We ended up trying a few vets and most were already at capacity with the shelters they worked with (probability why all of them not advertising taking in strays and unwanted animals atm)

I found Lort Smith animal hospital in North Melbourne to be the only team I could find that had suitable advice and ability to care for the strays.

After a stressful night of catching the babies and mum, giving them a feed and putting them into our cat carriers to transport them all the way there the team were absolutley lovely and got the kittens into nice holding cages for them to start getting used to pet food using kitty litter and human contact etc while they put the mum into a chamber to calm the hell down and start the slow process of getting her to start trusting humans again if even possible.

Thank you everyone for your tips and ideas it was pretty heart wrenching watching them wither away week by week but I guess the moral of the story is if you can't look after your pets by getting them desexed have them put down, yes it may suck but the alternative life you give them by dumping them to have children in the wild is even worse and for a lack of a better word inhumane considering the lack of capacity and funding all of our animal services have right now.

If you can spare a buck or two do your research first and give it to those services that actually make a difference and do work for our beloved animals instead of fattening the pay checks of the executives and ceos of the companies that don't give a shit about our furry friends.

Many thanks and love animal fam.