many as I can.

Have a look at them, a close look.

So far this morning, I haven't found any casualties.

But it's worth to keep on looking.

While searching the sanctuary, Brolga comes across Ella,

one of the kangaroos who's been with him the longest.

He's keen to check that she

and the baby growing in her pouch are unharmed.

It's about two months since I last looked into Ella's pouch

and the baby has gone from a little pinkie,

like a jellybean-sized baby,

through to something now the size of a small rat.

It's extremely rewarding

for me to look into Ella's pouch like this.

I raised Ella as a baby when she was an orphan.

When she first came to me, nearly eight years ago now,

she was on death's door.

Her little head kept on flopping, she couldn't lift it up.

I didn't think she would last five minutes.

I just held Ella close to my belly.

I didn't want her to be alone.

I thought she was going to die.

Here she is today, as a mother to her own baby.

And she's a really good mother, too.

She is the matriarch of the mob

and she's allowing me to look into her pouch and see her baby.

After leaving Ella, Brolga makes a worrying discovery.

A young joey appears to be lost and is in distress.

The joey is being guarded by Roger, the mob boss.

This is something I haven't seen before.

Roger in charge of a little joey. Um...

Where's the mother for this joey?

Roger should not be in charge or guarding the baby.

Mum should be close by and I just can't work it out.

It's not normal behaviour for a little baby kangaroo

to be in the care of the alpha male.

I can't see the joey's mum anywhere.

She might be herself injured up against the fence line, or...

To be without her baby is really strange.

While some of Brolga's mob, like Ella,

are happy to let him get up close,

others are almost wild and keep their distance.

Brolga assumes that this joey

belongs to one of the females he rarely sees.

Possibly what might have happened is

last night, dogs running up and down the fence line scaring the kangaroos,

one of the kangaroo mums out here has dropped her baby

and she probably might have intentionally done that.

That's a kangaroo behaviour that when they feel threatened,

often when they're getting hunted by a dingo or a pack of dogs,

they've been seen to drop the baby on the ground and run off.

After an hour of watching on,

there's still no sign of the joey's mother.

With night-time temperatures dropping to near freezing,

Brolga must try to reunite them before sunset

and get the joey back into the warmth of mum's pouch.

HE CALLS

HE CALLS

After hours of searching,

Brolga finally comes across a female on her own.

He watches her reaction to the joey carefully.

That's not your mum, is it?

She doesn't care, does she?

No, she's knocking you away.

She's not showing any interest in you, mate.

Come on, we'll go try somewhere else.

With 90 acres of sanctuary to cover and night approaching fast,

the odds of finding the female are slim.

But Brolga's not giving up hope.

No.

She's not your mum either, mate.

Getting too cold. I think I've got to take you in.

You can spend the night with me.

If left to face the night alone,

it's almost certain the joey would not survive.

Brolga knows that he must be hungry, so the priority now is milk.

Just like mum's nipple.

That's it.

Taking to this like a duck to water, eh?

Much better than what I thought you'd be.

Had enough. Hm?

He still appears to be quite stressed

and I can really see the sadness in his eyes.

He's...he's not moving a lot.

He's not struggling.

You'd think he'd be trying to struggle to get away from me.

Hm?

So hopefully he can overcome that sadness

and I'll take him into bed tonight. That'll help him.

Keep warm with me and keep him on my belly in a little pouch.

And breathing in the warmth of my body should settle him right down.

And we'll go looking for your mum tomorrow, eh?

Eh? Hopefully we'll be more successful tomorrow.

Go to sleep.

It's been a long night, but Brolga's certain

it was the right decision to take the joey inside.

It was a freezing night last night.

Really cold and...

I didn't get a lot of sleep. I've, er...

Making sure I stayed lying on my back and not turn over, so...

But it was well worth it,

taking the little man to bed, keeping him nice and warm.

He would have certainly perished last night if I didn't bring him inside.

Out in the sanctuary, the search to find the joey's mum continues.

No, mate.

I really thought that kangaroo was his mum.

Baby and mum recognise each other by smell.

So I thought the best thing to do was to introduce the baby,

let her smell the baby first

and then put it on the ground and hopefully

she'd accept it into her pouch.

But...no, she slapped it.

Mum should be frantically looking for her baby,

but I can't see a mother or a kangaroo

that seems to have lost anything.

I'm quite sure his mum, who's out here somewhere,

has pretty much forgotten the whole thing.

After two days of searching,

there's still no sign of any females in distress.

Brolga's done all he can to reunite mother and baby,

so he's made a decision.

He's going to take the joey on full-time.

It's just too big a place and...

..I haven't seen any of the female kangaroos

showing signs that they've lost a baby.

I don't want to take any baby away from its mum,

but the reality is, I can't find mum,

so, er...I think it's best that I take the little bloke into my care

and me, Rex and Ruby can take him on

and we'll be that comfort and support

that he's lost by losing his mum.

You three have all got to snuggle in.

The first hurdle is to see if his new orphan

will bond with Rex and Ruby.

You've got to keep this little guy warm.

Got you a little friend, a little brother.

He's lost his mum just like you did before you came to me.

Hm? I want you two kids to look after him.

-OK.

-Brolga hopes that their company

will help with the shock of losing his real mum.

Over in Alice Springs, Stewie still can't resist a good old scratch.

It's been ten days since his bath

and Anne-Marie's starting to see a real improvement.

Oh, wow, Stew, look at you!

Come here.

Oh, my goodness! You have come on so well!

Aren't you looking fantastic!

Look at you, you've got hair growing everywhere.

He looks like the motliest kangaroo in the territory at the moment,

but considering what he looked like ten days ago,

um...he didn't have an ounce of hair on his head,

or on his face, just around his eyebrows,

but it all looks good, so... And it's growing!

So that's a real... that's a real effort isn't it, eh?

It's really special that you're growing your hair. Yes, it is.

It's working, that's the most important thing.

New hair here, um...

he's got new hair coming up everywhere, haven't you, darling?

Gets a bit itchy, but that's what it's all about.

I mean, it's pretty normal, it's like when you shave your beard

or you shave your legs

and sometimes you'll get a few bits that are a bit itchier than others.

I reckon if I looked like this, I'd probably scratch a bit, too!

You'll be the handsomest kangaroo

when all your hair grows back, won't you, darling?

All right, bubba, you can go back with your mates now.

There you go, darling. Good boy, Stewie.

Stewie's well on the road to recovery.

And back at the sanctuary, things are looking up, too.

Brolga's latest orphan is settling in well

and he's been given a name, Bluey.

He's as cute as a button.

He's one of those babies you get into your care

that has just got these beautiful big black eyes

and velvet red fur.

To get Bluey back out to the sanctuary,

Brolga wants him to form a mini mob with Rex and Ruby

so that the three of them can be released together.

It's important for him to cling to Rex and Ruby,

to look at them as like a mother figure,

someone to follow, someone to give security.

And that's the nature of a baby kangaroo,

that it follows its mum everywhere.

So to have Rex and Ruby to follow

will give him that security and comfort that he's not alone.

It's only a few days ago this little bloke's lost

the only thing that he knows and loves in the world,

which is his natural mother.

And here he is, now, a few days later, settled in.

He's taken to Rex and Ruby like they're his brothers and sisters.

He looks up to me like I'm his mum.

Tut-tut-tut-tut. Hey. I know, I know.

We're all going to make a great little mob, me and the three babies.

Oh, yeah, standing up like that.

Bluey may be adapting well

but, with temperatures dropping,

the challenge of living in a tin shack overrun with mice

is getting harder by the day.

There's nothing you can touch that hasn't had the mice running over it.

I checked my boots in the morning and a couple of mice come out

that have been housing in there during the night.

A big snake's moved in, as well.

He's somewhere hidden behind the walls.

I just about trod on him about a month ago.

A snake rearing up behind my back foot, hissing and about to strike.

So basically, nature's moving in and taking over.

With living conditions getting tougher,

Brolga and his girlfriend, Tahnee, have made a big decision.

Tahnee and I, we're going to move out

into a house just down the road.

It's only a few hundred metres down the track.

So I'm always close to the sanctuary.

I'm close enough that if I can see any smoke on the horizon,

I'll be over here in 20 seconds.

Brolga wants to try out a more conventional life,

but leaving the shack behind won't be easy.

I love it here. I really do.

Going outside at night-time, the beauty of the stars

and the freedom of the bush.

But living in a shack with no power

and no toilet and a mice plague on the way...

..ain't very inviting for a lady.

It's not very inviting for me or the joeys.

So I think...

and I know...

this is what's best for us all.

And so, after four years living the life of a hermit,

the promise of love and some home comforts

is finally luring Brolga away from his trusty old friend, the shack.

I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

It's the first time in years I'll be able to have a hot shower

and be with someone I want to be with.

Next time on Kangaroo Dundee...

..Brolga rounds up Roger.

Basically, I've got to trap him in the enclosure,

and the best bait is me.

Come on! This way!

Rex, Ruby and Bluey get their first taste of freedom.

This all a part of leading them towards independence.

And we find out what life is like living in the lap of luxury.

It's like a dream.

TAHNEE LAUGHS To be sharing it with you, too.

-I'm really glad you're here.

-Thanks.