Being a carer at the Koala Care Centre is a very rewarding experience, and we are privileged to have a colony of wild koalas living in the adjacent woodland. These koalas are often seen in the surrounding trees, particularly a very large male. Most mornings when I arrive at the Care Centre I look for our wild koalas sometimes they are easy to spot other times they are gone for days.

During January 2006 a photo was taken of one of our wild koalas with her baby riding on her back. She was walking across the driveway outside the Care Centre. The joey was a female and she continued to stay around the Care Centre with her mum.

Late June that year the mother was run over just around the corner on Cynthia Wilson Drive. She had a new little joey (32gm),. Both were killed with the impact of the car.

In August 2006, Friends of the Koala held a two day Training at Southern Cross University. After the Saturday session a number of us called in to the Care Centre to help the afternoon shift do the cleaning.

Much to our surprise we discovered a koala inside in our leaf area (we used to store the leaf indoors). We closed all the doors so we could check and tag the koala. When we picked her up we saw she had a joey in her pouch. So we immediately released her out the back door so as not to stress her.

Over the next few months we kept a close watch on her and we were able to recognise her by a distinctive white spot on her back.

Early November we saw her joey,  then during December we saw the joey riding around on her front and later watched her pouch get enormous when he climbed back inside. I decided to name the mother koala Summer, and later when we could see that the joey was a male he was named Winter.

Summer is an excellent mother. She would call Winter if he went too far from her. He would scurry back to her, climb up on her back and enjoy a ride around the treetops.

By late February Winter had grown up enough to be a full back young and during late March he was often seen sitting next to Summer on the branch. He was now too big to fit back in the pouch but he was still being fed by Summer. By June 2007 he was often seen sitting close but was not getting any free rides.

They spent most of 2007 together, enjoying what koalas do best – sleeping and eating.

During December 2007 we noticed Summer had another joey in her pouch.

It is now March as I write and the joey is now out of the pouch and sits cuddled to her front and sometimes rides on her back.

It is a truly wonderful experience to have the wild koalas at the Care Centre and makes me all the more determined to save as many of these remarkable animals as we can for the next generations to come.

 
Submitted by Care Centre Coordinator - Kay Sherring