For the past three decades, Chris Henggeler has dedicated his life to transforming an eroding fire-prone property in the Kimberley into an oasis of green paddocks and fresh running water. The secret of his success — feral donkeys. But the Western Australian government deems feral donkeys a pest. Chris is defying an order to shoot them, and a court battle is looming.
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00:00Dad fell in love with Kachana the minute he saw it. He often refers to it, you know, almost
00:14in a way as his calling. He said his dream is to leave this planet a little bit better
00:18than how he found it. And it has become his life. It has become his life.
00:30When I came and looked at this, I thought, well, I don't have to keep looking. This ticks
00:38all the boxes and more. But it took us a while to realise actually this country is a skeleton
00:49of what it could be. This country comes with a custodianship obligation and we need to
00:56look after these beautiful landscapes and to restore them.
01:00Chris's work has been absolutely amazing. He has transformed a desert into an oasis.
01:07When I first moved here, there was, yes, so little vegetation around. And now I walk around
01:14and I see grass everywhere. I see life everywhere. I see water everywhere.
01:20Just watch yourself.
01:23It's an extraordinary case of regeneration at a time when we desperately need it. And
01:30it was playing out for a couple of decades when suddenly, as far as the station was concerned,
01:35they found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
01:38I've got better things to do than go to court with my own government. If someone had said,
01:44you know, do you know that you're going to be spending seven odd years thinking about
01:48how to keep a few donkeys alive, I would have, you know, I would have laughed at the idea.
01:56If the science is not on my side, I deserve to be locked up. And if the science is on
02:01my side, well, I deserve an apology.
02:04Would you go to jail over this?
02:06Yes.