There are no two days the same at Wildhaven. The mornings begin with a quick shower for us and a quicker breakfast followed by a more sedate sequence of bottle preparations, toileting, feeding and cleaning up after the young ones in care who share the house with us - either in the nursery made for them or in cots throughout the house. Once we have seen to the washing, the house cleaning (sometimes left to much later in the day!) and other domestic duties, we turn our attention to the outside 'kids' in care. There are (always it seems) Eastern Grey kangaroos who have progressed from the inside nursery to the outside, four and a half acre enclosure. They may share this, and the shelter sheds within, with young wallabies and or wombats - all of whom are still too young to be returned to the wild. There are also special enclosures within the larger one for possums, birds and any animal which may need to be isolated for a time.

A young (pinkie) kangaroo may be with us for eighteen months and a baby wombat as long as two years before they are developed enough to be released. We become very attached to each and every one, of course, but they must be returned to the wild and it is absolutely delightful to see them free once more.

A major part of the daily routine (bravely handled by Stella, in the main) is the 'roo poo collection'. This is part of    maintaining a high level of hygiene at the shelter. It limits the potential for the outbreak of coccidiosis (coccidia are one of many types of parasites of herbivores) an insidious disease which can destroy an entire mob - especially in times of stress. The RPC probably takes two hours a day. In the meantime, Alan is either shopping, attending to maintenance around the shelter or building a new enclosure. 

The early evenings are taken up with the penultimate feeding sessions for the day (some of the younger joeys require bottles every 3-4 hours for several days if not weeks). Aninjured or orphaned animal may be brought in at any time of the day or night (more often at night) and we either treat it immediately (if necessary) or wait until the morning to assess them more closely. They may need to be taken to Healesville Sanctuary for treatment.  If the animal returns from Healesville (sadly not all do, due to injuries from road trauma or being caught in fences) they are taken back to where they were found or (if patently unsafe) released  as close as possible to their home territory. We are beginning to see more wildlife in our district of late but the National Park  is still recovering both its flora and fauna so devastated on Black Saturday.

As you can probably gather, this is a lifestyle. It is not a hobby or a fleeting distraction. Once we decided, some twenty years ago,  to devote everything we have to the care of our precious wildlife, our lives changed for the better and to see the trust shown us by those little creatures is payment beyond price.