Caring For Our Furry Little Tree People

Caring for our suburban koalas begins by taking a different perspective on our wildlife.

It is when we begin to see our koalas and wildlife as residents who live in our communities can we really begin to make a difference in how we ensure that they have food, habitat and can freely travel through our neighbourhoods.

Deborah Ballin

Deborah Ballin, a resident of River Downs in Helensvale is an avid koala lover and understands the needs of our “furry little tree people” as we like to call them. I think the koalas in turn know that she loves them as there are so many koalas who visit her property.

Koala Estates and Tree Houses

Deborah often sees multiple koalas in her yard, often in the same tree. Recently she has a mother and joey, and a large male visiting.

Maybe we should stop using koalas ‘visiting’. After all, our urban koalas are residents, like you and I. They just happen to reside in multiple tree houses on their extended estates.

Koala Conservation Begins At Home

Deborah’s property is a koala’s paradise. Rather than cutting most of the trees on her property, just to spend her weekends mowing lawn, she had retained her trees and the koalas just love them. These big majestic mature trees are so beautiful in their own right.

So what’s the first lesson in attracting koalas to your property?
Simple, retain the trees on your property. No trees, no koalas. 

Creating Treevana for Koalas

What else can you do? Well, if you are like Deborah and have the space, then you can plant even more koala food trees. We gave her a bunch of koala food trees and her property has just stepped up another level to creating koala nirvana. 🐨 😇 

Koala Superhighways

It is very important for us to ensure that koalas can come and go over their extended estates in safety.

So, where you plant the koala food trees is very important.

Planting trees along boundaries or where they may connect to neighbouring trees can help create what we like to call ‘koala superhighways’. These are koala movement corridors that keep koalas off the ground where they are vulnerable especially to dog attacks. 🐨🐨🌳🌳

Be Koala Conscious

Just when you think that Deborah couldn’t be a more koala conscious resident she climbs a little higher on the level of caring for her koalas by keeping a log of koala sightings on her calendar.

This simple recording system becomes a valuable document for those in the future who want to research koala movement in the area and possibly change policies in koala conservation in our suburbs.

Koala Watching

There is something truly magical, I think, to be able to look up in a tree, especially one in your own yard, and see a koala or two or three, happily munching away or taking a little snooze as the leaves rustle in the breeze. 

Deborah had shares the photograph you see above of mum and bub kicking back in their lofty tree house in the sunshine and fresh air. 🐨🐨🌳💚

What a perfect picture of tranquility.

While as humans we will pay good money to be able to connect with nature in the form of whale watching, for those lucky enough, koala watching would be the terrestrial equivalent.

Thank You

Thank you Deborah.  
You are truly an amazing koala conscious resident and we can all take a (eucalypt) leaf out of your book. 🍃 
🐨🐨🐨💚🌳🌳💚🌿🌿🌿💚🐨🐨🐨💚🌳🌳