58 Australian Geographic
through the hospital treatment room’s public viewing window
was a “conveyor belt” of burnt koalas, says clinical director
Cheyne Flanagan. They also saw burned kangaroos, possums
and turtles coming through as an overwhelmed FAWNA, a
wildlife rescue facility on the NSW mid-north coast, also sent
animals the hospital’s way.
Daily visitor numbers continued to be up by 50–75 per cent
for the hospital over the following months, about a quarter of
which were from overseas, says Sue Ashton, president of both
the hospital and Koala Conservation Australia. During the crisis,
followers on the hospital’s Facebook site rose from 27,000 to
150,000. The hospital offers koala “adoptions” at $60 each to
help raise funds and usually does no more than 300 a month.
From 30 October to mid-January it processed 70,000. At the
time of going to press it was still handling 1500 a day. “Every
time a film crew comes here, and we’ve had them from around
the world since the fires began, the adoptions roll in shortly
after from wherever they came from – Japan, China, London,
Saudi Arabia,” Sue says.
About 70 animals are cared for at the facility at any one
time and its enclosures have been fully occupied since the fires
began. Many koala joeys and quite a few older animals requir-
ing specialist attention have also been cared for at the homes
of trained carers. On average, koalas remain at the hospital for
a month before being returned to the wild, as close as possible
to where they were found.
Deaths of koalas in the northern NSW area as a direct re-
sult of the fires are said to be in their thousands, leaving what
Cheyne will only describe, until full scientific surveys have been
completed, as “a very small percentage” of the original northern
NSW population. There is, however, an extraordinarily positive
outcome that’s come out of the devastation. All the publicity has
meant that the koala hospital has raised more than $7 million
on a GoFundMe page set up to handle the overwhelming level
of donations that were besieging hospital volunteers. And
that means the hospital is now able to embark on a wild koala
breeding program, which it has had in the planning for several
yea r s. “The hospit a l is pa r t ner ing w ith the Un iver sit y of Syd ney,
Australian Museum, Taronga Zoo, Billabong Zoo and the NSW
government to get this happening,” explains Cheyne, who’s
been a major force behind the project. Infrastructure for the
program is expected to start before the end of the year.
“We’re going to mimic what will happen in the wild and
we’ll do that following strict scientific protocols and method-
ology,” Cheyne says. “There will be three breeding facilities,
separate from each as insurance in case of bushfires and the
whole program will follow a ‘studbook’ system. Koalas will
only be mated with koalas of the same provenance to maintain
good genetic integrity. All offspring will be returned to the
wild into well-managed, conserved habitats.” Rebuilding and
retaining the number of animals living in this area is seen asTwo supplements are
used to rehydrate and build
the strength of admissions
to the hospital: one is a
type of milk formula mixed
with pumpkin and corn; the
other is liquefied
gum leaves.Rough pads on the
palms of koala paws help
with gripping tree trunks
and branches. Koalas
and primates are the only
animals known to have
human-like fingerprints,
with whorls and ridges. This
paw has been burnt.“We’re going to mimic what will
happen in the wild and we’ll do that
following strict scientific protocols
and methodology.”