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2023 – Nine years of photographic observation

It has been rewarding to see the numbers climbing again as we recover from catastrophic fire and flood events, and the general impact of climate change on the landscape.

There were a total of 1205 adult sightings. This takes the average daily sightings from 2.7 last year to 3.3 per day. I will be thrilled when the average is 5, but I’m happy that we are on the up!

These days of sightings were the result of activity on the property by 23 individual adult/independent koalas.

11 of these 23 koalas were females and 12 males.  

The kindy has been host to 12 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 23 koalas that lived on, or came through Koala Gardens during 2023.

You can watch them all on YouTube with the link below giving you all the video released in 2023.

HOPE

is the only young koala from last year that has stayed here and was seen a whopping 202 days of the year.

Hope spent most of his time up in the western areas of the property in his first year out of the pouch, but last year he has spent a lot of time in the south eastern areas.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube too!

Close up of Hope as a sub adult. he is looking slightly down and sitting in the trees. from this angle we can see his nose pattern that helps identify him
Hope
Grace is sitting on a nearly horizontal thin branch and is eating leaves near the end of the branch. She holds on with both feet while reach to bring branches of tender leaves towards her.

GRACE

Grace is the daughter of Phoenix and stayed here when they first separated. She was seen here168 days.

We are presuming that she began to disperse as she was being seen here less often each week. One night she was moving through a property south of here when she encountered some dogs. Her injuries were severe and thankfully the property owners called Friends of the Koala and she was taken into care and treated for her wounds. It took her months to heal.

You can read more about Grace here.

Grace has her own playlist on YouTube

VALENTINE

It seems fair to say that Valentine has become the alpha male at Koala Gardens this year. He was seen here 142 times, but he also moves widely across the property and moves over large distances daily.

Valentine turned 4 years old during the year and this is age male koalas reach their full maturity. There has certainly been a noticeable maturing and bulking up of him.

You can ADOPT VALENTINE here and You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube too.

Valentine is sitting upright against the trunk of a tallowwood. He is in the shade with a little dappled light on him. He has a red tag in his left ear as he has been in hospital. His nose pattern looks a little like a heart.
Ellie is sitting in a large tree and is sitting back on the cartilage pad and has both feet on the tree trunk as well as both hands holding onto it. The tree trunk has a mottled pattern that looks like her fur patterns.

ELLIE

the super mamma was seen here 140 times.

She also successfully gave birth to her second joey, Elmo, who emerged from her pouch late in the year.

You can read more about Ellie here.

She has her own playlist on YouTube.

JUNE

arrived here in the month of June.

She was then seen 119 times, and this photo is from the first day I saw her. You can see her pouch bulging with a big joey nearly old enough to emerge.

Her joey was named Baloo and she spent several months raising him as he emerged and learned to eat with her.

June has her own playlist on YouTube

A female koala holding onto a thin branch with her feet and hands. She has a large bulging pouch that looks like a joey big enough to emerge within weeks.
June
Juvenile male koala sitting in V of tree branch looking at the camera

WATTLE

arrived here when he separated from his mum in late 2022.

He was then seen here 90 times in 2023, spending most of his time in the upper western areas of the property.

As he matured, he slowly began to expand the area he used until he dispersed in July. We hope he found a colony with lots of good food to settle into.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube

EDDIE

is the first joey born to Ellie.

He has matured into such a big fella and still looks a lot like his mum. He was seen here 85 times after separating from Ellie late in 2022.

Eddie has dispersed now, but not far away as sometimes he does come back through which is exciting!

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube.

Koala sitting in a tree with dark brown textured bark. We can only see part of his face as he is a little curled up and looking to the front.
Close up of koala face - Egwene has large fluffy ears, and a very round full face. She is looking down from above.
Egwene

EGWENE

arrived here in late January and was seen 70 times.

She is most often seen in areas 18 and 8, on the south eastern edge of the property. She does move over quite an area at times however and has been seen at the top western edge as well.

You can read more about her here.

Egwene has her own playlist on YouTube

PUDDING

came to stay in the kindy in April, but somehow she managed to get out.

Friends of the koala decided to let her disperse herself from here and she was seen 46 times over the next couple of months.

She was confident from the start, spending her days up high in the biggest trees. Once out, she stayed around the plantation area for a while, then began dispersing to the south.

She has a lovely video on YouTube

Young koala holding tightly to a tree branch with both hands wrapped around it and her face pressed against the side of it. She is looking down at the camera from above.
Pudding

ORION

spent more time here in 2022, but was seen here 34 times.

He was hit by a car crossing into the property one day and suffered multiple fractures but was successfully treated at Friends of the Koala hospital.

He came back here to the kindy for some rehabilitation before going back be to Wild and Free.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own playlist on YouTube

JANIS

arrived here with her mum Bonnie in November.

At the time, Janis was still partly dependant on mum and drinking milk but in the process of being weaned.

She has a couple of videos on her YouTube playlist.

Young koala curled in the typical ball shape koalas love to sleep in.
Big female koala holding onto a large red gum tree trunk. She is sitting back on her cartilage pad and has her feet up on the main trunk and holding on with her hands. she is looking over her shoulder at the camera
Bonnie

BONNIE

arrived with her daughter Janis as large back young nearly ready to separate in November.

I don’t know why they left her home range at this stage, but she was seen here 26 times, so spent most days here.

Sometimes koalas, even adults, will move their home range if there has been a significant change in their usual range.

PEARL

is such a huge girl! She is the mother of Hope.

We know she spends a lot of her time on the property south of here as a neighbour has sent photos several times.

She was seen here 26 times and had an obvious joey in pouch again.

You can read more about her here.

She has a big playlist on YouTube.

Close up of koala face looking slightly up and to the left. She is holding onto a thin branch with her right hand.
Matilda

MATILDA

the royal Queen was only seen here 14 times.

It appears that she has dispersed after spending her younger years here.

We hope she found a lot of very good eating and is living Wild and Free.

You can read more about her here.

She has her own binge-worthy playlist on YouTube

ASTRA

arrived for the first time in November and was seen 9 times.

He still pops in and out, so I think is often either on the southern neighbour or over the road to the west.

Astra is a young koala who probably just separated from his mum around November and either she brought him near to the property, or she lives nearby.

We think he looks a bit like Wattle and Bobby. Wonder if there is any relationship!

A young koala holding onto a rough barked tree and looking to the left. The sun is shining on his face and he has brownish fur and a small head with big ears.
Big alpha looking male koala sitting in a tree. There is a diagonal branch blocking some of the view of his face but he has a thick neck, dense fur and strong limbs.

MAVERICK

has just popped in a total of 8 times.

He is a big boy, possibly around 8 kg or more. He certainly has the look of an alpha to him.

This is obvious by his large size and while you can’t see it in this photo, he has a very prominent scent gland.

All his visits were during November – the height of the breeding season. The guess is that he was lady hunting.

Wonder if he was successful at all …

ONYX

arrived in the last days of the year and at first was thought to be a boy.

Sorry about that girl! She is huge and while only seen here 4 times, she has been around again in 2024.

If you look carefully you can see the pouch opening in this photo, just below her right heel.

You can read more about her here – and her exciting news!

Very big female koala sitting in the fork of a tree looking rather like a child kicking their legs on a swing. You can clearly see the thumbs on her feet.
Shown against a background of leaves, Phoenix is looking back over her left shoulder at the camera. She is a bit girl, over 8kg and has beautiful fluffy ears. Her eyes are open, she looks relaxed.

PHOENIX

had not been seen for 14 months after raising Grace.

She was here for a short visit just 4 times. This means she has a large home range and Koala Gardens is only a small part of that. Mother koalas will sometimes move their home range a little to allow a separating back young to remain in part of their usual area.

You can read more about her here.

She has her own extensive YouTube playlist.

JULIE

just passed through property 3 times.

She had a large joey named Jo Jo with her.

It is possible she was checking out somewhere to separate from Jo Jo.

It is also possible she was looking for a prospective male to mate with as her back young was close to being fully independent.

She has since been seen on a neighbouring property to the south.

Close up of a koala face. There is a very distinctive nose patter of pink skin on this nose which is used to identify her easily. She has dark fur and large ears.
Julie
A large male koala seen from below making the butt take up a lot of the image. He is looking over his shoulder down towards the camera.

ASH

is well known to Koala Gardens and has been coming through for some years.

However, he only comes through sporadically and was seen just 3 times.

You can read more about him here.

He has his own YouTube playlist.

CROSBY

was seen just 2 times in January.

He is a big male and you can see the huge spreading scent gland on his chest.

He was likely moving about just outside the edges of his own home range, checking if there were any females left that might need some attention from him.

All koala males are opportunists.

Large alpha male type koala with dark fur. He is nestled into an area of thin branches with lots of leaf about him.
Pale grey large koala in a dark barked tree. He is holding on in an upright position and looking down at the camera. He has huge ears.

DAPPER DAN

has only been seen here 1 time.

Look at what a lovely fella he is!

He has very pale grey fur and huge ears. He was here in August so was probably a sub-adult male who was dispersing.

We truly hope he found a good area with lots of safe food to live.

HUDSON

was only here 1 time.

He had been here quite a lot in the last few months of 2022 however.

He is one of the Hugo ‘look-alikes’ that came through in 2022.

We hope he found a good place to settle – he is likely a young adult as he was big, but did not have a fully formed scent gland.

Adult male koala with very round head and small ears. He is sitting on a large branch and looking down towards the camera.
Hudson

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

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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.

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