Meet Chris, Rebel and Margot - Rescued Wallabies Named After Celebrities Who Donated Fire Funds

As hundreds of millions of animals were suffering in the face of Australia’s unprecedented bushfires, a helping hand was extended from far north Queensland for several young wallabies.

The joeys were taken north to ecologist Shai Ager, who runs a wallaby-relocation project from her home in Cairns.

The joeys, seen cuddled together in a shell pool in a Facebook video by Ager, were being tended to by her on January 8, before being distributed among her care team.

“Their mums have either run out onto the roads because of the fires and have been hit or some of their mums have had really bad burns,” Ager says in the video.

Ager’s Agile Project was founded in Cairns to help protect local wallabies. She told Storyful that the centre has been training volunteers for a couple of years for a crisis event like the bushfires.

Updating Storyful on January 9, Ager said that all the young wallabies had “survived the night.” She said the joeys were “all between three to six months old, so they have a long journey with us carers before they’re old enough to get released back into the wild (around 14 months old). To raise a single joey for one month, all costs usually add up to $150, assuming there are no vet bills.”

She said that two of the boys have been named Andrew and Geoffrey, “after the firefighters that have lost their lives fighting for our country.”

Ager added, “The others are named after well-known Australians that have donated to the fires.” These are Chris (Hemsworth), Margot (Robbie), Ash (Barty), Celeste (Barber) and Rebel (Wilson). Credit: Shai Ager via Storyful