Poor wet seasons, fire and coronavirus are just some of the challenges Barbara Walker faces living off the grid in the East Kimberley bush.
For 25 years she has lived at Roy's Retreat near Lake Argyle.
Named after her late husband, the reserve is the only "soft release" wildlife rehabilitation centre in the Kimberley, meaning the animals can leave the sanctuary straight into the wild from their pens, rather than being transported to a new location and set free.
There is no phone reception at Roy's Retreat, the closest town of Kununurra is an hour away, and the property can become cut off during wet-season flooding.
During the dry season, Ms Walker hosts international volunteers who help with the wildlife and land care.
But with travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Walker is carrying out repairs and upgrades on her own.
The lack of tourists and volunteers has also meant fewer donations for the registered charity.
Unseasonal fires
Ms Walker cares for native animals that have been presented to the vet clinic in Kununurra.
She said the lack of travellers on the road, combined with late season fires and cane toads, have meant fewer animals have been brought in for care.
"There's hardly any joeys now coming into the vet clinic because there's not a lot of animals around anymore through these recent fires that we had," she said.
The fire tore through the area around Lake Argyle in late October, coming within a stone's throw of Ms Walker's home and damaging land and infrastructure.
"A lot of animals died," she said.
"There was only one of the small paddocks that was not burnt.
"This was land that hasn't been burnt for 15 years because I have looked after it and brought the land back what it should be, but it just went up in flames in five minutes."
The fire also burned through the neighbouring Long Michael Plain, an area that Ms Walker has also worked to rehabilitate.
Most of the fences and gates were destroyed, and she said she will now focus on the pocket of land near her house.
"There's a lot of birds here. I still have about three frilled-neck lizards," Ms Walker said.
"But I had two blue-tongued lizards here, and I had sand goannas that came to the camp for a feed.
"They're all gone."
Poor wet seasons
Ongoing dry conditions in the north have also had an impact on the property.
The spillway creek that flows from Lake Argyle has run dry over the last three dry seasons, as the lake levels continue to recede after drier than average wet seasons.
Ms Walker is starting to boil drinking water for the first time and is no longer able to pump direct from a spring into her tank.
"Normally my spring is going the whole year round, but not now.
"So many things have changed."
