Five foot long goannas and six foot pythons are left on her doorstep and this, too, does not phase her.

It's all part of being a Native Animal Network of Australia carer, something Candy has done officially for the past four years, unofficially ever since she moved to Bermagui in the 1980s.

Her passion for animals goes back to her childhood. She was brought up on the Yorkshire moors, great granddaughter of a gypsy, with a father who took her for long walks and encouraged an interest in small animals.

When her mother's cat brought seven tiny field mice into the house, one at a time, and put them unharmed at her mother's feet, Candy and her father spent hours looking for the nest so that they could return the babies.

Candy trained as a textile designer, met Australian Ron and the two explored Devon looking at the potters' studios on the coast.

Ron brought Candy to Australia in the 1960s.

He ran shearing sheds, but when he and Candy had a daughter and twin sons in the space of a year, he decided he did not want to be away from home and the two made a living in Victoria as potters.

They became interested in Umbigumbi, the Bermagui co-operative and began building a mud brick home there and visiting regularly.

Then, three weeks after making the permanent move, Ron died suddenly at age 50 from cancer.

"I've never made a pot since," Candy said. "I was at a loss, and I asked a friend what he thought I should do.

"He said: 'Don't ‘do' anything. Make yourself available for any opportunity that comes along'."

Candy adopted the policy of being ready for opportunities and the first came when friends from Victoria called in on a yacht they had built themselves and took her to Sydney.

"I hadn't been sailing before and enjoyed it so much I asked them that if they ever needed anyone as crew to let me know.

"I got a letter from a man in Vanuatu whose crew had gone to Europe and I sailed with him for quite a few years around the islands, Noumea and Vanuatu.

"I was very green, but he was a very patient man, and put big labels up in the cockpit to say what everything was."

Another opportunity to come Candy's way was managing Madam Pat Thompson's first jazz band, the Rag Tags, and then 10 years ago her son bought an Italian motor bike and asked her if she would like to go around Europe with him.

Candy travelled around the French-Italian Alps on the back of the bike and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Then it was back to the 110 acres that she lives on at Bermagui and its resident wallabies and other wildlife.

Inevitably, these become injured from time to time and this led to her association with NANA.

"NANA has made people more aware that the wildlife can be helped," Candy said. "People may not know what to do with a goanna with a head injury, or a tiny joey taken from its mother's pouch after she has been hit by a car, but they know they can call NANA and someone will come and take over the care of that creature.

"I think the co-ordinator of NANA, Ray Alcock, deserves a great big medal for the time and effort he has put into the organisation," Candy said.

When kangaroo ET was brought to Candy she weighed 128 grams and fitted in the palm of her hand. Candy took her home not expecting her to live 24 hours.

Three years later a full-sized ET lives on her verandah, sleeping in the dog basket.

Candy has introduced her to eligible male kangaroos several times but, as yet, ET is reluctant to leave. Instead, she mothers Candy's other small charges.

"Most of the animals I care for just go back into the forest when they have grown or recovered," Candy said.

However, the female wallabies like to return and show her their new joey each time they produce one.

Sid Vicious, a laugh-a-minute wombat with the habit of nipping legs, hence the name, is a favourite. Sid came covered in ticks and by the time she had picked them all off Candy had "fallen totally in love with him".

The rewards that have come Candy's way from making herself available for opportunity are countless, but she helps those opportunities occur by being an active carer and fundraiser for NANA.

She regularly runs a stall at the Bermagui markets, selling donated goods, and has lately been able to turn a lifelong love of photography into another fundraising endeavour.

She has made cards from shots taken of her charges, and other carers and their charges, to be sold in aid of NANA.

"I have my fingers crossed that they will sell well - anything to raise a few bob for milk and other expenses."

Life has proven to be so full of opportunities that Candy has little time to think of what else she might like to do.

"I feel I have a lot of travelling to do yet," she says.

When the opportunity comes, she'll be ready.