The Sweet Scent of Eucalyptus

The Sweet Scent of Eucalyptus

Nigel leaned on the shovel as he watched Katherine plant the last of the eucalyptus trees in the reserve. They had planted twelve trees by the early afternoon and would have planted a few more if it had not been for the difficult ground. It was mainly shale and Nigel had to use his pickax to dig the deep holes. He looked out over the reserve; it was green and lush after the winter rains and the young eucalyptus trees from last year looked healthy as they carefully displayed their young leaves. He smiled to himself when he thought of how many leaves a koala eats. They can eat between half a kilo to one kilo of leaves a day so they had better keep up the planting to feed more of these hungry animals.

Kathrine and Nigel had looked after wildlife animals all their married life. For Kathrine it was a keen hobby which started already when she was young and when she brought wounded animals into the kitchen in the farmhouse where she lived. When she met Nigel, they started raising wombats, kangaroos and wedge-tailed eagles. Koalas moved into their lives when they left the country and moved to the city. They knew what to do when a young koala was found by the side of the road after the mother was killed by a car and how to raise it so it eventually could be released into the wild again. They kept a koala at home. It lived with them from a very young age and an internal injury prevented it from being released. It became very tame and an important part of the family.

They dreamed of opening a wildlife hospital, a place where you could take wounded animals for care and treatment and they applied for a grant from the government. Their application was rejected but the dream continued for over eleven years. They researched facilities on the east coast learning about the volunteer services and started talking about selling their house to finance a hospital when Nigel suddenly became ill and eventually passed on.

Kathrine found herself in a difficult situation. She was not only grieving for Nigel but their dream was now shattered. The children lived interstate and she was left alone with a koala at home. Her days were long and she strolled in the reserve every morning and picked eucalyptus leaves and she thought of Nigel and the joy they had had when planting the trees.

As luck would have it, she knew a veterinarian at one of the clinics nearby where she used to bring the very sick koalas. He remembered her and Nigel’s plan and decided to help to establish a Koala Hospital. This was a very big project as there was no government founding so they had to rely on public donations and it would be run solely by volunteers. It was to be the very first wildlife hospital in the state.

Kathrine jumped at the offer when the vet bought an old house and she started a big campaign to raise money to buy equipment. It was just an old bluestone house on very busy road, next door to a veterinary clinic. Nobody knew if this project was really going to work but she put all her effort into it. Donations started to come and the main public hospitals in the city contributed with expired equipment that turned out to be very useful. A big Xray machine was installed and soon one of the main rooms was turned into an animal surgery where a qualified veterinary nurse from the clinic next door came to assist. It was not enough only to have a house and equipment, they needed people to work there on a daily basis and as the intention was to keep animals there it would have to be open seven days a week. Volunteers applied and Kathrine found herself interviewing people from all walks of life trying hard to find out who would be suitable for the shifts. Veterinary nursing students were eager to give their time in exchange for hands on experience and the retired animal loving people were only too happy to help out. A roster was drawn up and the patients started to arrive. It was not only koalas; possums and young birds who were abandoned due to accidents or bad weather conditions were also brought in by the public. Some of the different bigger birds such as cockatoos and tawney frogmouths were being housed in the massive aviary outside and in the big garage which became the rehabilitation center you could smell the koalas before you entered. A scent of earthy eucalyptus and the bush.

Volunteers brought in tree trunks and Katherine ran workshops in the evenings where she taught about koala care and how to identify the leaves they would eat. The volunteers learned to crush a leaf in the hand and if it had a strong eucalypt scent then it was the perfect koala leaf. Every day the buckets were filled with fresh leaf and they were constantly hosed down to stay fresh.

The bushfires brought difficult challenges and media coverage opened the public eye to how hard it is for native animals to survive. The hospital was now building a firm reputation.

Many of the fire victims were brought in and treated for burns. Sometimes the rescue came too late for some and they had to be euthanized. Rescuers were prevented to pass the falling trees until four days after the fires and by that time many of the animals had already died.

Kathrine’s life changed drastically as she was constantly in demand at public functions where she became the focal identity. She brought her koala to schools and talked in seminars where celebrities were happy to have their photos taken with the koala and contribute with a donation to the hospital. Other vet clinics shared medication and tools and the veterinarian surgeon from next door was happy to perform the more difficult surgeries. A big rescue operation grew in the suburbs and you could see the rescue people out at all hours of the day.

It is not only the bushfires, urbanization and local dogs and cars that threatens the koalas. Chlamydia and rhinal failure are widespread diseases that also kills many of them. The university’s research program helped with medication and treatment and for the ones that were caught early there was a positive outcome.

The volunteers continued their diligent work to care for the wounded animals. To watch a bird set free or a koala run and climb up a tree was their reward for their hard work and without them the hospital would have never existed.

The hospital grew with every passing year and a veterinary nurse was employed on a full-time basis and a managing director was installed. Kathrine, who together with the veterinarian was the cofounder, was told on an overcast Wednesday morning she was no longer needed. Her knowledge and expertise had been passed on to a new group and she found herself being pushed out of what she had created. She was no longer the director of the board and left the hospital with great difficulty, a dream fulfilled for others to take over and a bitter sweet goodbye to her tireless endeavors.

The koala Kathrine looked after at home got rhinal failure and had to be euthanized. This broke her heart and it was only later on when a very young koala from a car accident was brought to her, she started to feel alive again. She obtained a license to keep koalas permanently and built the Taj Mahal of cages in her enclosed back yard where she raised the animal with love and care. It became best her best friend along with her cat and she sat with them both in her arms where they comfortably fell asleep together. Sadly, it got sick with rhinal failure and had to be euthanized.

Today Kathrine is an older woman. She has not given up the fight for koalas and is actively trying to get the government to build a bridge, a koala crossing over the freeway where six to eight koalas are killed daily. She fears the extinction of the animal she loves so much and continues to fight for it to be a protected species. The walks in the reserve become longer and she looks down, sees the droppings and looks up to find a koala high up in the tree. She thinks of Nigel and of all the koalas she saved and released. Some of them can still be seen near the vineyards down south where they originally came from and it gives her great pleasure to watch one back in the wild where it belongs.

This is ten years later and the hospital is still there functioning today.