Deer to my heart

On the slopes of Mount Samson in the lush forests of southern Queensland, Kelly Prisk has inherited a special sanctuary for lost, unloved and unwanted deer.

- SUSAN CHENERY

The Samford Valley in southeast Queensland vibrates in every gradient of green. On a day of sun and rain, I travel there, down country roads lined with rolling fields, gum trees, and farmhouses slumbering in a sudden burst of light. At the foot of Mount Samson, I am greeted by two peacocks in full spectacular plumage. A guinea fowl perches on top of a fridge. I alight from the car and a little deer nibbles on my notebook and rips a bag of treats out of my hand.

This is Luka, 10 months old. He and his brother, Leo, were found as newborn fawns near Coffs Harbour, separated from their mum in the floods, and brought here to the Lyell Deer Sanctuary. “They still had their umbilical scab. Their mother had put them in the bushes,” says the sanctuary’s owner, Kelly Prisk. “They sat there. They had no scent, they made no sound, so no predators could find them. The mother often goes off and eats and comes back and feeds them at night. But then, if the mother doesn’t come back for a couple of days, they get up and start crying and coming out. And that’s when people randomly came across them.”

At first, Kelly bottle-fed the fawns every hour. “If you don’t set an alarm, they don’t wake you up like a human baby, so that’s pretty intense. I just keep giving them milk until they wean themselves because they have already missed out on so much,” she explains.