A Small Australian Town is The Only Place in The World Where Visitors Can Feed and Cuddle Baby Kangaroos
Take a peek inside the world's only baby kangaroo sanctuary in Alice Springs, Australia, as Rich Report takes us inside.
As Chris "Brolga" Barns walks through the golden twilight of Australia's Red Centre, he seems like a cowboy from the outback. He appears as if he's ready to wrestle a ferocious saltwater crocodile or corral a colossal water buffalo with his dusty hiking boots and weathered safari shirt, along with the wide-brimmed Akubra hat atop his six-foot, seven-inch frame. In contrast, his sights are much smaller and — let's be honest — much cuttier this evening.
A long-limbed crane gives Bollaga her nickname, and she runs the world's only baby kangaroo sanctuary here in Alice Springs, a bohemian outback town located in Australia's geographical center. As soon as they are 14 months old, most of the joeys are returned to the bush after he heals them and hand rears them on this 188-acre private nature reserve.
One man's pipe dream has become Alice Springs' most popular tourist attraction over the last 15 years, with the biggest attraction being feeding, carrying, and caring for the tiny red kangaroos alongside the towering former zookeeper.
“This is Katy-Lou,” Brolga explains as he hands me a pink and white pillowcase containing the baby. “She’s seven months old and has been with us for a few weeks, ever since her mother was killed by traffic.”
As Katy-Lou nestles into the crook of my arm, looking up at me with brown, melted-chocolate eyes, Brolga explains that most joeys have similar sad origins. “Their mothers are hit by cars, but they survive in the pouch; then they’re brought to us.”
There is a sanctuary where joeys live in well-insulated cots with pacifiers, receive four-times-a-day bottle feedings, and learn how to bounce in the yard.
“Kangaroos are very, very sociable creatures, so we raise them in pairs,” explains Brolga as he shows me how to stroke Katy-Lou and rock her to sleeping bliss. “A joey is never alone when it’s in the pouch, so we look to replicate that closeness of breathing and warmth by pairing each one with a buddy for the duration of their time here.”
After we put Katy-Lou and Wombat into their cots, Brolga takes me for a stroll through the sanctuary, an area where injured kangaroos live in a safe, protected environment.
Even though Brolga says 99 percent of his marsupial pupils are successfully returned to the wild, that dissident one percent still accounts for nearly 60 kangaroos today. It sounds like a gargling war cry as we walk through the creeping desert dusk, and a dozen of them bound across the tundra in pairs — eager to be petted, rubbed, and even embraced in one instance.
“They stay with their buddies for life,” says Brolga, as he identifies each of the duos by name, handing out treats. “They lost their mothers early, but at least they have each other now.”
“Kangaroos are Australia’s most iconic animal, but they’re also our most common animal, especially here in the Red Centre,” he explains. “That’s why I built this sanctuary here — because it’s where it was needed. If you like remoteness, big blue skies, and untamed wilderness, Alice Springs is an incredibly attractive place to be — and this is my contribution to protecting that beauty.”
