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  1. #1
    A Cockless Wonder
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    Kangaroo Ned Kelly

    This 6.5 foot buck in Coffin Bay stuck his head in a watering can to get a drink and couldn't get it off!



    There's an old cliché, believed by people from overseas, that says when you walk down the streets of Australia, you'll be flanked by kangaroos. We laugh about it but, in Coffin Bay, South Australia, that's exactly what happens.

    The town is bordered by national park and thick scrub teeming with roos and emus but they've also adapted to grazing on urban lawns, vacant blocks and town reserves. I'm lucky that my wife's family have a holiday shack in Coffin Bay. We stay there whenever we can and I just love taking the kids on an evening kangaroo spotting adventure.

    If you're careful and respectful of their space you can get quite close to these magnificent animals, they've become tolerant of people.

    It's no surprise, then, that during this long dry spell we've had on the Eyre Peninsula, some wildlife have looked to domestic supplies for a drink.
    Last Saturday afternoon, scrolling through my Facebook feed, photos by Ian Berry appeared of a water raid gone pear-shaped. A thirsty 6.5 foot male kangaroo had clearly stuck his head inside a watering can and that's where his head stayed.

    All he wanted was a drink but, instead, he'd become Ned Kelly at the siege of Coffin Bay!

    Then, the story got better. Other photos revealed that a rescue had taken place. Rob Smith, a local reptile collector and snake catcher, the closest thing to a kangaroo wrangler in town, stepped in. With the help of another resident, Steve Dew, together they relieved the kangaroo of his unwanted galvanised iron helmet.

    Now, I'm a videographer and this got my news senses tingling. An original quirky good news story! Ian's photos captured the action beautifully but TV news needs video. Had anyone filmed this, whipped out a phone?

    Wait a minute, what's that on Rob's chest? I zoomed up one of the photos. Yes, a GoPro on a chest harness! Now we had news potential but I'd come to the story late in the day.

    A look at the Facebook post showed that this had happened four hours prior. Had this broken on mainstream media yet? My wife Deb and I both dug around Facebook trying to track down the rescuers.

    Suddenly, Deb exclaimed, "I know the cafe Steve Dew works at!"
    This led to finding and calling Rob Smith's phone number. Yes, he had filmed the whole caper and no he hadn't spoken to any other media yet.

    An hour later, I had the incredible GoPro footage, an interview with the man who orchestrated the rescue and an exclusive story with a happy ending.
    The story has since had widespread coverage on capital city TV news, breakfast television on two networks, newspapers right across the country and many news websites.

    The short video you see on this blog hasn't been seen on mainstream media.
    There's no need for me to describe how the rescue went down, I'll leave that to Rob. He was there, he filmed it.

    Enjoy!

    Editors note:


    In an interview with Coffin Bay local Ian Berry who witnessed the rescue, he explained to ABC Radio breakfast presenter Deane Williams that both Rob and Steven were, “being very careful”. He said that before the other two arrived at the scene, the kangaroo "buck had unsuccessfully been trying to jump and kick the watering can off its head".

    “It was breathing very heavily, it would have been restricted in there, the only air it was getting would have been through the spout of the watering can,” he explained.

    Ian said that the two rescuers used a stick to thread the rope through the handles of the watering can and carefully pulled the kangaroo onto the ground so they could use tin snips to cut away at the hole and then used that rope to pull the can off its head.

    “He jumped... away about 20 metres and stopped for a second. He had a small abrasion on his neck and his ears were bent down for a bit... then he hopped off. He wasn’t bleeding,” he told the breakfast program.

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  2. #2
    Thailand Expat
    Kurgen's Avatar
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    Bute mate

  3. #3
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    beaut maaate

    only 6 and a half feet - tis a wallaby

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