Potoroo Palace

Blinky the koala has settled happily into his new home at Potoroo Palace.

His meeting with Suzie, our long term resident female koala was exciting in many ways.

Blinky spent a long time sniffing the bark of trees where Suzie had been. Meanwhile, Suzie, looking very pretty, totally ignored him. Eventually Blinky came over to Suzie's tree. She bit him. Blinky responded by snatching a mouthful of fur from her back. Small arguments happened throughout the day but at the end of the day they were snuggled up together.

Blinky is about 2 years old, and was hit by a car on August 20th in Helensburg area in 2009. He was nursed for 6 months by two different carers at Kiama and Jamberoo. During this time, he was operated on by a vet at the Camden Animal Hospital, University of Sydney, and had physiotherapy from vets and carers. In the end, it was decided that, despite Blinky's excellent recovery, he would not be agile enough to survive in the wild.

Because of his youth, and placid, friendly nature, the vet recommended a wildlife park for his permanent care and that's where Potoroo Palace came in!   Blinky has won the hearts of all the staff and is already charming our visitors.

Blinky is a Southern Koala.  Southern Koalas are just beginning to come back to the forests in our area. The years of shooting them and exporting their skins in vast numbers are gone, but the the clearing for housing estates and farmland, the burning of the bush, and the harvesting of vast forests for woodchips have continued.

The Koalas are just hanging on and starting to establish their delicate and complex family relationships. Each Koala needs about 1,000 trees of various particular species to survive.