{"id":437790,"date":"2026-01-26T03:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437790\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T03:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:39:11","slug":"anthony-is-boddingtons-underground-carer-for-orphaned-joeys-despite-the-licensing-hurdles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/437790\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony is Boddington’s ‘underground’ carer for orphaned joeys despite the licensing hurdles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony “Oz” Ostigh is an unlikely kangaroo carer who wanders around his mining town wearing a stockman’s hat and a crochet bag with an eight-month-old joey named Roofus.<\/p>\n

Roofus is one of many orphaned kangaroos Mr Ostigh has taken under his wing.<\/p>\n

Mr Ostigh lives in Boddington, about 130km south-west of Perth, where he is his community’s unsanctioned kangaroo carer.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

A joey in the pub is a strange sight for some patrons. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

He is not a registered wildlife carer \u2014 a requirement under WA law \u2014 but partly does the job because the nearest registered carer is more than 100km away from town.<\/p>\n

The other reason is that caring for vulnerable kangaroos is his life’s passion, which began as a boy.<\/p>\n

“They follow you everywhere. They want the attention, they come up for their cuddles,” Mr Ostigh said.<\/p>\n

When the joeys reach 12 to 18 months in age, Mr Ostigh releases them.<\/p>\n

In Roofus’s case, he was given to Mr Ostigh by a Boddington local who found the joey as a “pinky” in the pouch of his deceased mother.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Mr Ostigh has cared for several orphaned joeys, but has a special bond with Roofus. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Plenty of company<\/p>\n

In a joey’s early months, Mr Ostigh brings them on his day-to-day errands, including to the pub and grocery store.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Roofus is a regular vistor to the pub in Boddington. (ABC South West: Anna Cox)<\/p>\n

“They need to be fed pretty frequently, so they come with me,” Mr Ostigh said.<\/p>\n

He said Roofus was a welcome visitor to the local watering hole.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite amazing really, some of the miners are big burly blokes covered from head to foot in tattoos,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’d think they’re not the sort of person who would come up and want to pat a roo.”<\/p>\n

Publican Julie McNamara said it was not uncommon to see animals being cared for by kind-hearted locals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Julie McNamara says the joey is the pub’s cutest regular. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

“All of the beautiful people and souls in Boddington, they raise whichever animals that are injured \u2026 it’s just the normal,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not abnormal to have someone that comes through with a sheep on a leash or a goat on a leash.”<\/p>\n

Pub patron Lou Chapman said Mr Ostigh and Roofus made him proud to be a Boddington local.<\/p>\n

“What he’s doing is relaying the fact that if you’ve got an injured animal, he’s prepared to take it in and help,” said Mr Chapman.<\/p>\n

“It’s good, it’s human nature to be nice, even to a furry friend.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Oz Ostigh has been taking care of Roofus since he was just a baby joey. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

‘Underground’ wildlife carers<\/p>\n

In order to care for wildlife in WA, a licence from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is required.<\/p>\n

Registered kangaroo carer and founder of Roo Rescue, Kim Mitchell, said obtaining a licence was becoming increasingly inaccessible.<\/p>\n

“It shouldn’t be that hard, it’s not rocket science,” Ms Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

She said the rigorous licensing process had forced many carers to work “underground”, without official clearances.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Boddington Hotel is 130 kilometres south of Perth. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

“We’re only doing it because it’s a calling and the animals need us and there is nowhere else for them to go,” Ms Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

“If the volunteers and wildlife carers stopped, we’d be in a dangerous situation of losing massive amounts of animals.”<\/p>\n

DBCA does not condone the informal care of native animals, but said there was a pathway for temporary care arrangements.<\/p>\n

“A person can apply to DBCA to temporarily possess fauna that is injured or abandoned until it recovers or can fend for itself to ensure successful release back into the wild,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony “Oz” Ostigh is an unlikely kangaroo carer who wanders around his mining town wearing a stockman’s hat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[123578,64,63,228177,228178,228180,228179,228176,128,41844,45,338,121492],"class_list":["post-437790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-rescue","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beer-garden","tag-country-pubs","tag-kangaroo-rescue","tag-kangaroos-and-joeys","tag-pub-kangaroo","tag-science","tag-south-west-news","tag-wa-news","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-carers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}