Deer to my heart
The Samford Valley in south-east 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.
