Dear Koala lovers,

One of the great things about my job is receiving letters, cards and drawings from people all over the world.

This gorgeous drawing of a Koala called Mongoose was a life drawing of a real Koala in the wild. This six year old went to a great deal of trouble to “get the ears just right” I am told. And he did – didn’t he?

For those of you living overseas, I am embarrassed to say that our country appears to be descending into even more chaos around all manner of things, not just the environment.

Our sitting government got a rude shock recently when there was a swing of nearly 20% against them in a by-election. It is pretty certain that much of the discontent of the voters was because of lack on action of climate change and care for our country.

Now we have a hung parliament again and to be frank, I am happy this is the case. This says to me that we, as a nation, truly have a moral compass and when “push comes to shove” that we stand up for what is right. That is an Australian colloquialism by the way and I have no idea how to explain it. “When action is required” I think would also say it correctly.

Over the last week, we have had so many people ask for help and like I said in a previous diary – it seems to be escalating. National Parks being reverted to logging compartments abound and even the state forests that are supposedly being handed over to National Parks may not be good news, because often this only happens when the forest has been denuded of many of the large trees. This is a cynical position to take, but I believe I am right when I say it.

So, where does this lead? Well, the Koala Protection Act. You will be thrilled to hear too that your donations have now been allocated to the writing of a book by an eminent professor about why we need the legislation. It will be published in the New Year. I am very excited to have this on the agenda for 2019. I am hoping it will wake up our politicians to really understand why it is needed. As we know the Koala is the first thing that is shown to our dignitaries and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex got to see a gorgeous Koala on Day one of their recent tour to Australia. I am delighted that this interest got world-wide attention.

As always, thank you for your support and with Christmas coming on, think of us when buying your gifts. We have terrific things in the shop and I did a quick run through yesterday for all the little people in my life.

With gratitude as always,

Deborah