This Is Your Year to Volunteer
We only just celebrated Global Volunteer Year and now it is time for National Volunteer Week here in Australia, and honestly, the more we celebrate these amazing humans the better because the volunteers are the backbone of Friends of the Koala.
Every single day, 365 days a year, our volunteers show up. They drive out before sunrise to harvest fresh eucalyptus leaves, answer rescue calls and head out on rescues when we are tucked up in bed. They clean runs, prepare food, administer medications and quietly care for our beautiful koalas. They do this in the blazing heat, pouring rain, on public holidays and over Christmas. These are the people on the ground who make sure that koalas receive the best care and have every opportunity to heal and return to their natural habitats to live their best lives.
And this National Volunteer Week, we want to say something we can’t say often enough: thank you. Truly, deeply, thank you.
Your Year to Volunteer
The theme for National Volunteer Week 2026 is Your Year to Volunteer, honouring the contributions of volunteers and encouraging people across Australia to make 2026 the year they get involved and make a difference. It is also the United Nations International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026), recognising the vital role volunteers play in building a more sustainable world. At Friends of the Koala, that feels like a perfect description of what our people do every single day. Every koala rescued, rehabilitated and returned to the wild is conservation in action.
This week, we are taking a moment to introduce you to some of the people who make it happen. We are spotlighting a few here but this post is for every single one of our volunteers, past and present, who has ever given their time to this cause. You are all in it.
It also feels especially meaningful this year because 2026 marks forty years of Friends of the Koala. Four decades of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing koalas across the Northern Rivers. Four decades of research, habitat restoration and advocacy. Four decades of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for one of Australia’s most iconic and vulnerable species. None of it, not a single year of it, would have been possible without our volunteers.
Meet the Tuesday Crew
Tuesday afternoons at the Northern Rivers Koala Hospital in Lismore look something like this: anywhere between five and fourteen volunteers arrive for the daily care shift, running from 12.30 to 4.30pm. They make observations on every koala in care, prepare and replenish fresh leaf, scrub and clean the runs, and support the vet team. For the more experienced team members, that support includes administering medications. It is skilled, attentive, compassionate work.
Vicky, Vicky, Petria and Bettina are among the steady hands that Tuesday runs on.
And then there is Lee.
Lee’s contribution is hard to put into words. He starts early, out collecting fresh eucalyptus leaf before most people have had their first coffee, making sure the koalas in care have the very best food available for the day. Then he stays for the afternoon care shift. He is a team leader, always ready to show new volunteers the ropes, and when visitors or tourists turn up at the hospital unannounced, it is Lee they find. He points them in the right direction, takes them on a quick tour, and more often than not locates a wild koala tucked in a tree nearby. Lee has a highly trained eye.
Rescue Coordinator Paul
Meet Paul, our rescue coordinator, seven years in and still the first to put his hand up.
Rain. Hail. Shine. 3am. The Clarence Valley to Tenterfield. Paul has covered it all. No koala gets left behind when Paul is on the team, and his knowledge of the region, the roads and the rescue process is extraordinary. But Paul’s contribution doesn’t stop at the end of a rescue. He also provides backup support on the hotline when shifts aren’t covered, and he leads the Friday rehabilitation shift each week. He is, in every sense of the word, indispensable.
Paul, thank you for seven years of dedication, kindness and care. You are the backbone of so much of what we do.
And Then There’s Nicci
Nicci is out there on the ground, doing the work that most people only read about. Whether she’s responding to an observation call or loading a distressed koala into a crate for transport, she brings exactly the calm, capable presence that the job demands. We are very lucky to have her.
The Quiet Season Before the Storm
Right now, as we head towards winter, there is a natural lull in koala activity. Breeding season in the Northern Rivers runs from June through to December, the spring and summer months, when koala activity increases as they move about trying to find a mate, and when younger koalas disperse to find their own home range. It is a very risky time for koalas.
That means the busy season is coming. And it is worth noting that this particular summer could bring some serious challenges. The Bureau of Meteorology has noted significant warming in the tropical Pacific, with models forecasting that conditions are likely to reach El Niño thresholds by early winter. In Australia, El Niño typically brings hotter temperatures, more heatwaves and a heightened risk of drought and bushfire. While the strength of any event remains uncertain, a hot and dry summer in the Northern Rivers, on top of breeding season, would place real pressure on wild koala populations and increase the volume of rescues and cases coming through our hospital.
Our volunteers know this. They plan for it, they prepare for it, and every year, without exception, they rise to meet it.
Why This Matters So Much
Friends of the Koala is powered by more than 180 active volunteers whose contribution is valued at over $2 million every year. That is not a statistic. That is Vicky driving in on a Tuesday. It is Lee collecting leaf at dawn. It is Paul heading out on a rescue at midnight. It is Nicci coming back from the field, already ready to go again.
Volunteering can look different at different life stages, and there is no single way to volunteer, only the way that fits you. At Friends of the Koala, that means there is genuinely a role for almost everyone. If you want to be hands-on with koalas in care, we need you. If you want to support from home on the rescue hotline, we need you. If you can harvest eucalyptus leaf, respond to rescues or simply give a few regular hours a week, we need you.
If you have been thinking about getting involved, there is no better time than right now, before the busy season begins.
Help Us Build for the Future
Volunteers are the heart of this organisation, but they need the right facilities to do their best work. We are currently in the middle of our Northern Rivers Koala Hospital Expansion, an ambitious project that will significantly increase the capacity of our koala hospital in the Northern Rivers to treat and care for koalas, particularly through the pressures of breeding season and the kind of extreme summers we increasingly face. We still have a long way to go to reach our fundraising goal, and every donation makes a real difference to how many koalas we can help.
If you can support the expansion, please visit our Hospital Expansion page to find out more and donate.
Get Involved
To find out how to become a Friends of the Koala volunteer, visit our Become a Volunteer page or email: [email protected]. Whether you are a local or looking for wildlife volunteering in NSW more broadly, we would love to hear from you.
To our entire volunteer community: you are the reason this organisation exists. You are the reason koalas go home. Happy National Volunteer Week. This one is for you.
If you would like to learn more about volunteering with Friends of the Koala, you might like to read the following articles:
