Wild 2 Free was established in late 2016 by co-founders Rae Harvey & Sayo Prentic at a 67-acre property in the Mogo State Forest near Batemans Bay, on the NSW South Coast. Next door is another 90-acre wildlife sanctuary owned by W2F members. We removed the fences between us in 2018, giving the wildlife access to both properties and the adjacent forest. Rae and Sayo parted ways in 2019 and Rae has continued to run the sanctuary with the help of volunteers ever since.

On December 31st, 2019 the entire property was destroyed in the Black Summer Bushfires. Rae and volunteer Karen were rescued by boat and returned shortly after to provide care to bushfire surviving animals. Rae stayed on the property with no power, water or septic running for 6 weeks and took shelter in a fire damaged but surviving cabin.

At the end of August 2021, a newly constructed Animal Care Facility affectionately called ‘The Joey House’ was finished, thanks to generous donations from the public. We hope to add additional facilities as finances permit, to help more animals in need.

Wild 2 Free became a registered charity in April 2017. The current committee members are: Rae Harvey, Leigh Blaikie, Anita Morgan, Lynne Gillam and Peter Sharp. We are all volunteers.

Young joeys are with their mothers 24/7, and we try to emulate that as much as possible, providing around-the-clock care and living onsite. The time and dedication required from us mere humans, doesn’t leave much room for anything else.

Sadly, there’s little in the way of government support for helping our native wildlife, who suffer so much at the hands of humans, due to development, commercial shooting and loss of habitat.

The charity is governed by a management committee which oversees fundraising and spending to ensure the charity is sustainable into the future.

When Rae was in a paying job, she contributed her own funds to W2F to keep things going, and also provided use of the property for free to the charity. To enable Rae to run the charity full time, the committee determined that it was appropriate for the charity to lease part of the property. Two independent assessments were sought to determine a fair rental value.  To avoid any conflict of interest, Rae was not involved in this process. During the period that the charity was recovering from the bushfires in 2020/21 Rae would not accept any lease payment and has generously bequeathed the property to the charity upon her death.

In addition to requiring a large property to release animals back into the wild and to house volunteers, our other running expenses include animal feed, vet and medical costs, cleaning, repairs and maintenance, accounting, insurance and legal fees and the provision of safe suitable accommodation and basic out-of-pocket expenses for volunteers. Wild2Free relies on the generosity of Rae and other volunteers who donate at least six hours of their time, 7 days a week and stay on site.

W2F’s financial reports, provided by an independent auditor, are available on the ACNC website. 

Our motto is: “We will accept death in care, we won’t accept death due to poor care”.

We care about the welfare of all animals but safe large properties suitable for raising and releasing kangaroos are a rare commodity. Our property suits this purpose and provides sanctuary for adult roos, both released and wild.

A wildlife survey of our property undertaken in 2022 shows that the property has made a remarkable recovery since the bushfires, providing a haven for many species of local native wildlife and the regeneration of native plants. Some of the wildlife noted in the survey is endangered so we are also committed to protecting the natural environment in order to continue to provide a haven for these species too.

The joeys cared for by Rae and Annie (both authorised under Wildlife Rescue South Coast), are raised in a somewhat unique way. Due to the location of the land we operate on, we’re able to raise them in a really natural way, without the use of fences!

The joeys experience much of what they would as wild raised animals, with regular bush walks and countless hours of us sitting quietly with them while they graze or learn to hop or explore. As mob animals, the joeys follow us around, the same way they would with their real mothers. They’re able to develop their leg muscles by hopping as far and fast as they choose to, with no fences stopping them.

Eastern Grey Kangaroos are said to be the one of the hardest animals to care for in the world, with an extremely high death rate (around 76% in the wild). In care, death is often due to their stress levels, which can cause all kinds of difficult to diagnose ailments. They require vigilant husbandry. Their lives are in our hands, so we take our caring role extremely seriously.

Did you know a kangaroo chased by a dog, can potentially die a few days later due to the stress it endured? A kangaroo joey can die within 24-hours of diagnosis of some diseases. So far, we have a high success rate and we are working incredibly hard to keep it that way.

We care about the welfare of all animals but safe large properties suitable for raising and releasing kangaroos are a rare commodity. Our property suits this purpose and provides sanctuary for adult roos, both released and wild.

Given so few are able to provide care for one of the most rescued and in need of our Australian wildlife, how can we note make it predominantly about macropods.

The high level of care involved in kangaroos means we only take in small non-native animals for short periods to prepare them for rehoming.

We clean up a lot of poop! We wash and sterilise a lot of bottles and teats and do around 25 loads of washing a week. Then there’s time spent collecting fresh branches, dirt, ant hill and grass for the younger ones to enjoy in the evenings. We hang out in the bushier areas of the property, teaching our youngest joeys about the land and helping them develop their confidence and strength. Of course, there’s all the bottle feeds as well. When a joey first comes in, he or she is often on 6-7 feeds a day around-the-clock. This reduces slowly until they’re down to 4 feeds a day at around 10 months old. They remain on 4 feeds for quite some time before being slowly weaned off altogether at around 18 months old.

Permanent on-site carers Rae and Annie are both authorised under Wildlife Rescue South Coast, to rescue, rehabilitate and release macropods (kangaroos and wallabies) in the state of NSW. Our shorter stay volunteers become temporary members also, to abide by regulations.

Unfortunately, not. Kangaroos are easily stressed with change, so we avoid them interacting with more people than necessary. We believe it would be irresponsible to subject those in our care to undue stress or potential harm. We also do not hold an exhibition license, and are therefore not permitted under NSW law to display animals to the public. We welcome any questions you might have about the wildlife in care and we’ll happily share photos and information.

We welcome volunteers who can assist in all manner of ways, whether it’s helping with the animals, cleaning, making snack baskets for the joeys, picking up poop – there’s always a stack of jobs that need doing, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Please note that animal interaction is only available to volunteers willing to STAY ONSITE and help every day for extended periods of 6+ weeks. This is due to the stressed nature of the wildlife and our desire to ensure human contact is limited only to those people they see daily.

Please get in touch directly if you are interested in volunteering.

We have a wish list of items in need which includes:

• Boxes of nitrile or latex disposable gloves (all sizes)
• Hay bales: Clover, Oaten Hay, Teff, Rhodes
• Bags of feed: Micro Barley, Wheat, Alpaca Blend (orange and green bag), Ambos All Purpose Pellets, Steam Cut Oaten Chaff (dust reduced), Steamed Rolled Oats
• Needles and syringe barrels (all sizes but 22g and 23g needles and 1ml & 3ml barrels are used most)
• Puppy pads
• Most other medical items like urine test strips – please don’t throw out anything near its use-by date
• People who can sew liners and bag hangers (pouches) – we can supply preferred designs and styles
• Wombaroo 0.7 Kangaroo Milk Powder, Wombaroo Impact, Di-vetelact
• Vytrate or Lectade
• Revolution or Bravecto Tick Treatment for dogs (all sizes)
• Radiant laundry detergent
• Canesten laundry hygiene rinse
• Napisan or Vanish (for colours or for whites)
• Chux clothes
• Babywipes
• F10 Antibacterial cleaner
• Avagard or Dettol hand sanitiser

In Australia, you can also call Turnbulls Moruya or Caseys Beach Vet to pay funds directly towards our accounts or head to our DONATE page.