Despite having a rifle in her vehicle, the 60-year-old grandmother did what she had done for months. She gathered planks and a rope to crawl across waist-high mud to rescue the bogged western grey kangaroo and goat.

''For me, it's the tragedy of seeing wildlife suffer,'' Ms Sandow said. ''I've seen my husband and son in tears having to euthanise [bogged] animals.''

In dragging out the ''poor, wretched'' roo, the animal became twisted in the rope, lashing out and gouging both her arms with his hind legs.

In pain, the nurse persisted, tugging out the roo and crawling back out to extract the goat, only to see the native animal die.

Ms Sandow then drove to her homestead on Pimpara Lake Station and emailed pictures of her injuries to the Royal Flying Doctor Service more than two hours' drive to the south in Broken Hill. They flew her to the Broken Hill Base Hospital where she received treatment and was soon back at work.

The Sandows and their son's family run 10,000 sheep and some cattle over 97,000 hectares. Until recent falls, the two blocks had not seen ''useful rain'' in two years.

Mrs Sandow said farmers need help to space out watering points – as they have done on their “home” block – to limit pasture damage during dry spells. A national plan to deal with feral goats “that eat everything and anything” should also be a priority.

Kangaroo numbers also need to be reduced, with animals starving in their thousands across the country.

“I care immensely about them,” Ms Sandow said. ”What I can’t abide is the inhumane ending to their lives because there are so many of them.”