KRISTIN'S PLAN FOR KOALA SAFE HAVEN

AFTER moving from Colorado in the US to Toowoomba a year ago, veterinarian Kristin Doust fell in love with koalas.

Dr Doust and her husband Timothy are building a koala sanctuary, Back to the Bush Koala Rehab, on their property, where they currently care for four koala joeys who have been abandoned by their mothers.

“I moved here and have fallen in love with koalas. They’re just absolutely gorgeous, beautiful creatures and it’s hard to look in their face and not fall in love with them,” Dr Doust said. “I’ve learned so much about their need for a good environment.

“We (vets) get them healthy, but then they need to get fit. They lose their ability to climb trees if they’re in hospital too long.

“They need a safe place to practice climbing trees before they can get released, and that’s really what my goal is.”

The Doust family has created a GoFundMe page in order to raise money for expensive koala fencing.

The page has so far raised $8380 of the $20,000 they need.

“The first one we’re going to do is about half an acre. But as demand increases we have a second area of trees we are thinking we could fence,” Dr Doust said.

“Because they’re such great climbers, the fence has to be a specialised fence that they can’t climb over.

“It will be a set up with chain link kind of fence but it has to have a special no-climb skid plate at the top that koalas can’t get over.

“They’re very good escape artists and if they can even get one toe into an area they’ll climb out, and they can dig under as well.”

Dr Doust also hopes to fence a “kindy tree” which is a smaller tree for young koalas to practice on.

Dr Doust said the koalas would be in the sanctuary for varying amounts of time, depending on their ailments.

She said disease, drought and loss of habitat had been contributing to increased numbers of koalas being treated.

“Lots of koala habitat is in a smaller area so the diseases they share among themselves, such as chlamydia, can be passed over easier, and the loss of habitat with fires,” Dr Doust said.

“Koala numbers getting treated over the years just keeps getting higher and higher.”

Picture: Bev Lacey/Contributed REHAB CENTRE: Veterinarian at Ironbark Veterinary Service, Kristin Doust, is opening a koala sanctuary. INSET: One of the koalas Dr Doust is currently caring for.