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Our Australian Wildlife

Let me in, let me in!' The tiny kangaroo scrabbles at his mother's pouch, desperate to be safe and snug. She stands with her arms out a little to accommodate this frantic little body which seems all hind legs and tail. As the joey enters his sanctum head first, the pouch seems to explode every which way as he scrambles to turn himself right way up, with eventually a little head poking out and maybe a tail still to be pulled in.

I thought I knew a bit about kangaroos before we moved to our present place. I'd seen dozens of roos on our farm as a child and we'd had a roo for a pet. I'd also read quite a bit about them. But I'd never seen roos with white stars on their foreheads; I'd never seen a joey stand in front of a doe with his head in her pouch having a drink; I'd never seen a doe with twins and I'd never see a doe box her babies' ears for attempting to eat a poisonous plant.

We have built in the corner of our 18 acres. The Australian bush is on two sides of us and we have a small patch of bush on our own property on the third side of the house. The local roos come through our property to feed on the pastures below us, stopping on the way to sample the grass round the house or the plants in the garden. We've started watering an area below the house and this has encouraged them to stay and feed. From our lounge windows on a hot day I have watched up to fourteen roos spending their day in the shade, feeding on the grass or drinking from a basin we've placed under a bush. We've now been here four years but they haven't become much tamer although if we drive slowly down our track to the road they will now sit and watch rather then fleeing panic-stricken through the fence into the bush.

Our roos here are Western Greys; prettier than the red kangaroos which are more prevalent in the northern areas of Western Australia. The reds have Roman noses and aren't as dainty as our little does, many of whom seem very small to be mothers. Face on, they have the shape of a cello with narrow shoulders and wider hips, neat black-tipped paws hanging in front.

Four families live on our no-through road and we've counted up to eighty roos at any one time in our immediate area. In self-defence, we do drive very slowly on our gravel road.

Come September, we look forward to the first glimpse of little heads poking out of pouches. Before that eventful day, we marvel at the size of the pouches. Then the heads start appearing; within days the joeys are pushed out for

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