Thelma 'Bubsy' Lander says trading a diet of western junk food and alcohol for the traditional Aboriginal cuisine of kangaroo tail and emu meat has helped her to lose 48 kilograms.

Thelma 'Bubsy' Lander with an old pair of her size 26 jeans. (ABC:Blythe Moore)

At her heaviest, Bubsy, as she is affectionately known around her hometown of Quilpie in south-west Queensland, weighed in at 136 kilograms.

"It was just exhausting to go anywhere because I was fat and my enlarged heart and my lungs ... it was a real effort to walk around," she said.

"There were many fences I used to lean on, on the way downtown and back."

The 71-year-old great grandmother says alcohol and junk food were her biggest weaknesses.

"I used to hook into the booze a bit, being an alcoholic I'd get the munchies," she said.

"I'd come home and cook up a storm, eat up big and not do exercise but ... I realised what I was doing to me own life.

"[So instead of] thinking 'why me lord?' I got off me backside to do something about it."

Several years ago a friend advised Bubsy that if she wanted to lose weight she should try cooked kangaroo tail and emu meat.

Bubsy says she quickly developed a taste for the traditional Aboriginal food and before too long her weight began to reduce.

While previously she fit into size 26 clothes, she can now fit into size 18 and 20 clothes.

"Now I can walk downtown no problem," she said.

She says the kangaroo tail she cooks is particularly delicious.

"It's beautiful, it's a bit dry if you just have it ordinary, but nice if you do it in the alfoil and cook it in the ashes," she said.

"I like it just on the coals and brush the ashes off and eat it."

Aside from her weight loss, in recent years Bubsy has also completed studies in theology and social work.

"I feel really blessed, that's what I tell the kids now, if I can do it, you fellas get off your backsides and go and do something," she said.

"I really feel proud of what I've achieved and now I can help people ... a lot of people come around here, Aboriginal and white people and I just give them some advice ... just for them to do the best they can and turn their lives around."