Chris Barns

Chris 'Brolga' Barns is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. He 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 that he adopted, went viral for his muscular physique.[1]

Early life

Barns grew up in Perth in Western Australia in the 1970s and he was a shy child who did not excel in school. Barns 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]

Work with kangaroos

In the early 2000s, when 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 and, with the help of a nurse on the tour, they 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.[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 and this included 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 on 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).

In 2014 he married Tahnee Passmore[6] and they share their home with a family of joeys. Barns says:[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

References
  1. Sanctuary, Supplied: The Kangaroo (2018-12-10). "Roger kangaroo crushed bucket". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  2. One, One Plus (2015-09-11). "The kangaroo rescuer: Chris 'Brolga' Barns". ABC News. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
  3. Barns, Chris. Kangaroo Dundee. London. ISBN 9781444753325. OCLC 855704775.
  4. "The Kangaroo Sanctuary - Alice Springs, Central Australia". The Kangaroo Sanctuary. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  5. "Kangaroo Dundee". ABC iview. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  6. "Tahnee Passmore, Author at The Kangaroo Sanctuary". The Kangaroo Sanctuary. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.