Kangaroo Dundee and Other Animals Part 2 Natural World

Deep in the heart of central Australia

lives a family like no other.

Meet Brolga, the world's most renowned kangaroo mum,

a six foot seven Aussie who dedicates his life

to giving orphaned kangaroos a second chance at life.

It's a one-to-one relationship, you and the baby.

And they look up to you like you're their mum.

The orphaned joeys live with Brolga and his wife Tahnee

until the day they are ready to be released into the wilds

of Brolga's 80-acre sanctuary.

But recently, Brolga's unconventional family life

has become even more complicated

as he's taken on a whole new bunch of animal characters.

WOMBAT BREAKS WIND

Wasn't me!

Brolga's got a lot to learn about the chaotic side of raising emus.

BIRDS WHISTLE

You come back and find the place is like a disaster zone!

There's the daunting challenge of releasing his three orphaned camels,

Jasmine, Cameron and Theo into the sanctuary.

Me and Tahnee are actually quite nervous about the move.

Just hoping that everything is going to go all right.

And will a serious injury prove to be a major setback

to his dream of creating a wildlife hospital

in the shape of a kangaroo?

When you're injured, you realise how difficult life can be.

Your life is just thrown on its head.

It's early morning at the sanctuary,

and the kangaroos are waiting for Brolga to arrive

with their daily bucket of feed.

But today, Brolga is running late.

He's got a badly injured knee

after crossing paths with the leader of the kangaroo mob, Roger.

I was out in the sanctuary,

and then me old mate Roger clocked eyes on me,

and he wanted a piece of me, there's no doubt about that.

So I bolted.

I was running faster than Usain Bolt to get away from him.

And he was right behind me,

and as I turned around trying to catch a sight of Roger,

of where he was, and at that time

I fell over a termite mound hidden in the grass.

Straight away I knew I'd done some damage.

As I got up, my knee actually gave way and I was in a lot of strife.

So I went to the doctor later on, and he said, "Gee, mate!

"What have you had, a motorbike accident?".

I said to him "No, mate.

"That's Roger.

"Roger, my alpha male kangaroo."

Brolga's injury required surgery.

But he knows the risks of keeping a big male kangaroo like Roger

and has to accept them.

Roger is family, after all.

Roger is a bit like a delinquent son.

He's always aggressive.

But Roger's my best mate,

and he's a part of me, as hopefully I'm a part of him.

He's what the sanctuary is all about.

I've got six weeks I'm not allowed to do any running.

I said to the doctor who told me that,

"Mate, it's not going to be as easy as that."

I've got Roger out in the sanctuary.

Roger is fiercely protective of his harem of female kangaroos

and the reason he's so aggressive towards Brolga

is because he sees him as competition.

He's going to take full advantage of my injury.

As soon as he gets the chance, he's going to think,

"Ha, ha, ha, I've got you right where I want you!"

He's going to nail me.

Just let me go past.

Come on.

Not now.

Brolga is all too aware,

one kick from Roger's powerful legs could be fatal.

No! No!

That's the very real reality of a big alpha male like Roger.

He's got the power to totally disembowel you.

Hey, hey!

Stop it, stop it!

The recent injury has been a serious wake-up call.

Brolga urgently needs to find a solution

to dealing with Roger's aggression.

Come on!

Being on crutches is proving a real inconvenience

as Brolga currently has more animals than ever to care for.

Along with the kangaroos at his sanctuary,

there are now three emus that he's moved to an enclosure

at the back of his shack.

As well as the demands of the three orphaned camels,

Cameron, Jasmine and Theo, who are living at his house.

CAMELS GRUNT LOUDLY

On top of caring for all these animals,

Brolga's in the process of building a wildlife hospital.

Cameron!

But his injury has undermined these plans,

and he's had to put works on hold until he's fully recovered.

We're lucky in our modern life, we've got great doctors and nurses

and hospitals that take care of us.

Out here in Alice Springs, in the Outback,

there's no wildlife hospital.

It's times like now...

..that really makes me think how important this wildlife hospital

is going to be.

When you're injured, you need help.

There's got to be someone looking out for you.

Oh, you are naughty, aren't you?

You're a fat naughty one, yes!

Down in Alice Springs, Cynthia Lynch,

who works with Brolga in rehabilitating kangaroos,

is desperate for the hospital to be completed.

In her back yard, she's inundated with over 20 orphaned joeys,

many of whom are suffering from skin infections or fractured limbs.

It's an all-day job, it never seems to stop.

Cynthia and her fellow carers do their best

to treat their sick and injured joeys in the sink,

or on the kitchen table,

but what they're longing for

is a dedicated place to take the strain,

and give their orphaned animals proper veterinary care.

There we are.

That's a good boy.

He's a bit calmer now.

Brolga's hospital is an absolute dream.

These little guys will benefit so much from it.

So I just keep saying, "Bring it on, bring it on!"

The sooner the better, yeah!

The surveys we've done over the last few years,

we've realised that the need is not going to go away,

and that these little guys are just going to keep coming in,

so we need to do the best we can do for them.

You can never say no to an animal.

It's not their fault they're in the situation they're in.

So if we've got something set up that we hope to be able to continue,

long after I'm not around, or maybe Brolga's not around either,

we can put something into the area for the future,

and this is what we're really looking at doing.

Do you want your dummy? All right.

You're getting a bit big for it really, Jack.

After more than a month on crutches,

Brolga's knee is on the mend.

Today, hospital building is getting back on track

with work beginning on the erection of the roof and walls.

How you doing, Brolga?

How long do you reckon this is going to take to put up, mate?

Oh, probably a week or so.

-A week?

-Yeah.

The long-term plan is for the hospital

to be made to look like a red kangaroo when viewed from the air,

but completion of the design is still a long way off.

We're going to shape it out in the shape of a kangaroo.

-There'll be a big tail over there and a head over there...

-Cool!

And the entrance will be like maybe in the pouch!

Yeah? Cool!

This is something I've been planning on for a long time.

I've been really thankful to people around the world

that they've donated to the cause,

and it's those donations that have actually led to this point

where we're actually going to see something going up.

To help fund the running costs of the hospital,

Brolga's hoping to attract more paying visitors

by diversifying his sanctuary

and introducing new species of animals.

HE WHISTLES

HE WHISTLES

Three months ago, Brolga adopted three emu chicks.

And having outgrown his house,

they've been brought to live in a pen at the back of his shack

in preparation for their release to the wilds of his sanctuary.

Emus are the second largest flightless bird in the world.

And...a very important animal in Australian culture.

They are...one of two animals that are on our national emblem -

that's the kangaroo and the emu.

These three emus were like the joeys that I get,

they...they really needed a home.

They were, I suppose you can say, orphans.

They're remnants of an old emu farm.

Emu farming was very popular here for quite a long time,

but as an industry it's collapsed.

And the man was trying to get rid of them,

so I got them sent to Alice Springs.

Unlike the joeys, the emu doesn't give you much love in return.

They don't look up at you with these eyes of endearment,

they look at you with these sort of big staring eyes,

these sort of big, goggly eyes.

In a way, they're quite funny and sort of can look into your soul.

Sometimes I'll be in the shack

and out of nowhere - pop! - up pops this head

like a jack-in-the-box.

This emu sticks his head up...

wanting to know what's going on.

And that's the funny thing about emus,

they don't want to be left out.

If something's going on,

the emu has to know about it.

Raising emus is not without its complications.

These flightless birds are highly inquisitive,

and Brolga has discovered

that they're not always particularly well-behaved.

Emus are really curious.

They are fascinated by anything different,

anything new, out of the ordinary.

I turn my back on them for five minutes,

or leave the door open,

they'll come inside and just start playing with everything.

Everything's, like, new.

It's like, "Oh, wow! What's that?

"Oh, I'll pick that up and play with that."

And before you know it, you come back

and you find the place is like a disaster zone.

There's stuff everywhere.

They've pulled things off the bench,

there's toilet roll all around the ground.

I can only imagine they were having a party when I was away.

CHITTERING

Having wreaked havoc at the shack,

Brolga has decided the day has come to open the gate

and give the emus their first taste of freedom.

HE WHISTLES

I love all animals and...

It's not just mammals, I love birds as well,

but I don't like having birds in small cages.

So these emus will be able to live out their lives at the sanctuary.

And I'm hoping the emus

will just be able to blend in with the kangaroos.

BROLGA WHISTLES

And for anyone who comes and visits,

they can get to see an iconic Australian animal.

Seeing an emu walk out in the plains is...a beautiful thing to see.

VEHICLE BEEPS

Brolga's been working hard to bring

other native Australian animals to his sanctuary.

Today, he and his mates are building a Fort Knox-like enclosure

for an orphaned southern hairy-nosed wombat.

Wombats are burrow-digging marsupials,

and are renowned for being escape artists.

For this reason,

Brolga and his team are building the foundations out of concrete.

VEHICLE BEEPS

Each one of these concrete blocks probably weighs a tonne.

And some people say, "Gee, it's a bit of overkill, isn't it?

But it's not. Wombats are like little bulldozers,

they can dig through a brick wall.

So you need to build something that's really indestructible.

Something that they just can't penetrate with their big claws.

It's one of the greatest challenges

I think I've ever had, to house a wombat.

It was a month ago that Brolga first met

an orphaned wombat recovering from a broken leg.

He's called Pete, and his parents were shot by hunters.

He's got a face like a big pig,

a body like a little bulldozer.

And...absolutely remarkable,

I just...I just love him. I love him heaps.

His carer, Marie, has reached the point

where he's outgrown her home.

And because Pete can never go back to the wild,

Brolga's going the extra mile

to provide Pete with a home at his sanctuary.

What I'm doing is basically building a swimming pool,

and then going to fill it in full of dirt.

So these big concrete blocks,

the top of them is actually going to be ground level.

So when Pete the wombat's in here and he's digging around,

he'll come up against the smooth-sided concrete wall,

so he can't dig out.

He needs pipes to go down,

like he's tunnelling underneath the ground.

This is going to go all the way...through to his den.

He actually needs a little room where he can sleep.

And I'm even going to have to get an air conditioner and heater

to have it at constant temperature,

cos it would normally be five metres underground.

I've dreamt of having a wombat ever since I was a kid.

This, to me, is a real personal dream.

On top of housing wombats,

Brolga has other preoccupations.

Over at his house, he and his wife Tahnee

have spent the last two years raising three orphaned camels

called Cameron, Jasmine and Theo.

The plan is for them to join Pete and the emus at the sanctuary.

We love having them at the back door,

they are just like part of the family.

Yeah, it is time for them to go, they are outgrowing the back yard.

They're starting to...almost to strip the bark off the trees

and push up on the house.

Cameron is now 750 kilos,

so he's way too big to have around the house.

So, after some basic obedience training,

the day has come to take them to their new home.

And to sweeten their mood,

Brolga has a special treat in store.

This is the camels' favourite food in the whole world -

carrots.

Jasmine's got a badly damaged mouth,

probably from not being well looked after by her former owner.

She can only have little carrots.

Can't you? You can only have little carrots.

So it's a bit of a treat before the big move.

Me and Tahnee are actually quite nervous about the move, so...

..just really hoping everything is going to go all right.

So this'll settle the camels down, hopefully,

and we'll know that we've done everything we can

to make 'em feel at ease and comfortable.

The sanctuary is a couple of kilometres

from Brolga and Tahnee's house.

And having consulted a camel expert,

they've decided that the best and safest way to get them there

is by tying them to the back of a pick-up truck,

and to use the vehicle to guide them on their way.

Good boy. Good boy.

BIRDSONG

The camel was brought into Australia

from Afghanistan, Pakistan

in the mid to late 1800s.

Good boy.

And the early explorers found

that horses weren't coping well with the conditions.

We needed an animal

that would be able to survive better in the harsh outback,

which is mostly desert country.

Camels are well suited to desert country,

and used to bring supplies up

to this very isolated, remote part of Australia.

And they helped colonize and explore the outback.

But by the early 1920s,

we'd explored the outback,

we had started to build tracks and roads.

And then motor vehicles came in and...they were much more reliable

and could carry more weight than a camel.

So the poor old camel became obsolete and then was set free.

You know, they were the Rolls-Royces of the desert.

In the late-1800s, when we really needed them,

they were the most sought-after asset you could get.

And then when we didn't need 'em any more,

we just ditched 'em with no respect.

It's like having your best mate

and then turning your back on him later on when he needs your help.

That's good.

That's it.

Today, we have now got hundreds of thousands

of feral camels roaming the outback.

And those camels have become classed as a real environmental pest.

I'm concerned when an animal is classed as a pest,

because its welfare is often overlooked.

That's it. Good one.

The plan is to use Cameron, Theo and Jasmine,

and whatever other camels come along, as educational animals.

Let's use them in a positive way

to show people they're a marvellous animal,

don't take 'em for granted, don't be unfair or cruel to them.

Get people to look after them properly.

Hold up.

Hold up.

Hey.

Hey! Good boy!

Good boy!

-Oh, look at that! Oh!

-Come on, my darling.

Brolga wants the camels to spend a week or two in an enclosure,

giving them time to adjust to their new surroundings,

before finally being released into the wilds of the sanctuary.

This is a halfway home for the camels.

It's all new being out in the bush.

It's something they've never experienced before,

but it's in their nature.

So I've built this so we can go home

and feel comfortable that they can't get out,

cos it's such a solid structure.

This will give them an area to get used to the sounds

and the sights and the big open beautiful outback sky.

And then when we feel that they've settled in,

we can let them go.

Let them out into the bush.

With camels, emus, wombats and hospital building to cope with,

Brolga's got a lot on his plate.

And having just recovered from his recent injury,

he can't afford any further setbacks.

But there's a problem.

Roger, the dominant alpha-male kangaroo,

is still as dangerous as ever,

and has to be isolated in a separate enclosure

whenever there are visitors.

Roger never lets me alone.

I can never have five minutes of the day,

if I'm out in Roger territory,

where Roger's not trying to attack me.

Just relax. Come on!

I'm your mum, for God's sake!

BROLGA SIGHS

Come on!

Let's just take it easy, mate.

OK?

BROLGA GROANS

Brolga's keen to find a way of enriching Roger's life

during the time he's separated from the mob,

which will, hopefully, also make him less aggressive.

Hey!

I'm seeking advice, and the best advice I can get is from...

This is the kangaroo Bible.

This is what I turn to whenever I need...advice.

And the expert who wrote it - a friend of mine, Lynda Staker -

she's not always on the phone.

So... Now, there's a section here about enrichment.

Enrichment is where you actually give a captive animal

something to do.

There's nothing more that Roger likes doing

than...attacking something.

Here it says we can give them a stuffed toy, like a teddy bear.

Imagine Roger with a teddy bear!

Erm, a punching bag even.

Just the other day, Roger attacked his feed bucket.

Now, this is a metal feed bucket

and he put it in a headlock, basically a chokehold,

and he squeezed the life out of it.

So...kangaroos have extreme power.

And I want Roger to use that power and use that aggression

when, hopefully, I give him a teddy bear or a punching bag.

You know, a bit like anger management.

Time to put the words in Brolga's kangaroo Bible to the test.

This is what we call enrichment.

It's in the book. I want you to fight the teddy, not me.

Focus on him. On him. Look.

OK?

Come on! Forget about me, all right?

Go back to ted. That's it.

-BROLGA SIGHS

-Come on!

BIRD SQUAWKS

Early on, things aren't exactly going to plan.

No. No.

I think this is going to take a while.

That's it.

After some gentle encouragement,

it appears that Roger's beginning to focus his attention

on the teddy bear.

But only time will tell if this is the solution

to dealing with Roger's aggression.

Downtown in Alice Springs,

two adult kangaroos have been abandoned in a back yard.

Their owner has upped sticks and left town,

and Brolga's been called to the rescue.

The roos have been raised here since they were joeys,

and because they've lived their entire life in captivity

they cannot be released to the wild.

So Brolga is stepping in to offer them a home

in the safe haven of his sanctuary.

Brolga usually rescues baby kangaroos,

taking on adults presents a different set of challenges.

-HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

-Hello!

-Hello.

-HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Moving big kangaroos like this is very difficult.

It is going to be a bit stressful for them

leaving the only environment they've ever known.

What I have to do is win the kangaroos' trust.

The roos are both female.

Jaffa is ten years old

and she's the first to come and check Brolga out.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Soon after, it's eight-year-old Columbine's turn

to meet her new owner.

These two kangaroos are obviously tame animals

and have been extremely well looked after,

but they don't know me.

And kangaroos are very... almost nervous

around meeting something and someone new.

So it's really important that I take the moving of them

really slow to win their trust.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Brolga stays with Columbine and Jaffa for over an hour,

but then there's no escaping what needs to be done.

With Jaffa relaxing in the sun,

Brolga makes his move.

HE GROANS

Catching kangaroos requires skill.

Grabbing them by the tail is the best way to get hold of them,

as it causes minimum distress.

HE GROANS

Kangaroos are not supposed to be kept as pets.

Jaffa and Columbine have never experienced...

anything, really, but a town back yard

and the confines and the restrictions.

Now they're going to go out to my sanctuary,

where they'll have open pastures

and a forest to hide in and sleep under the trees during the day.

That's the real environment for kangaroos.

BIRD SQUAWKS

Back at Brolga's shack,

it's time to give Jaffa and Columbine

their first taste of freedom.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

These two kangaroos have only ever known each other.

They haven't even seen another kangaroo.

Kangaroos are very much a family animal,

so I'm really looking forward to getting them out to the bush

where they can see others of their own kind.

Build up new friendships and, who knows,

maybe a little bit of love.

It's not long before Jaffa's out the door looking at her new home.

But Columbine seems a lot more cautious.

Look at that.

You don't know what to make of it, do you?

HE LAUGHS

Jaffa's just jumped the fence.

Oh, she's out into the sanctuary now.

Columbine finally makes it out through the shack door.

What can you see outside?

That's the outback.

That's where you should have grown up.

Unlike Jaffa, Columbine is less sure of her new surroundings.

BIRDSONG

She's going to need some gentle encouragement from Brolga

to make the leap out into his sanctuary.

Hey. Come on!

Good girl!

Good girl. Come on.

Columbine, come on. That's it.

Good girl. Come on.

Come on.

HE LAUGHS

Don't go back in there.

Good girl! Look at that.

Finally, Columbine and Jaffa

have the freedom of the outback.

Letting the kangaroos go...

is the best time for me.

Now they're doing what makes me... so proud,

watching kangaroos bound through the open grassland.

To me, it's the sense of freedom.

To watch them run off...

there's nothing better.

It's a big day.

Brolga's left the sanctuary and travelled 1,500 kilometres

to the Ceduna Rescue Centre,

where Pete, the southern hairy-nosed wombat,

has been recovering from his broken leg.

BARKING

It's run by Val Salmon and her volunteers,

who dedicate their lives to caring for wombat orphans

who've lost their parents in traffic accidents on the highway.

Val's house is a warren of wombats,

and at any one time, there may be as many as 20 joeys

occupying her house.

The best way to hold 'em is to put this hand around them,

like I've got here underneath their backside.

-Yeah.

-And the other one around there.

-Yeah.

-And that way you've got them secure.

-Is that right?

-Or is it like that?

-Yeah, that's it.

-So you're sort of cradling them like a newborn baby.

-Yeah.

How's that?

Yeah, that's it. That's worked.

Before Brolga can take Pete

on the long journey north back to Alice Springs,

Val wants to do a final assessment of his injury.

Yeah. Yeah.

Now the cast is off, he can have a good run around.

Yes, he can. We'll see how he goes.

-Are you going to be all right for this, eh?

-You ready, Pete?

You reckon he's ready?

-Yes. Let's put him down and see what happens.

-Go on, mate.

Look at that.

-Wow! Look at him. He looks... he looks brand-new again.

-Yep.

Not even limping, Pete.

You've done a really good job with him.

Yeah, I'm happy with him.

Every day you'll be amazed, once you get Pete,

-you'll be amazed at what he does and all the different things.

-Yeah

They've got a real character, they're very intelligent.

-But he's going to get bigger than this, isn't he?

-Yeah.

He's only 16 kilos now

-and he will end up around 35-40 kilos.

-Oh, will he?

He'll be a big boy.

Here he comes. Hey!

He's quite quick, isn't he?

He's such a beauty. He, like, glistens in the sun.

Yeah, he is a beautiful animal.

He's the king of the castle.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Yum! You want some?

-You want a treat?

-PETE BREAKS WIND

Wasn't me.

-HE SIGHS

-Geez! Funny boy.

Come on, this is your favourite.

HE LAUGHS

I'm just trying to make friends with Pete,

cos...in a moment he's going to have his medication.

And...then after that,

I'm going to be looking at taking him back to the sanctuary.

So, er...

this sweetcorn is his favourite food.

But, God, I tell you what, he is a handful.

He's just all power.

To hold him like this, it feels like I'm holding on to one big muscle.

Want to try again?

-CRUNCHING

-Ah, there you go. Yum, yum, yum.

Yum, yum, yum.

That's it. Look at that.

That's good. That's good.

Look at it, he's eating it like a beaver chewing through wood. Here.

-HE SIGHS

-Yum.

Yum.

With a good snack of sweetcorn in his belly,

it's time for Pete's medicine.

-Righto, mate.

-Precautionary pain relief to make his long trip

back to Brolga's sanctuary as comfortable as possible.

BOTH LAUGH

Is it nice-tasting medication, do you think?

It's banana flavour, so...

-Oh, is it?

-Yeah.

-He should like it.

Don't bite it. Don't bite it. Good boy. Good boy.

HE SIGHS

Little bit more. Little bit more.

-BOTH LAUGH

-Jesus! God!

-I think he's snapped it in two.

-HE LAUGHS

Do you think that could be his last dose of medication?

-I reckon it will be.

-Yeah.

-I don't think he needs any.

-I think there's not much wrong with him now.

-Oh, good.

-Eh, Pete?

Having travelled for two days straight,

Brolga and Pete have finally arrived back at the sanctuary.

Because Pete's species is endangered

and he can never be released back to the wild,

Brolga's spared no expense and effort

in creating an enclosure that will allow him

to dig and burrow to his heart's content.

Oh, this...this is really an exciting moment for me,

cos...for as long as I can remember it's been kangaroos

and now we've got a totally different animal.

I'm really looking forward to letting him in here.

Me and my mates have gone to so much trouble to house him

and build this beautiful enclosure.

So, there's no time like the present, eh, Pete?

After a long drive, I reckon you're going to be wanting to get out.

HE SIGHS

This is it, mate. I hope you are going to be happy here.

-Hey! Hey!

-HE LAUGHS

How are you going?

There you go.

Look at that!

Good boy.

Look at all this!

HE LAUGHS

It may not look like the Taj Mahal,

it may not be that beautiful enclosure that you see

in one of those fancy zoos, but this is very much suited to him.

It's got lots of dirt that he can play around in and dig up.

And I hope he starts making tunnels and settles right in.

You can go under the ground.

You've got eight metres of tunnels underground for you, mate.

HE SIGHS

Well, Pete...has come straight out of his carrier

and had a bit of a scratch and gone straight down under...underground.

Straight down into the tunnel.

I suppose, what do you expect of a wombat?

I mean, they do live underground.

Over the past few months,

builders have been busy constructing Brolga's hospital,

which will care for and treat not only orphaned kangaroos,

but all Australian wildlife in need.

The basic shell is now in place

and work is beginning on fitting out the interior.

DRILL WHIRS

Surgery, toilet,

laundry, kitchen.

I love all animals. Always have, ever since I was a little kid.

I set up the baby kangaroo rescue centre in 2005.

And ever since then, I've sort of felt

there's not an appropriate place for injured wildlife.

They never get the same care that we get.

You know, we've got hospitals, medical clinics for people,

but, like, out here in the outback there's no hospital for animals.

So it's always been in my mind and my dreams to...to build something.

So, this is actually happening. You know, it's happening now.

Outside, Brolga and his mate Hamish

are marking out the footprint of the hospital

that when viewed from the air will look like a giant red kangaroo.

-If we connect all of these dots...

-Yep.

..basically, we should be able to make a perfect red kangaroo.

-So like a dot-to-dot?

-Pretty much.

I haven't done that since I was a kid. Tip of tail to the head...

We're going to be looking at about a 55-metre kangaroo.

BOTH LAUGH

-It's going to be a big boy.

-I never expected it to be that big.

-That should do it.

-OK.

-No worries.

The hospital opening can't come soon enough.

In Alice Springs, Cynthia has yet another orphan kangaroo

in need of treatment at the local vet.

Cos you can feel the actual fluid.

He's a young adult and his release to the wild has had to be delayed

because he's developed a nasty abscess.

What I think the best option would be

is to make a small incision, OK?

Put some local anaesthetic in there so he doesn't feel it,

and make a small incision into that swelling.

-Mmhmm.

-Drain the puss out that's in there,

-and then you'll have to manage it at home...

-Yes.

-..with regular flushing with a dilute iodine solution.

-Yeah.

-One, two, three.

-Go.

Taking the kangaroos to the vet

is a common occurrence and very time consuming.

It's one of the reasons

Cynthia's so keen to get the hospital up and running.

SHAVER WHIRS

I think one of the big things with having the hospital

is that your vet can come out and they can see all of them in one go,

instead of having to run in and out to the vet every five minutes.

That will cut down a lot of our time

and the animal has to benefit from that.

And that's what we're looking at, where the animal comes first.

Draining the abscess is followed by flushing out the wound.

-We're going to flush it out, is that right?

-Mm-hmm.

We're going to flush the thing out?

-If you can flush it with 30ml twice a day, that would be very good.

-Yes.

-That's that one.

-Good boy.

Once we've got the hospital,

we'll have dedicated space to do things.

If we're treating an eye, if we're cleaning up wounds,

re-bandaging, we'll have a dedicated washing area

for the ones that have alopecia and have skin conditions.

So everything'll be there in the one spot.

Come on.

'That's where the hospital will, I think, make a big, big difference.'

THUMPING

Is that the way you feel about it? Yeah, all right.

-Want some flyspray?

-You do the others and I'll do this.

It's been two weeks since Brolga and Tahnee

moved their camels from their home to the holding pen.

Jasmine...

Now they're being prepared to be set free

to roam in the wilds of the sanctuary.

-Hey.

-GRUNTING

Wow! I just saw straight down... the throat of a camel.

I could just about see his heart.

We're going to...put ropes on them now and lead them out...

lead them out to the bush.

And then, when we feel the time is right,

-we'll let them off, eh?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

So, yeah, very, very exciting.

Isn't it? Are you excited? I'm hugely excited.

Walk up. Walk up.

Walk up. Good boy.

Life's about new experiences,

and these camels have been new experiences for us.

This journey that I and Tahnee have taken over the last couple of years,

with taking on orphaned camels,

is something that we look upon in our life

as one of the highlights, without a doubt.

Look at you!

You're free camels!

HE LAUGHS

You too! Look, you're free.

There you go, look.

We're going to be here with you, don't worry. We'll be here with you.

Straight to the bushes.

I love my sanctuary.

And to see camels out there...

My little babies are now grown up,

they're now being real camels -

it's such a beautiful sight.

You know, they're there to be free.

-Well, it's good to see them like this.

-Hmm.

-Isn't it?

-And they naturally went for the witchetty bushes and the food that they are meant to eat.

-Yeah.

No, it's exciting stuff. It's exciting to see them.

-Theo's hopefully going to settle down a bit. Remember when I went to pick him up?

-Hmm.

Little baby camel getting torn apart by dogs out in the bush.

It was such an awful thing to see.

-To see him now, I mean, I didn't think he was going to pull through.

-Yeah. He's...beautifully natured.

He's so gentle and he's a happy little camel,

despite what he's been through.

And then Jasmine, I mean,

-there's nothing we can do about her crooked face.

-Hmm.

-But...

-She's got a big hump and she's happy.

-She's got two boyfriends.

-Oh, little brothers.

BOTH LAUGH

Cameron's sort of become the father figure for the other two orphans.

-So, I mean, it's just a fantastic story.

-Yeah, it is. It is.

With the camels settling in,

Brolga's come to check on Roger the dominant male

to see what difference, if any,

the teddy bear has made to enriching his life.

The teddy certainly seems to stimulate Roger,

but the million-dollar question...

has it made him any less aggressive?

BIRDSONG

Whoa!

Whoa!

It clearly hasn't worked!

He wants to grab me and rip me up.

He still wants to kill me.

Although Brolga's attempt to divert Roger

with the teddy bear has completely failed,

there's been an interesting development.

Roger's recently been showing

signs of attraction towards Columbine,

the female kangaroo that Brolga rescued from the back yard

in downtown Alice Springs.

I've seen Roger taking a real interest in Columbine.

And she's come right up to Roger's enclosure,

pushing herself against the wire,

and Roger's come over and started sniffing her.

And she's staying there.

And if she walks along the fence, Roger follows her.

Straight away, when I saw that, I thought, "Hey, she's on heat."

And she's saying to Roger, "I want to be mated."

To help things along,

Brolga's bringing Columbine to Roger's enclosure.

He's aware this might be her last chance to have a joey.

Are you going to meet Roger?

HE GROANS

Columbine is an old lady.

She's coming to the end of her breeding life

and she's never even seen a boy kangaroo.

If she can have a little baby, you know, experience motherhood,

it would be beautiful.

Roger's attracted to the scent

of Columbine's reproductive tract that's called the cloaca.

SNIFFING

By continually following her and regularly checking her scent,

he's able to detect when she reaches peak fertility

and is receptive to mating.

Roger's courtship is beautiful to watch.

You know, he's not pushing the girl,

he's not straight into mating.

Roger is really taking it easy.

He'll walk up to her and try to pat her on the bum.

If she moves forward, he'll just keep following.

And keep following and keep following.

When the time's right, she will just, basically, sit still

and say, "OK, mate...I'm ready."

GRUNTING

GRUNTING

I'm really hoping - I mean, fingers crossed -

that, in 33 days' time, which is the gestation for the red kangaroo,

Columbine might get a little baby in the pouch.

That's what to me really makes the kangaroo such a beautiful animal -

the little baby sticking its head out of mum's pouch.

HE SIGHS

Back at the site of Brolga's wildlife hospital, work continues.

Brolga's fellow kangaroo carers from Alice Springs

are making preparations for the arrival of the local vet.

Animal patients requiring treatment are stacking up

and Brolga's keen to get them seen to as soon as possible.

-Small steri strips.

-Steri strips.

It's early days for the hospital, but I'm really excited.

We've got some supplies that people have generously donated to us.

Some of 'em are a bit out of date,

but just bandages and things like that.

But with the help from Cynthia and other like-minded wildlife carers,

we can make a go of it now.

It finally feels fantastic

to at last be able to unpack these things and...and feel

as if maybe we're getting a hospital.

All these dreams we've had for so long are starting come to reality.

And...it's a good feeling.

A very good feeling.

Today, we can actually invite the vet to come into our place

and we can start a whole new chapter in our lives,

and that's the opening of the Kangaroo Hospital

to its first animal patients.

A hospital. About time, eh?

You're right. I thought I'd be under the grave

before they'd gone and finished!

Nah, nah, you're not going anywhere.

Six foot under by the time they got to doing it.

-LAUGHTER

-Come on, baby girl.

Right, patient number one.

-Beautiful.

-I can see sand has got into it.

It's a cut. You can see the bone.

That's fine. They don't have a lot of spare tissue on their legs.

It's mostly just skin overlying the bone

-and their tendon and ligament structures.

-Yep.

-So it's not the end of the world when you can see bone.

-Yep.

-I think it's still a bit tender.

-It is a little bit.

-She's very brave, though.

-She is.

So, we'll pop a nice sterile dressing on it

to keep the sand and the flies and the dirt out of it.

I am over the moon. Absolutely over the moon.

It's just everything I've wanted.

It's been a long time coming and although we are

pretty level-headed people, we're pretty happy.

Next up is an orphaned rock wallaby

that Cynthia soon hopes to release back to the wild.

-We want you to give him the tick of approval.

-A final once over.

-A final nellie. He got caught up in a fence.

-Mm-hmm.

-A chain fence.

He was lucky that somebody saw two eagles circling around,

found him, and he'd scrapped right down to the bone.

OK. So he's nice and pink,

so you've obviously been using the antiseptic and anti-fly spray.

-He's got good mobility in that joint.

-Yes.

Which means he shouldn't have too much trouble getting around.

And that's healed beautifully and it's no longer an infection risk.

So, he looks pretty good to me.

Whoops-a-daisy.

Over a morning session, Brolga and Cynthia

get other orphans checked out by the vet.

This is the start of a venture

that will treat and rehabilitate thousands of animals in the future.

-You hold it so that it's flat.

-All right.

So that's nice and straight.

I always think back to a lot of the...the joeys we've lost,

you know, the babies we've lost over the years

that had to be put to sleep because there was no help there.

That's what drives me today.

That's what drives me deep down...

is the ones that we've lost.

And I felt they should have had better.

So...

..we'll do better.

We'll do better.

-Back to bed!

-Back to bed?

There you are.

-In you go.

-Up you go. There you go!

The last patient on the list is Pete the southern hairy-nosed wombat.

Over the past month, he's lost a lot of hair

and Brolga's concerned this is affecting his health.

Just watch him - he's a bit bitey.

-A bit bitey and a bit kicky.

-Yep.

You're all right, bud.

These guys are really, really prone to getting mange.

-Yep.

-His hair is just a bit moth-eaten looking there.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-But he's got no sores and he's got no weeping bits,

so, hopefully, with some anti-parasite treatment

-he should be...he should be all good.

-Good. Good.

-OK. He's not going to love it.

-No.

-Ah, brave boy, Pete.

-Good boy.

-There you go.

-Good boy, good boy.

So it's a quick injection to...treat those mange mites.

Yep. Yeah, he's a handful.

-He is 20 kilos of pure muscle.

-Of muscle.

-Muscle.

-Solid muscle.

'I'm going to have to watch Pete.

He's a bit like...an experiment.

'We're going to keep a close eye on him.

'And...if he can make it through

'this very long hot summer without any problems,

'I think we'll be safe to bring in more wombats.'

Yum! You love your sweet potato, don't you?

'And I have actually put in an order

for two girlfriends for Pete

'in the coming year or so.

'They can have babies and...help their species prosper,

'because they are an endangered species.'

A day after the first animals had been successfully treated,

workmen arrive at the sanctuary to help realise Brolga's dream

of creating the footprint of the hospital

in the shape of Australia's most iconic animal.

The idea of the kangaroo shape is something different

than a rectangular hospital like every other building.

This is art on a grand scale

and, hopefully, it'll be the talk of the outback.

It's taken months of planning.

There's been times where I've been scratching my head

and concerned that making what is probably the world's largest kangaroo on the ground...

It just seemed too difficult.

Everything's been a concern.

Can we afford to bring these machines in?

You know, can I afford to buy the white rocks?

Everything has been to a budget down to the last dollar.

I'm thinking, "Wow... Can I actually pull this thing off?"

Today, I've been smiling all day.

It's great. It's more than great,

because it's turned out so well.

If you're 30,000 feet above us in a plane flying over Alice Springs,

you should be able to see this iconic animal...

the red kangaroo...

bounding through the bush.

This is a statement to the world...

We love our wildlife and let's look after it.