Holmes Reserve

While making our morning cuppa, I looked through the fly-screen on the door to see a large male ‘roo lying nonchalantly outside Bertha. He wasn’t impressed with the ‘roo food we had left from a visit to somewhere we could feed them, so he made-do with some biscuits. He was very gentle but did get very close. They have claw as on their front and back legs that look as if they could easily disembowl someone they didn’t like.

Set off to Hat Heads, another estuary. The Karoogoo Creek that flows into the sea was crystal clear and shallow. Many people we simply sat on inflatables drifting down with the river. Too good an opportunity for a swim to miss. We also joined in with the kids jumping off the bridge.

After the swim we made a cuppa - easy enough to do with our whole home in Bertha, then set off to Port Macquarie.

The Koala Hospital homes approx 60 koalas 🐨. Some are permanent residents, but most are recovering and will be sent back to the area they came from. Apparently, the name system is firstly the place it was found and then secondly a given name by the person who found it.

A few weeks ago, most of their koalas were suffering from burns having come out of the bush fires, now there are some burns, some orphans but also a number with chlamydia. Chlamydia affects male and female koalas, and even the little ones called joeys - who pick it up suckling from their mothers in the pouch. It causes blindness and infertility in koalas - and can be fatal. Visible signs of infection include conjunctivitis, and a condition dubbed "dirty tail", caused by urinary tract infections and incontinence.

One outcome of the recent fires is that money is pouring into places like the koala hospital who now have money to pass on to other related charities and also bring forward their koala natural breeding programme by approx five years.Read more