Extract from ABC News
In short:
Jenny, Deggy, Jack and Jill are donkeys known to attract tourists to Silverton where they wander the main common.
Donkeys have been a part of the outback town since at least the 1950s.
What's next?
Donkey owner Patsy Price says travellers should not feed the donkeys as it can be bad for their health.
Donkeys have roamed the streets for as long as many Silverton residents can remember.
Locals in the tiny outback town don't usually bat an eyelid when they pass Jack, Jill, Deggy or Jenny conducting their business.
Most days that business usually takes the form of lounging on the pub verandah, occasionally trying to sass tourists into feeding them.
While they are technically owned by publicans Patsy and Peter Price and cameleer Petah Devine, they spend their days wandering where they like.
That has included the front bar or onto the road to play chicken with a tourist's car.
"[The] car was coming down the road and Deggy was walking towards it, and [when] the car stopped, he put his nose on the car," Mrs Price said.
"The car was [then] trying to back out, and it was like he was pushing the car. That looked really funny."
Dollar, Deggy and Jenny
According to Mrs Price, who has called Silverton home since her family moved there in the 1950s, the town has always had donkeys.
As a young girl, the now 77-year-old recalled there was always about seven stray donkeys in or around the town.
That changed in 2011 when Dollar, a donkey in his 40s, suddenly became the last donkey standing.
Concerned that he was lonely, Mrs Price went looking for a mate.
A "little fella" named Deggy, who was also a feral donkey, located two hours' away in Packsaddle, was caught and brought to Silverton.
The younger donkey was put in the pub's backyard to help him adjust to his new home.
However, Dollar had other plans.
"Dollar came one night and escaped him," Mrs Price said.
"So he was gone ... we couldn't get him in, and we couldn't get him back."
Neither donkey was seen after that for about eight months.
When they did reappear, Mrs Price was just relieved that the younger donkey hadn't been strangled when he grew into the halter they put on him, which he was still wearing.
While Silverton is widely known as the set of some of the Mad Max films, the donkeys have also proved to be something of a drawcard.
Sadly, shortly after returning to town, Dollar died at 44.
In a strange turn of events though, while Dollar and Deggy were out gallivanting in the wild, another two feral donkeys showed up and took up residence in Silverton.
The pair were a mother and daughter named Penny and Jenny.
They took Deggy into their fold and eventually, when Penny died, Deggy became the protector of Jenny, who was much smaller.
"Everyone thinks she's the baby, but she's not," Mrs Price said of Jenny.
"She's a big girl, if she doesn't want you to touch her, she won't let you."
Jack and Jill join the ranks
After 23 years in the police force, Petah Devine was looking for a change a pace of pace when she bought a farm in Silverton in 2014.
The animal-lover had considered starting a camel-riding business when she noticed Deggy and Jenny roaming the streets.
She was so enamoured by the pair, she decided to add donkeys to the collection of animals she was slowly acquiring.
The sibling pair, Jack and Jill, had initially been content to stay on the farm, until they met Deggy and Jenny.
"Deggy and Jenny used to come around and visit my donkeys and they'd talk to each other over the fence, so I thought well, I'm going to let my donkeys wander with the Silverton donkeys," Ms Devine said.
While the wild donkeys of Silverton had so far managed to co-exist with tourists, Mrs Price said she put signs up around the town warning people against feeding them.
"Carrots have a lot of sugar in them and [are] human food which you don't feed donkeys," she said.
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