The case of the confused koala

Tracey Wilson, who runs a registered wildlife sanctuary at Koroit, said she received a call from police at 1.30am Saturday morning while they were carrying out a routine patrol of the park. 

“It was so weird — it was the weirdest experience I’ve had with finding wildlife,” she explained.

“The police found it sitting on a blue woollen blanket. They thought it was a bit odd that it was just sitting there.

“So they approached within about three metres of the koala and it didn’t move, and they realised something was not right.”

Ms Wilson said she met the police at Tower Hill and “knew something was very odd straight away”.

“It didn’t appear injured,” she explained, but added the koala may have been concussed and seemed to have not eaten for three days.

“It looked like it was in shock and it (didn’t know) where the hell it was. I was able to pick the koala up and put it in basket very easily.”

Ms Wilson said the blue woollen blanket was dry, despite it having rained about an hour prior, and that nearby were a lot of cigarette butts, which “gave the appearance people had sat and watched the koala for some time”.

The koala wasn’t tagged and Ms Wilson said about half the Tower Hill koalas were tagged. She said she was keen to talk to anyone who had any information on how the koala came to be at Tower Hill.

“I don’t want people to think they’re getting in trouble. They were obviously concerned and trying to do the right thing,” she said.

“But it’s imperative we find out what happened to it, why someone had it in the first place and where did it come from.

“If it didn’t come from Tower Hill I can’t legally or ethically put it back in Tower Hill. If I found out it had been in Tower Hill I’d be rapt ... but if it didn’t come from Tower Hill we need to get it back to where it did come from.

“My thought is that someone found it on the side of the road and perhaps thought Tower Hill was a good place to put it. The police were quite convinced it was someone’s pet (and that) someone had raised it and decided to dump it. (Either way) we need to know.”

Anyone with information can contact Ms Wilson on 0427 504 602.