Living and working on KangarooIsland

Most days on KangarooIsland follow a similar theme.We get up and have breakfast and at 9 am, we meet in the office to get our duties for the day.

Volunteering activities include

• Planting trees and shrubs
• Conservation work
• Maintaining paths
• Painting
• Maintaining vegetable garden
• Firewood collection
• Assisting with cleaning and laundry
• Fence maintenance
• Monitoring Koalas
• Maintaining bird feeding areas
• Feeding of Kangaroos and Wallabies
• Assisting with tourists/visitors
• Participating in Guided tours
• Weed control
• Assist in survey and monitoring of animals

The specific morning duties are:

• Watering the tree factory and dogs - there are 2 dogs, Archie and Monty who live in a compound at the back of the barn.The tree factory is where we grow the seedlings ready to plant out in the fenced areas.
• Feeding and watering the chickens (from the lake), letting them out and collecting any eggs.There are 3 hens and 1 rooster.Most mornings there is at least 1 egg - sometimes still warm.
• Putting out water, seed for the birds and oats for the kangaroos and wallabies on Koala Walk.We have learnt that we have to put the oats out for the kangaroos first (without being attacked); otherwise they eat all the bird seed.
• Checking Koala Walk for hazards before visitors arrive and setting up the shop
• Walking the 5km electric fence to check for holes and check the voltage.The fence is designed to keep out the feral cats and protect some of the native species of trees and birds. There are also a couple of hand raised kangaroos in here (including Amy) who wouldn't survive if they were fully released into the wild as they are too trusting of humans.Sometimes wallabies and echidnas try to dig under the fence so we fill in the holes as we go.Some mornings we take Archie with us for a walk (Monty chases the wallabies so can't some!)

On our first morning, Ed continued with our orientation and we got to see a bit of everything.He also took us to HansonBay cabins (about 7 km away from the accommodation), where there are the most amazing views of the ocean.

After lunch, the real work started.Mark took us up to one of the fields where a new fence is being built.The sanctuary was once a sheep farm and one of the missions is to return the land back to the native bush.Fenced areas are built to protect the native plants from the animals until they are established enough for the animals to move in.We were building one such fenced area.The work is hard, physical work, particularly in the baking sun with temperatures in the summer reaching the 40s with very little rain.The whole time we are working, we are surrounded by the natural wild life, particularly birds such as the Crimson Rosella, Gallah and Rainbow Lorikeet that we have previously only been used to seeing in aviaries.

Most duties only last 1.5 - 2 hours before we switch round and do something else.At roughly 4.45 each day, the Sealink tour bus pulls into the sanctuary for a very short, manic, 10 - 15 minute visit so it's all hands on deck at this time.We also bring out the 2 orphan kangaroos that are being hand-reared by volunteers and sanctuary staff.Roo-B is 11 months old and was found wandering around the sanctuary when she was about 5 months old (no-one knows what happened to her mother); and the other is Matty (Matthew Flinders) who is 12 months old - he was found in his mother's pouch after she was killed by a car.Both roos are bottle fed 4 times a day with formula milk and live with Mark and Ed in their half of the house.We sometimes get chance to feed them and most days we get to cuddle and play with them when we bring them out for the Sealink bus.

Somebody also has to man Koala Walk each day to make sure people pay the $2.50 entry fee and to sell the honey (and other souvenirs) that is made here at the sanctuary; and to promote the night time tour.We all get chance to do this at last once each day.The koalas, kangaroos and wallabies are all around us and sometimes we are lucky enough to see a koala on the ground as it moves from tree to tree, or a baby roo feeding from its mother's pouch.

Volunteers take it in turn to cook each night and after dinner, as well as the washing and drying up there are also night time duties:

• Feeding and putting away the chickens
• Hay run for the night time tour.Hay is dropped in strategic areas along the night time tour route so we can guarantee wallaby and kangaroo sightings!!
• Spreading oats on the night time tour walking trail - this also attracts the possums as well as the wallabies and kangaroos.
• Assisting with the night time tour (which is optional)

Outside of these daily duties, there are also regular maintenance jobs and special projects to be worked on.Some of the regular maintenance jobs are weeding and digging over the veggie patch, raking leaves (this reduces the fire risk) and cleaning the guest accommodation as it is vacated.The special projects we have been working on are building 2 walking trails, one to link up with koala walk and the other from the cabins, building fences to keep the kangaroos and wallabies out as we plant new trees and clearing the fire trail.

The work is hard, physically demanded and we walk for miles and miles just getting from A to B to get the jobs done. Every evening when we get back to the farmhouse we are exhausted and filthy.Now we know why they told us to bring old clothes!!!!

Coming in the next instalment…………..what we get up to on our days off (yes we do get them occasionally)