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2024 – Ten years of photographic observation

There were a total of 923 wild adult sightings. This number is less than last year but really shows how populations fluctuate for many reasons.

These days of sightings were the result of activity on the property by 16 individual adult/independent koalas.

7 of these 16 koalas were females and 9 males.  

The kindy has been host to 9 koalas for different reasons during this year.  This is another way Koala Gardens assists saving koalas.  The kindy was kindly funded by ifaw and FOK and koalas are in the kindy under the rescue and rehabilitation licence of FOK.

So now get settled and enjoy looking back over the 25 koalas that lived on, or came through Koala Gardens during 2024.

You can watch them all on YouTube with the link below giving you all the video released in 2024.

ELMO

was born here on the property, the son of Ellie. He separated from his mum and slowly moved in bigger circles and dispersed out. What a beautiful healthy koala he grew into.

However, I saw him 158 times which is a really large number of sightings.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube too!

Elmo as a young subadult sitting upright and holding onto a tree branch with hands and feet.
Close up of Valentine's face - a mature male koala with a distinctive heart-shaped nose pattern. He has a red tag in his left ear and bright eyes.

VALENTINE

Valentine came close to being seen here the most often. I saw him a total of 143 days. This means he is usually here on the property nearly 3 days each week on average. His nose pattern makes him so easy to recognise.

You can read more about Valentine here.

You can ADOPT VALENTINE here.

Valentine has his own playlist on YouTube

ELLIE

Ellie raised two wonderful joeys – Eddie and Elmo. She was an amazing mum, and gave herself fully to the important task of raising her young.

Sadly she developed chlamydia and it became a serious infection before there were any outward signs. The photo to the side shows her only a couple of weeks before the first signs of eye trouble started. Sadly we were unable to treat her as the infection had progressed in her reproductive system too quickly.

You can read more about her here.

She has her own playlist on YouTube too.

Ellie is upright and holding an upright branch and looking around the side at the camera. She is a fully mature female koala.
Hope is sitting upright looking at the camera. He is a sub-adult male koala with dark grey fur. He is holding the branch with his hands and has his feet up holding also.

HOPE

We all followed Hope as a newly emerged joey, through his time on Pearl’s back. When they separated and he stayed another year growing at Koala Gardens we were thrilled.

I saw him a total of 95 days in the first half of the year. He began to move in wider circles and dispersed. We wish him the very best life in the wild.

You can read more about Hope here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube.

ONYX

Super mum, Onyx is huge, dark furred and strong. She produced her first joey, Jasper this year, arriving when he was already in pouch.

While I only saw her on the property 74 days, it was wonderful watching Jasper grow with her. She was mated, probably by Valentine, in late September or early October. Another joey to look forward to gives us a lot of hope for the future of koalas.

You can ADOPT ONYX here.

She has her own playlist on YouTube

Onyx is a mature female koala. She is sitting in a V shaped tree fork of a pink bloodwood with her legs out in front and her feet linked together.
Enya is a young female koala with pale grey fur. She is sitting upright on a branch and surrounded by leaves.

ENYA

Sweet Enya – with pale fur and big ears has been a joy to watch.

She has been seen her 57 days, but didn’t arrive until mid October. It seems she has definitely made Koala Gardens her home!

You can read more about her here.

She has her own playlist on YouTube

MOMO

is a juvenile koala, probably not too much older than Hope. He spent 45 days here during the second half of the year. He will have been dispersing and has hopefully found a good place to settle.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube.

Momo is a young maturing male koala. Close up of his face showing distinct nose patter, bright eyes and upright ears.
Egwene is a mature female koala. Close up of her face as she clings to the side of a flooded gum tree trunk. She has very long hair on her ears.

EGWENE

Egwene came to Koala Gardens as a young, but mature koala. Look at her huge ears! They are nearly as big as Ellie’s! She was seen here quite a lot during 2023 and then only 45 times this year.

Sadly she developed a chlamydial infection. I caught her and took her to the hospital. This disease is insidious and sadly was already advanced internally and there was nothing we could do for her.

You can read more about her here.

She has her own playlist on YouTube

ASTRA

is a wonderful young male koala. He first came here as a recently separated juvenile late in 2023.

By April he seemed to have dispersed out. Yet in July and August he came back. Just when it seemed he might stay he was gone again, but came back in December. I suspect he has settled close by and we may keep seeing him now and then. I saw him a total of 43 times this year.

He has a playlist on YouTube

Astra is sitting upright in the V fork of a bloodwood tree. He has quite brown fur and is looking back over his shoulder. He is a young sub-adult.
Bonnie is a mature female koala with dark fur. Close up of her face peering out from a lot of green leaf surrounding her.

BONNIE

arrived late in 2023 and had a female joey Janis with her, already a large back young.

I saw her 40 times as she went through the processing of separating from Janis. I wonder if she went back to her original home range?

You can read more about her here.

Here is a great video about her

JANIS

arrived here with her mum Bonnie. They were in the process of separating as Janis was learning to become independent.

I saw Janis a total of 36 times as she gained confidence and dispersed out.

She has a couple of videos on her YouTube playlist.

Janis is a young female koala recently separated from her mum. She is sitting upright in a young tree and holding the trunk with her feet out.
A young koala not yet separated from his mum is laying along a nearly horizontal tree branch look at the camera.

JASPER

The delightful son of Onyx. Jasper was already a bulge in pouch when his mum arrived. He emerged from the pouch in July. It would seem that mum already had another joey in pouch by November. This meant he had to wean from milk a little younger than usual. Koala mums can continue feeding an older joey even with a pinky in pouch. It is risky for the pinky who could get dislodged from their teat or be injured.

I wonder if this is why he has shadowed his mum so much for so long? I saw him independent of his mum 22 times, but with her a lot more.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube

KOALAS IN THE KINDY

The kindy is an enclosed area at Koala Gardens where koalas from the local Friends of the Koala hospital come at times.

It provides them with a safe space to test out ‘living in the wild’ so we can be sure they are ready for release.

Most koalas that come here are orphans that are getting ready for the wild.

These two are Hiphop on the left and Maleny on the right.

HipHop is a young koala with grey fur. Close up of him holding on the tree trunk with arms high above his head.
Young female koala with dark grey fur sitting upright in a V fork of a tree.

There are around 45 trees in the enclosure.

These are mainly primary koala food trees – Forest Red Gum, Tallowwood and Swamp Mahogany. There are also a couple of secondary trees that are important food for koalas.

The trees are large enough to challenge the koalas to help develop muscles. However, they are also small enough that we can get the koalas out again if there is something wrong, and to health check them before release.

These two are Hobi on the left and Kelso on the right.

Hobi is a young koala with pale grey fur. Close up photo of him eating with large green leaves hanging out of his mouth. He has a red tag in the left ear.
Kelso is a young koala with pale grey fur. He is sitting in a tree with his back to the camera, but looking back over his shoulder.

It was fantastic to see 9 different koalas come through the kindy this year.

This is an important tool that we use to help ensure the best survival possibilities for koalas that have been sick, injured or orphaned.

Koalas that are only in hospital for a couple of months for illness can usually just be released back to where they were captured from.

However, serious injuries, or long hospital stays over 3 months can mean the koala needs some rehab time before release.

These two are Droplet on the left and Emerson on the right.

Young light grey furred koala looking directly at the camera in a close up. Red tag in the left ear.
Emerson is a young koala with dark fur. He is looking at the camera over his shoulder and has a red tag in the left ear.

Orphaned koalas that have been hand-raised need this transition stage.

Often, it is the first time these young ones have been let loose into a ‘real tree’. They quickly learn to be wary of humans and become wild little koalas.

This makes a total of 9 young koalas that benefited from the kindy in 2024

These three are, in order, Nightshade, Mini Mae and Baby Bear

Side view of close up of face and shoulders of a young koala with dark fur.
Close up of face of young female koala holding on to tree trunk with her arm up high.
Young koala hanging by arms and holding on with feet to a different branch with left and right limbs. Really healthy fat stomach is showing well.
Woody is a big mature male koala and looking at the camera. He has dark brown fur, a masculine face and is holding the branch beside him with hands held high.

WOODY

is a fully mature male koala. While I only saw him 18 times it was interesting watching him. Due to the area I am seeing him, I suspect his home range already bordered the property. I saw him once in August, then a few times a month, increasing each month.

I saw him a total of 18 days. It might be that he decides to stay around!

You can read more about him here.

You can ADOPT WOODY here

He has his own YouTube playlist.

Cosmo is a sub-adult male koala sitting upright with his back against the tree trunk. He has his feet up on a branch in front of him.

COSMO

is a lovely juvenile that came through during the dispersion. He was seen 14 times as he moved through the area looking for a place to settle.

We hope he found somewhere safe and full of trees.

He has his own YouTube playlist.

JUNE

arrived here in June 2023 and already had a joey in pouch.

I suspect that she is living south of here on a neighbouring property that supports some of the colony members that are often here. Koala mums do sometimes move to different areas depending on weather and while raising young. They don’t move huge distances, but I’ve seen them come here, raise young and move again. I saw her 13 times last year.

She has her own playlist on YouTube

Adult female koala sitting on a thin branch with feet up on an upright and head tucked in against the upright. You can see a floppy pouch bulge from her previous joey.

EDDIE

is the first son of Ellie. He was born in 2022 and separated from mum at the end of that year. He dispersed out late in 2023 but did come through the property 3 times in 2024.

It is always a joy to see Eddie!

He has his own playlist on YouTube

Eddie is a large male sub-adult koala. He is sitting upright and looking directly at the camera. He is holding the upright branch in front of him with both hands and feet.

Check out who was here in – 2015  |  2016  |  2017  |  2018  |  2019  |  2020  |  2021  | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025

Join the Colony and get involved

You can become part of the Koala Gardens Colony by adopting Momo or one of the other resident wild koalas. You can also become a Patron,  and one level has an adoption option.

Come and discuss Koala Gardens and all things koala on Discord where we hold lots of interesting and often in-depth discussions there. Lots of fun!

You will become part of the family and help  provide much needed koala habitat.

You can also follow Katrina and the Koalas on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Koala Gardens publishes a small number of delightful illustrated children’s books in the The Adventures of Mist series. Check out the beautifully engaging and educational design. Our mission is to help children to “Fall in love with Nature”.

You can even find some great Koala Gardens gifts over at Redbubble where there is huge range of designs on an even bigger range of items.

Alternatively, you can find quick access links to everything Koala Gardens via Link Tree.