Christmas has come early for us at Friends of the Koala!
We would like to give a huge shout-out to the leadership team from Bunnings from all over NSW for their recent support in completing their community project at Friends of the Koala.
Working on our koala runs
We previously mentioned that we are on the cusp of completing ten additional koala rehabilitation runs and Bunnings have been helping us by laying over forty metres of pathway in these new koala runs.
Caring for koalas is a highly specialised area. Koalas require large, purpose-built enclosures to keep them safe whilst also providing an environment that mimics their natural habitat in the wild. Depending on their size, our koala enclosures contain a variety of furnishings including tree forks, logs, branches and ropes.
Koalas suffering from a suspected disease, such as chlamydia, will need to be placed in our disease control enclosures requiring a high level of hygiene and treatment. It can take up to six weeks for the chlamydia to clear. Koala enclosures need to be weather and snake-proof too – find out more about the enclosures here.
Our Koala Hospital admits approximately 350 koalas each year – more than any other wildlife facility in NSW. Our care centre and hospital are right next to each other which makes it easy check up on koalas, notice any changes, administer medication and complete any other day to day care related activities.
Potting 250 koala food trees
The Bunnings team also potted over 250 new koala food trees in our Nursery and donated and installed a new and much needed clothesline for our Koala Hospital, trimmed and cut branches of gum leaf for koala feeding, cleared a large area for fire hazard reduction and donated forty-eight umbrellas that have already come in handy providing shelter for our volunteers and koalas.
The project involved time, effort and financial investment and we thank Bunnings for the commitment to meaningful and active participation in the community, read more about Bunnings in the Community here.
This type of community support is important to our organisation and our koalas will hugely benefit from their efforts. We also can’t thank the team enough for their gentle respectful approach whilst being on-site with our koalas. As many of you are aware – koalas have unique vulnerabilities including stress-induced diseases and we need to be very quiet around them while they are recovering.
Massive thanks to Nancy from Bunnings, Lismore who helped make this project happen and who is also one of our volunteers.
Save koalas from extinction – partner with us!
Does your organisation have a strong commitment to environmental issues, sustainability or climate action? Would you like to create lasting positive impact? We encourage individuals and businesses who are inspired by our work and alerted by the seriousness of the challenges koalas face, to reach out – we would love to hear from you – because together we can create real change for the future of koalas.
You know the phrase ‘it takes a village to raise a child‘. We think this saying applies to koalas as well: ‘it takes a village to raise a koala‘. Please help us to complete the koala runs in our Koala Care Centre.
There are multiple ways in which you can help our life-saving work including adopt a koala, adopt a tree, become a member, vaccinate a koala and much more.
