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 6'7 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 Brolga's unconventional family life

is about to get even more complicated.

In this series, we follow Brolga as he takes on

a completely different bunch of animal characters.

Cameron is something new to me.

I've never looked after an orphaned camel before.

Absolutely remarkable. I just love him.

Your new home!

- Aren't they just magic? - Gorgeous.

And we join Brolga on his mission to create Alice Springs'

first wildlife hospital, dedicated to caring for orphaned animals.

We're the centre of the Outback.

There's no wildlife hospital here.

The challenges ahead are huge.

Each one of these concrete blocks probably weighs a tonne.

And no day is ever straightforward.

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

But Brolga is determined to fulfil his dream

of creating the only animal hospital for 1,500 kilometres

to care for Australian wildlife in need of a helping hand.

When you're injured, you need help.

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

PIANOLA MUSIC PLAYS

It's eight o'clock in the morning, and it's feeding time

for Brolga and Tahnee's latest batch of kangaroo joeys.

These babies are orphans.

Their mothers were killed in traffic accidents, and now,

to help get over the trauma, they require round-the-clock care.

As Brolga knows only too well,

being a kangaroo foster mum is a big commitment.

MUSIC FINISHES

- Nice. - Thank you.

This little one is Bob,

and Bob is a little red kangaroo that I rescued out of his dead mum

out there on the highway.

And that's something I've been doing for a long time now,

ever since I started the baby kangaroo rescue centre

ten years ago.

I reckon Bob would be around number 220, 230, something like that.

I lost count around 200.

I love them. They're just the most beautiful thing.

Anyone who gets into looking after baby kangaroos

finds they've got a new love in their life.

But it's not just kangaroos that occupy Brolga these days.

Recently, he's taken on the added challenge of raising

three orphaned camels.

Like his kangaroo joeys,

Brolga hopes that, one day, they'll be able to leave his back yard

to live wild in his sanctuary.

These are my new love. Baby camels.

Well, camels that are now growing up, mind you!

Hey, you like my shorts?

They are full of character, camels.

They are unbelievable.

I've never experienced an animal, especially such a large animal,

that is so affectionate.

The oldest and by far the largest camel is Cameron.

Cameron weighs over half a tonne,

but as an adolescent male, he's still very much a big kid at heart.

Hey, hey.

People wonder why I've got a hole in my hat, it's because of him.

He keeps on... He loves my hat!

Hey! Can I have it back?

Cameron!

Look at that. Look at that!

So...

Cut!

LAUGHTER

Brolga's love affair with camels started 18 months ago

when he rescued Cameron.

Camels were introduced to Australia during the 1800s,

used as pack animals by the first explorers

of the vast Australian Outback.

Today, over half a million feral camels roam free,

with many people now viewing them as pests.

In fact, Cameron's parents were shot by cattle ranchers,

but, fortunately, Cameron was spared the bullet.

Come on!

I got a phone call saying they've just destroyed

a family of camels out in the Outback,

and a little orphan was left behind,

and do you want to come and pick him up?

I thought, I wasn't sure if I needed or wanted a camel,

and they said, "All right, otherwise we'll shoot him.". I said, "No."

CAMEL GRUNTS

I just saw the picture of this little baby looking up at me

in my mind, saying, "If you don't help me, no-one's going to."

So, I went for a bit of a trip, didn't I? Hey?

1,100 kilometre round trip down into the desert of South Australia,

to pick up this beautiful little orphan camel I've called Cameron.

Back when Cameron was just a month old,

Brolga was living in a tin shack at the sanctuary.

Cameron never left his side,

and Brolga soon discovered camels have a real thirst for milk,

drinking as much as 12 litres a day!

I'm just turning into a bit of a milk production factory.

I've never made bottles of milk up like this before!

Fantastic.

And, when it came to bedtime, Cameron would cry all night long.

The only cure to comfort Cameron

was for Brolga to allow him to share his bed.

Animals are all very close to their mothers,

and when they've lost their mother,

the world must be such a lonely place.

To me, it was in my nature to sleep next to him.

And that really helped get Cameron

through the loneliness of losing his mum.

18 months on from taking Cameron under his wing,

Brolga has two more camels, called Jasmine and Theo.

Like Cameron, they became orphans soon after birth,

and Brolga felt compelled to rescue them.

I got a call way out in the bush, way out in remote desert country.

A small camp of people out in the bush,

they'd taken a baby camel off its mother as a pet for a child

and the child didn't know what to do,

and then they found out dogs were attacking it.

Awful situation,

so, not wasting any time, I jumped in the Land Cruiser

and raced out there, and threw little Theo in the back of the truck

and brought him back here.

And then we got a call from a friend of ours in Victoria

who said, "Do you want a camel?

"There's a camel here on someone's farm,

"and it's not being well looked after.

"Its jaw's displaced."

Probably from not being well treated, so we got Jasmine sent up.

So all three camels have come from being orphaned,

or, in Jasmine's case, mistreated.

And that's why we're here - give animals a life that need a home.

We want the very best for them,

because they've had such a hard start to their life.

Theo, quick, get one before Cameron!

The plan to introduce the camels into the sanctuary

is the start of an important new chapter for Brolga.

The Kangaroo Sanctuary, which is home to a mob of 30 roos,

has been running for ten years,

solely as a safe haven for these orphaned animals.

But now, Brolga has big ambitions to expand his operation

by building the only wildlife hospital

within 1,500 kilometres of Alice Springs.

It's an idea that's long been in Brolga's mind.

It first came about ten or 11 years ago, when I saved a baby kangaroo

out of its dead mum's pouch out there on the highway.

I was a tour guide. I brought the little baby back to Alice Springs,

and there was no place I could take it.

It was night-time. The vet wasn't open.

I rang up a local wildlife carer, and they didn't answer the phone.

It made me think, "Come on,

"something has got to be better than this."

So, I want to build something where we can take them,

and we know that they will be looked after.

This is something I've been working my whole life towards,

something I've known within myself I really want to do,

and that's to build my own wildlife hospital.

Brolga's not alone in feeling the pressing need for a hospital.

OK, guys, come on.

Downtown in Alice Springs, fellow wildlife carer, Cynthia Lynch,

is inundated with orphans requiring specialist help.

We're just overrun.

Not just myself, but other carers, as well.

We have something like 84 in care at the moment,

and it goes up to 120 sometimes.

So, the hospital, there's an absolute need

to do the right thing by these animals

and to be able to give them the care they really do need.

Like Mother Hubbard. Too many children!

Or The Old Lady Who Lived In The Shoe, one or the other.

That might be a better metaphor for me.

Too many children, she didn't know what to do.

But we can never say no, can we? We can't say no to you.

Most of the orphan joeys come from surviving road traffic accidents.

Today, Brolga's responding to a call reporting a dead kangaroo

on the road 15km south of Alice Springs.

If it's a mother, there's a chance her joey will have survived

the impact, cushioned in the protective environment of her pouch.

Here we've got a wedge-tailed eagle sitting in the middle of the road.

That means dead kangaroo.

When Brolga stops to inspect the corpse,

he discovers a tiny hairless "pinkie" still alive in the pouch.

Come on, little one.

Look at this.

A lovely little baby survived.

Now this baby is going to have to get to an incubator,

otherwise it's not going to be able to keep warm.

In the absence of a wildlife hospital,

Brolga immediately takes the orphaned joey to Cynthia's.

Cynthia!

What have you got this time?

I don't know. I think she's a little girl.

- Isn't she beautiful? - Isn't she? She's tiny, too.