I cuddled a kangaroo - but this experience meant so much more

It's easy to fall in love at this refuge for orphaned joeys in Alice Springs.

The first rule at the Kangaroo Sanctuary is the opposite of what you may expect. Joeys must be cuddled for a minimum of five minutes. The downside is it makes it harder to give them back.

Seven-month-old Skip and best buddy Sharona are snuggled together in a basket, waking up from their daytime sleep. Orphaned after highway accidents, they keep each other company, wrapped in blankets - the next best thing to mum's warm pouch.

Sharona is gently handed to me, gazing into my soul with her big, black, glassy eyes. I have zero maternal instinct but as soon as she's cradled in my arms, I'm in love. We stroll around the bush track on a sunset tour, led by Chris "Brolga" Barns, who introduces himself as "a full-time kangaroo mother".

Six-foot-seven Brolga built the Kangaroo Sanctuary in 2011, a 76-hectare refuge to support the Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre that he founded in 2005.

"I was a tour guide at Uluru and nobody else was checking roadkill to see if the babies survived," he says. "Joeys never leave their mum, and they can still be alive two or three days later, but the nearest wildlife hospital was more than 1500 kilometres away."

My obsession with the project began on Instagram where I saw a video of Pippa, an adorable euro (also known as a wallaroo), barely taller than Brolga's dusty RM Williams boots. Taking a few tiny hops, she somersaulted into a pink pillowcase that he held open as a makeshift pouch. The cuteness overload was unbearable. After following @thekangaroosanctuary for a month, I jumped on the Flying Kangaroo (aka Qantas) to Alice Springs and booked the tour for this afternoon. The other dozen people in the group are European tourists who were also inspired by Instagram or the BBC documentary, Kangaroo Dundee, which was filmed here. Everyone takes turns bottle-feeding the 35 furry residents, including social media stars Disco Dave, Biscuit, Shiloh and her newborn.

Some injured joeys have grown up at the centre and had their own babies, while others will be rehabilitated and released back into the wild when they are deemed independent, at about 14 months of age.

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"We need as many kangaroo mums as we can get," says Brolga. "Move to Alice Springs and I'll give you a one-day training course, and then you can take two joeys home to look after. It has to be two because one gets lonely. Every orphan needs a best friend so they can become a mother to each other."

Donations are also accepted online to fund the joeys' food and veterinarian care.

What: A three-hour tour of the Kangaroo Sanctuary, including hugs and bottle-feeding.

When: Operated from February to November, sunset tours are held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.