Koala caught on camera!
One of the side benefits of helping out at events in Australia, especially for overseas visitors, is that they often get to see some Aussie wildlife up close
We mentioned in our first article from Quirindi 3 Day Event that the event is held close the town of Gunnedah, the Koala Capital of the World. Sadly we didn’t get to see any koalas during our stay in Quirindi but others did; event secretary and organiser extraordinaire Vicki Burgess sent us a little email recently telling us about a ‘koala encounter’ during the event for two of the helpers
“We live 65 kms west of Quirindi and do see koalas, but not every day (our dogs scare them off!)” Vicki told us “On the Wednesday night, before Quirindi, Kerrie Robbins the Technical Delegate from Western Australia stayed at our house, along with Simon Hagele (a very competent German backpacker who has helped at Sydney Interschool, Denman ODE and Quirindi 3DErecently). We went to the local Spring Ridge pub for dinner”
“On the way, we came across a koala in the middle of the road, we stopped and shooed him into the grass. Then he/she just stopped and looked at us (I believe they are often quite stoned on eucalyptus!) then happily sat on the road. Kerrie and Simon had never seen a koala, other than in a zoo, so very exciting for them!”
Last year at the Australian International 3 Day Event, various officials got up close and personal with an abandoned joey being looked after by some eventers and there are plenty of competitions around Australia where the kangaroos are our nosy spectators
This abandoned joey attended Exhibition Eventing at Equitana and the Australian International 3 Day Event in 2014 thanks to the care of some Aussie eventers
