As the trees continue to fall at the hands of the NSW government’s Forestry Corporation in Yarret State Forest, Blinky the koala has had to abandon his home, it had been chopped down, and seek a new place to live.
Yarratt is high-quality koala habitat but Blinky has had to move on. He travelled down the exceptionally high-quality road (if only we had such good roads in places like Main Arm!) made by NSW Forestry Corporation who received $60 million of NSW Flood Recovery money.
‘It certainly made it easier to access the trees that my family and I were living in,’ said Blinky sadly.
‘Homelessness is a terrible thing. It’s not just humans that become homeless, animals do too. When your home is destroyed you can’t just go and move in next door, that can lead to fights. The homeless wander, hoping against hope that they will find safe shelter and food.’
Blinky is now a refugee in Manly, near where voters are going to pre-poll. There are lots of people in the Corso and a friendly fig. Maybe that could be his forever home?
‘We can either hide from sight or be in your face. In order to give my species a fighting chance I’ve decided to be in this tree, near the voters going to pre-poll.
‘Maybe James Griffin will come over and talk to me about his koala strategy. I hope he does. I want to tell him that there have already been a gazillion meetings and dozens of reports and that what counts is action. Will he save koalas and our trees or not?
‘Sadly I know the answer. His government renewed the logging contracts to take my trees. Fires or no fires, extinction crisis or not, the trees are falling.
’Maybe the community independent Joeline Hackman will come and talk to me. I’ve heard that if elected and in the balance of power, she will not support any government that doesn’t take immediate action to save koalas and our forest homes.
‘That does make me hopeful. Look up, people of Manly when you come to vote this week. Look up and see me. Don’t let me be invisible. If you don’t see me this time, I might not be around for next time,’ Blinky.
Blinky has settled into a big Norfolk Island pine on the foreshore at Manly, but he hadn’t counted on the wind…
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