“Phantom Koala” (PK) has been travelling about the Mt Warning Caldera Region in SE Qld & NE NSW, Australia. He became a “HERO” after journeying to find his mother, who was trapped in the Kings Forest Area of the Tweed Coast. During his “lifetime”, Koala numbers have diminished dramatically along the central eastern coastal and hinterland strip of Australia due to the unsustainable development of SE Qld and NE NSW.
PK looks out over the Hinze Dam and the Gold Coast in SE Qld. Where there was once a diverse network of wetlands, littoral forest and heathlands, interspersed by dry and wet schlerophyll forest and rainforests, there are now drains, canal estates, shopping centres, roads and housing acreage mowed bare and lacking in biodiverse health. The water aquifers are mostly unmonitored throughout this region and the ground water tables have been altered dramatically over the past decades to accommodate unsustainable development at the expense of future native wildlife habitats.
PK’s adventures it seems, are far from over. He journeys about, looking at infrastructure and development management by governments and corporations/powerful developers, human settlements, habitat restoration, land & water custodianship, and land stewardship in general, within the Mt Warning Caldera Region of eastern Australia.
PK travels to Mt Warning to visit his family in “Corridors Conservation & Phantom Koala”
PK travels to Mt Warning, and on the way he meets up with Chin Ting, the dragonfly, who gives PK a Warning!!! in “Phantom Koala and the Roadworks”
Phantom Koala ponders a big fire in the Mt Warning Caldera Region in “Australia’s Bushfire Legacy : an Ash Oracle”
PK travels to Beechmont (hinterland of the Gold Coast, SE Qld – Mt Warning Caldera Region) in “Organic Gardening & Growing the Biosphere”
PK then heads toward Kings Forest, past the developments on the Tweed Coast, NE NSW in “Pk ponders past Pottsville for Food”
PK and Litoria (a little native frog) meet at the roundabout. They have been facing strenuous peril on their holiday north across the coastal border of NSW & QLD in “Holiday time for PK and Litoria at Egg Rock”
PK learns about the spraying of glyphosate in the catchments of the Mt Warning Caldera Region in “PK and Litoria look for Rufous Bettong – a threatened species listed as vulnerable by the NSW Government” and later find out the “Wildlife leaves the Glyphosate Bank to find refuge in an Organic Garden”
Phantom Koala (PK) and Litoria decide it is safer to stay in the forest, than venture to the Australian Treasury and plead their case for more Biodiversity. They trust that Nature will teach Australians in the end, to care for the Land and it’s “Balance of Faeries”. How caring for Koalas and caring for their forest corridors can lead us into a sustainable future is woven into “Australia’s drop in the Ocean – the Draft Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill is open for comment”
PK worries for the fauna of Kings Forest and their wellbeing in “Kings Forest Project Development – sleepless days and nights to come for endangered species”
Pk and the Planner have a dream together……..
“When Phantom Koala was Young” tells the story of how PK lost his mother when she went on her yearly journey to the coastal trees, their saga, & how eventually he found her, only to be separated by a huge road and high fences.
After travelling yearly to the meeting place and long nights of talking with his mother, across the giant highway, separated by fences, Phantom Koala finally grows into adulthood. He (PK) is told by the Birds of the Land that “There is a Way!” to find his Mom.
PK journeys a long hard trek in the poem “There is a Way”, and after many weeks, he finally finds his mother. FACE to FACE at last.! His mother recounts how she has been trapped in a forest (Kings Forest), surrounded by farmland, degraded bushlands and developing housing estates. But in “There is a Way” they are finally reunited. However, the journey was hard.
PK had to brave long, terrifying roads, wild and domestic dogs, expanses of wasteland and fenced human settlements. His journey to find his mother turned him into a “HERO”. He now travels about the Mt Warning Caldera Region of NE NSW and SE QLD, Australia. The native wildlife are his friends. He has no tracker attached to him from inquiring scientists, and he can now travel just about anywhere he likes, because, he is a “HERO”. Protected by the Spirit Guardians of the Land and more than money can buy (love)- PK is a miracle “HERO”, full of love, laughter and immortality. He shares his insights to us about our human lifestyles and habits. His mission is to help all his friends in the bush regain their natural HERITAGE.
there is a way
Phantom Koala was first conceived back in 1995, when a Koala came knocking on my door, late one night, as I was starting to create a piece of artwork, high up on the Beechmont Plateau, near Lamington National Park, in the Gold Coast Hinterland of SE QLD. I have developed his concept over the years, and finally he has joined me on this bluecray website, as an educational and artistic form of environmental advocacy for helping native wildlife regain their natural heritage in Australia.
