How long have you been with FOK?I’ve been here since October 2019 when we were hit by the bushfires. I started off as a koala carer and then I moved into a supervisor role. Earlier this year, I also started doing some lab work with the IFAW Sponsored Vet team as part of the internship … Read more
News
Koala joey with blind mum gets a second chance after being rescued
On May 28th, a member of the public found a disoriented koala mother with a joey in her pouch in Woodenbong, northern New South Wales. The koalas were taken to the Friends of the Koala hospital where our International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)-sponsored vet team conducted thorough health checks. Tests revealed the adult koala, named Venus, was completely … Read more
Faces of FOK: Q&A with Lee
How long have you volunteered with FOK and how did you get involved? I started with Friends of the Koala December last year. I got involved because of a friend who was volunteering already. I had just finished at TAFE and applied to volunteer here too. I began volunteering on the afternoon care shift where we clean … Read more
Faces of FOK: Q&A with Vik
What is your role? As Volunteer Coordinator, my role includes the recruitment and induction of new volunteers, maintaining our volunteer database, keeping new and existing volunteers up to date and informed about what is going on at FOK and ensuring that new volunteers receive effective training for their roles. A big part of what I do is matching volunteers … Read more
Faces of FOK: Q&A with Dominique
What is your FOK story and when did you join? This is my second year volunteering with Friends of the Koala, I started in February 2020. I first started doing work with the Nature Conservation Council and in around 2019, we were doing a campaign for the state election about the forestry agreements and those … Read more
Faces of FOK: Q&A with Heather
What is your FOK Story?   Well, I retired and went on a big trip. And then when I came back, I realised what I wanted to do more than anything is get trees in the ground. I knew Mark Wilson the Nursery Manager and about the nursery at Friends of the Koala, so I came to volunteer. They desperately … Read more
Mimi Tests the Wild
Mimi, who when rescued in November 2020 had her left eye removed, was ready this month to start the next stage of her rehabilitation journey. It is always a concern when we release koalas back to the wild as to how they will go, but in Mimi’s case we were all the more cautious. When a koala loses … Read more
Bushfire Recovery Nursery Officially Launched
This week we officially launched our Bushfire Recovery Nursery, made possible by the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW). The new nursery site extends our current capacity, enabling us to propagate and distribute 240,000 koala food tree seedlings over the next 3 years. This is a major step towards supporting the recovery of critically impacted koala … Read more
Our Team is Growing
Since starting late last year, we have overseen some exciting growth in our staff team. Jackie Reed (Superintendent Vet) and Richard Atkin (Change Manager) have been working closely to scale the vet services team with support from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) who fund all FOK’s costs relating to vet capacity. We’ve recently welcomed … Read more
When is Planting a Success?
A sure indicator of success when undertaking koala habitat restoration projects is having planted trees browsed by koalas. This has been the case on the Lismore floodplain where two-year-old trees are being regularly browsed by the very animal that we are targeting, the ‘Iconic’ koala. Scratch marks (like the ones above) and scats are clear … Read more
