Chris Barns, nicknamed "Brolga", is an Australian kangaroo carer. He is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs and was featured in the 2013 BBC documentary series Kangaroo Dundee. Barns and the Kangaroo Sanctuary came to international attention when Roger, one of the earlier kangaroos which he adopted, went viral for his muscular physique. [1]
Barns grew up in Perth in Western Australia, in the 1970s and was a shy child who did not excel in school. He partially attributes this to being 6 feet (182cms) tall by his early teens. Barns left home at the age of 17 to work as a zoo keeper in Broome, going to work at several wildlife parks before starting work as a tour guide. [2]
In the early 2000s, while working as a tour guide running tours between Alice Springs and Uluru, Barns came across a joey, still in its dead mother's pouch, near Curtin Springs. The kangaroo mother, who had been hit by a car, had been dead for some time. With the help of a nurse on the tour, Barns managed to free the 4-month-old joey. The tour group named it Anna (later renamed Palau). [3] This experience made Barns angry about how many vehicles had already driven past the dead mother and not thought to check that she may have a joey. He decided that it would be his mission to tell people about how to check for this. [3]
Following this, in 2005, Barns started the first incarnation of the Kangaroo Sanctuary, the Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre, and many joeys started being sent to him, mostly through a combination of road accidents and hunting. In 2007 alone, 75 joeys were brought into the sanctuary, including Roger on 24 May 2007; it was initially thought he would not survive long. [3]
In 2009, after exceeding capacity at the existing site, Barns moved to what is now known as the Kangaroo Sanctuary, funded primarily by donation and entry fees. [4]
In 2013, Barns and the sanctuary were featured in the BBC documentary series Kangaroo Dundee, a six-part series [5] which he followed up with the book Kangaroo Dundee with James Knight. [6]
In 2014, Barns married Tahnee Passmore [7] and they share their home with a family of joeys. Barns has said that: [2]
"Home is the bush - I have my home where my parents are ... and then the home in my spirit is the bush. And the bush can be anywhere - it's that sense of freedom ... that's where I'm happiest."
— Chris Barns, How kangaroo rescuer Chris 'Brolga' Barns found his purpose on The Road to Alice
The eastern grey kangaroo is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. It is also known as the great grey kangaroo and the forester kangaroo. Although a big eastern grey male can typically weigh up to 66 kg (146 lb) and have a length of well over 2 m, the scientific name, Macropus giganteus, is misleading: the red kangaroo of the semi-arid inland is larger, weighing up to 90 kg (200 lb).
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is an 18-hectare (44-acre) koala sanctuary in the Brisbane suburb of Fig Tree Pocket in Queensland, Australia.
Arthur William Upfield was an English-Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race Indigenous Australian. His books were the basis for a 1970s Australian television series entitled Boney, as well as a 1990 telemovie and a 1992 spin-off TV series.
The Silver Brumby is an Australian animated children's television series written by Jon Stephens, Judy Malmgren and Paul Williams based on Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books. A total of 39 episodes were produced by Media World Features between 1996 and 1998 and was originally broadcast on Network Ten.
John Kundereri "Jumbana" Moriarty is an Aboriginal Australian artist, government advisor and former soccer player. He is also known as founder of the Balarinji Design Studio, for painting two Qantas jets with Aboriginal motifs.
Neil James Murray is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter-guitarist and writer. He was a founding member of the Warumpi Band which was the first major influential Aboriginal rock group with mostly Indigenous members. Murray was recognised as one of Australia's foremost songwriters at the APRA Awards of 1995 by winning Song of the Year for "My Island Home".
Kangaroos, Wallabies and other Macropodidae have become emblems and symbols of Australia, as well as appearing in popular culture both internationally and within Australia itself.
Serendip Sanctuary is a 250 ha protected area in Victoria, Australia, near the You Yangs and the town of Lara, some 22 km (14 mi) north of Geelong and 60 km (37 mi) south-west of Melbourne. Originally used for farming and other purposes, it was purchased in 1959 by the State Government of Victoria for wildlife research and the captive management and breeding of species threatened in Victoria, such as the brolga, magpie goose, Australian bustard, and bush stone-curlew. The sanctuary contains many different types of wetland and is home to many plant species as well, such as river red gums, tall spikerush, and tussock grass. Serendip now focuses more on environmental education about the flora and fauna of the wetlands and open grassy woodlands of the Volcanic Western Plains of Victoria. It was opened to the public in 1991 and is now managed by Parks Victoria.
The Alice Springs Desert Park is an environmental education facility and wildlife park in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Steve Dodd was an Aboriginal Australian actor, notable for playing Aboriginal characters across seven decades of Australian film. After beginning his working life as a stockman and rodeo rider, Dodd was given his first film roles by prominent Australian actor Chips Rafferty. His career was interrupted by six years in the Australian Army during the Korean War, and limited by typecasting.
Neva Carr Glyn or Neva Carr Glynn was an Australian stage, film and radio actress born in Melbourne to Arthur Benjamin Carr Glyn, a humorous baritone and stage manager born in Ireland, and Marie Carr Glyn, née Marie Dunoon Senior, an actress with the stage name "Marie Avis". She had one half-sister Gwendoline Arnold O'Neill and two half-brothers Sacheverill Arnold Mola and Rupert Arnold Mola. She was named "Neva" after a great-aunt, who was a contralto of some quality. Both spellings of her surname appear in print roughly equally and apparently arbitrarily.
Kangaroo is a 1952 American Western film directed by Lewis Milestone. It was the first Technicolor film filmed on location in Australia. Milestone called it "an underrated picture."
The Ballarat Wildlife Park is a wildlife park in Ballarat, Victoria. Opened in February 1985, it is privately owned by founder Greg Parker and his wife, Julia Leonard. The 10-hectare park holds over 300 animals, including Australian animals—there are over 100 free-roaming kangaroos—and an extensive collection of reptiles. It was once well known for housing Patrick, the common wombat who was the oldest known marsupial in captivity when he died aged around 30 years old in 2017.
The murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce Pearce were initially treated as unrelated. The skeletal remains of Pearce-Stevenson were found in Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales, Australia in 2010. Her daughter Khandalyce Pearce's remains were found near Wynarka, South Australia in July 2015. The two cases were not linked until positive identification was confirmed by DNA testing in October 2015. The mother and daughter were last seen by family in 2008 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and reported missing in 2009; however, the report was withdrawn. It was discovered Pearce-Stevenson's mobile phone was used for years following her death to send false "proof of life" messages to family and friends. The mother and child's identities were exploited by third parties to commit social security and other types of identity fraud.
Jose Petrick OAM is a British-born Australian historian and community advocate living in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Kathleen Mary Mills, also known as Mooradoop and Aunty Kathy, was an Australian community leader, singer, Aboriginal elder and activist in the Northern Territory of Australia. She had a large family, all musical, with several of her daughters being well known as the Mills Sisters.
Ben Gabriel was an English Australian character actor, director, voice artist and theatre founder. Gabriel had numerous appearances in stage and radio roles and in film and television.
Roger was an Australian red kangaroo best known for his muscular physique.
Pamela Lofts, also known as Pam Lofts, was an Australian children's book illustrator and exhibiting artist based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is best remembered as the illustrator of the Australian classic children's books, Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan and Koala Lou by Mem Fox. Although known for her book illustrations, she was also a photographer, painter, and sculptor.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)