When you walk into Krystal Fairweather's Mount Isa yard in regional Queensland you are hit with a cacophony of birds chirping, a galah shouting a collection of random words and a puppy barking. There's even a young kangaroo to greet you at the gate.
Ms Fairweather is the town's newest volunteer wildlife carer. She says she took on the job because "there's no-one else out there" to do it.
"You see a baby [kangaroo] on the side of the road, you're not going to want to leave it there when its mum's on the ground dead, and it's so little, and it can't fend for itself," she said.
"You feel sorry for them and you just want to help in the best way you can.
"You wouldn't go and leave a puppy there."
More carers needed
Ms Fairweather said juggling the needs of her children and the care schedules and feed requirements of the wildlife was sometimes "hectic".
"In all honesty, there does need to be more carers, there needs to be more donations, milk, everything — [it] is not cheap to feed them," she said.
"We have to pay for the costs ourselves, but we do get some donations — I've received medical supplies, pouches, some liners for the pouches as well.
"A lovely lady brought in mealworms to help me feed the peewee, but there definitely does need to be more carers."
Ms Fairweather said another crucial part of the rehabilitation process was having an area where animals could be given a "soft release" back into the wild once they were well enough or old enough.
A soft release is a safe area where no shooters or predators are present for animals to be released slowly back into the wild.
Ms Fairweather said she released animals in the scrub away from people and in areas where there was plenty of food and water.
She said some of the kangaroos also went to a farm-stay at a nearby town where they loved the attention from tourists.
