A year after experienced wildlife carers Jess O'Connor and Duncan McInney moved to Tasmania, they had spent their house deposit on injured animals.
Ms O'Connor says, after seeing the "huge" need for more carers in the state, choosing needy wildlife over buying a place of their own felt like the right thing to do.
"We kind of went, 'Well, house prices are going up, our chances of getting a loan are pretty low — we may as well spend [the deposit money] on something that matters'," she says.
A leap of faith and lives on the line
Ms O'Connor and Mr McInney had been working as carers for the wildlife service WIRES in New South Wales for 15 years before moving with their five children to Legana in northern Tasmania.
Drawn to the area by a special needs school that could cater for their autistic daughter, Bonnie, the couple had not planned to be full-time wildlife carers once settled.
"We kind of just naturally fell into the role of caring for wildlife once we were down here because it was what we knew," Ms O'Connor says.
"And it snowballed from there."
The pair established kanamaluka Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre soon after arriving in Legana and recently registered the organisation as a not-for-profit organisation.
Ms O'Connor says the decision to rely on donations from the public while working as full-time carers has been "absolutely a leap of faith".
"It was a ridiculous decision, along with many ridiculous decisions we've made," she says.
"What are you going to do, let them die?'"
Ms O'Connor says there are not enough wildlife carers in Tasmania.
"Taking one or two [of us] away makes such a massive dent in what can be done," she says.
"There are lives on the line, so we just keep going."
Caring around the clock
Kanamaluka Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is home to 12 pademelons, three wombats and one possum, but will house many more critters after winter.
"The Bennett's wallabies will start coming in soon … [and] that's quite an intense period of time, joey season," she says.
This is largely due to the young joeys' need to be fed frequently, Ms O'Conner explains.
Some require three, four, or even five feeds a day.
"So you're up feeding most of the night."
Ms O'Connor says she and Mr McInney sort the joeys into different "classes" depending on their age to make the task of feeding them more manageable.
"You've got your big joeys and your small joeys and your teeny, weeny pinky joeys," she says.
"And between Duncan and I, we work it out, we take turns."
Community to the rescue
Ms O'Connor and Mr McInney recently found they needed extra helping hands to assist with the construction of a new wombat enclosure.
Ms O'Connor says they were "racing the clock" to build the enclosure for Claire, an 18-month-old wombat in their care who now needs to be outside full time.
She says soon after the pair received permission from their landlord for the enclosure's construction and began building they realised they had underestimated the size of the project.
But they also knew they could not afford the $8,000 fee of hiring a professional team for the build.
Ms O'Connor says she then decided to put a post on their community Facebook page to ask local people for help.
"I wasn't really expecting anyone to be interested," she says.
"[But] we had this amazing turnout — people just turned up and helped.
"They did lots of digging and moving of tin … [and] the guy who did the [machine] digging was great — he did it for the cost of diesel.
Extra hands and education
The couple also receives regular extra assistance from students at Launceston Big Picture School, who are working to complete one of their subjects.
The students help with activities of their choosing, including enclosure construction, animal care, web design, fundraising, and pouch-making.
"There are a lot of areas where we can put them to use," Ms O'Connor says.
Another local girl volunteers at the wildlife rehabilitation centre every Friday, helping with tasks like chopping vegetables and raking the paddocks.
An entire team of additional helping hands will soon be coming on deck on a regular basis too, due to the recent commitment of a community corrections group to assist with outdoor chores at the centre once a fortnight.
Ms O'Connor and Mr McInney will also soon be contributing to lessons in Tasmanian schools, through a wildlife education program they are developing in conjunction with a children's education service.
The program is designed, Ms O'Connor says, to teach kids that animals have feelings, have a social structure, and are "not just things".
Carers in need of care
The main job immediately ahead of Ms O'Connor and Mr McInney is fundraising for all the wildlife carers across Tasmania.
Ms O'Connor says the state's wildlife care sector is underfunded, under-resourced, and understaffed.
"The number of wildlife in need in comparison to the number of wildlife carers available is quite astronomical," she says.
"[And] carers all over the state are about to get bombarded with lots of joeys."
Ms O'Connor wants to see more funding, recognition, and training for Tasmanian wildlife carers from the state government.
And she asks members of the public to help as well, if they can.
"Look after your local wildlife carers — they need it," she says.
