HISTORY
By Barry Clark Bribie Island Historical Society
History of the KOALA on BRIBIE
I
A lorry load of 3000 Koala skins obtained by a party of men in the Clermont District (QLD) IN THIRTY DAYS
wonder how many readers have ever seen a Koala in the wild? I am often asked if there are any Koala on Bribie Island. There has not been a Koala sighting on the island for about 60 years, so this article reflects on what has happened over the years, and what the future may hold. Fossil evidence shows that the Koala evolved in Australia over about 25 million years. The tree-dwelling marsupial, found in South and Eastern Australia, is our iconic native animal, found nowhere else on earth.
KOALA ON BRIBIE
There has been speculation that the name Bribie may have derived from Boorabee, or Borobi, indigenous words for Koala. The last reported Koala sighting on Bribie was reported in November 1965 in a Courier Mail article titled “The man who put Koalas on Bribie” in which Ian Gall also recalled a story told by pioneer settler Arch King.
In the year 1899 my brother and I had a fishing camp on Coochin Creek. At that time Koala were very plentiful round our camp and we captured two bucks and four does and released them on Bribie Island opposite
Arch King Fishing Shack 42 www.thebribieislander.com.au
The Bribie Islander
Coochin Creek, right were the Landers brother swim their cattle over the passage to and from the island. The Bribie black fellows assured us there were no Koala on Bribie, and never had been. So we put six there and I have every reason to believe they thrived and multiplied. The last time I saw any Koala on the island was at Christmas time 1918 when my brother and I were fishing at “The Skids”. We saw two adult Koala on one tree and one had a little one on its back. No doubt, the one seen recently is a descendent of those we put on the island so many years ago.
