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”

A Balance of Faeries

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.

His search and their saga – ever so long,  told PK quite clearly that something was wrong!
For months on end, that stretched to years, calling through fences with their tears

Across that void – that fierce road,
the trucks, the cars – their rushing load.

But now the best bit will unfold
As Pk’s stories now are told

One early evening waiting near the talking tree for his mother dear, he heard the wrens and bush birds say that to get to the coast there WAS a way
It was very long, and took some skill, and involved a risk of getting killed
Pk ask more from his flying friends, and they told him of roads that had no ends
However if game, they said that PK could travel those roads for part of the way

“Stick to the edges, and watch for the lights they’ll freeze you and fix you and BOY those cars bite”
“So stay in the shadows, and travel with stealth and you’ll get to a place which is full of ill health -
the drained swamps of coastlands” – the refugees called, but take take care of  dogs so that you won’t be mauled

God speed you PK, called the Birds of the Land, as he started his journey with their helping hand.

Familiar with Mooball and Cudgerra Creek, his crossing of this place took more than a week.
Then suddenly there he was ,over THAT ROAD – that huge roaring thoroughfare with it’s faceless load.

Now where to begin to start tracking his Mum? Her scent was not there on the road he had come,
so sniffing the breeze in the quiet morning light, he touched on a memory ever so slight.
The “feel” of his mother! It came from these trees- she’d been here before, but it had been some years.

The urge to continue, to follow his nose – led him to a high fence and again more loud roads.

Yet our hero undaunted, his mother he’d find -  then suddenly Pk saw one of his kind……..

A cousin – a cousin! There in the tree – he called out “KOALA! it’s PK!…. it’s ME!!”
The cousin’s eye’s opened   his nose sniffed PK.   Then he slowly pointed north,    saying     “that is the way”.

Now trembling with fatigues of his open road walk, our darling PK said “so sorry- can’t talk”. For gone were those days of the safe bushland life, now the people of Tweed were  giving them strife.
The human machines screamed and roared all the day, the constant truck noise – the people – the fray.
Bravely PK lumbered slowly along, to the east and the north where it felt very wrong.

Something was happening that made PK sick – he’d felt it before, it was like a bad trick.
And there – in the distance, from a tall tree he spied, the lay of King’s Forest. Was it there he could hide?

For all about PK, was nothing but bare – all cleared and flat land and the trees were nowhere! There were fences and houses, and small shrubs and trees, but the way to the forest was filled with disease.

The waters were putrid, the sparse old trees ill. Yet PK kept going, with his strong free will
He “knew” that his Mother would be near this place – this great fading Forest – ( Tweed Coast’s disgrace)
Past cypress and tea tree, our little friend ran, then though a sharp fence and across the bare land

And suddenly there he was facing his MUM! She cried out PK – you really have come!

OH reader, now listen of PK’s delight! To find his dear mother at last – what a sight!

Full adventure was over, he could rest .. he could talk. Then he told his Mama about his “LONG WALK”,

so proud of her son and his clever repose – big roads and big fences- do more than we suppose.

*******************************************************************

The above Poem, about Phantom Koala and how he finds his mother and becomes a Hero, reminds us that Koalas  are at very high risk here, on the NE Coast of NSW.

The actions and work by the Australian Government has done nothing to save the plight of the Coastal Koala, here in SE QLD and NE NSW. Koala population Numbers are dropping dramatically, and the same habitat destroying development is continuing at an alarming pace, all along the coast.

However: THERE IS A WAY!!!

Download some KOALA info here:- from the EPA, QLD.

“Koala (Phascolartos cinereus) survey and habitat assessment of Lot 4 on RP 35335 Doolong South Rd, Wondunna, Hervey Bay, Queensland / conducted for the Hervey Bay City Council” -  by ddwfauna August 2005,  is a good start….

” When Phantom Koala was Young -  A Koala Saga “ : my wordpress version of the first PK poem at Balance of Faeries blog.

“A Balance of Faeries” 1989 by al at bluecray – a story about koala habitat destruction – little by little – and the consequences

Kings Forest at articles Balance of Faeries blog and more links

Wisdom in the Land blog has Koala Planning Dreaming : a simple guideline for developing land, hand in hand with nature

Kings Forest : articles at bluecray.org and more links

***And, for inspiration……Some beautiful Koala ART WORK and a poem “Winter Koala” by Carol McCormack

]]> http://bluecray.org/advocacy/there-is-a-way-06.08.2009/feed 0 http://bluecray.org/advocacy/when-phantom-koala-was-young-a-koala-saga-14.06.2009 http://bluecray.org/advocacy/when-phantom-koala-was-young-a-koala-saga-14.06.2009#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:19:17 +0000 al http://bluecray.org/?p=1572 Read more »]]> Phantom Koala, as a story teller for Bluecray, resides mainly at the “Balance of Faeries” wordpress blog.  However, out of respect for the many Koalas that have struggled for survival in the ongoing rapid development and habitat destruction in SE Qld and NE NSW, Australia, his “Story” belongs here.  PK’s home is in the Mt Warning Caldera Region.  *ALSO: Draft National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy 2009-2014 - Submissions close 5th August 2009