Photographer Brad Mustow has teamed up with Friends of the Koala to share an exhibition of his wonderful pictures of baby koalas at the Creative Artisans Gallery in Ballina this month, with money raised from the sale of framed prints and postcards going to help the iconic but threatened marsupials.
Mr Mustow told The Echo he originally became involved with koalas when he got to know a mother and baby koala who lived in his street in Goonellabah, and followed their journey with his cameras for six months.
After that he became a volunteer at Friends of the Koala, and began documenting the koalas in care there. The joey portraits in the Ballina show represent about twelve months of orphaned joeys going through ‘koala kindy’, where they learn the skills they need to survive in the wild.
‘I photograph about 100 of the 350 koalas that come through Friends of the Koala each year,’ explained Mr Mustow. ‘I’ve probably taken 20,000 koala photos over the years.’
Sadly a lot of koalas don’t make it, succumbing to chlamydia, car strikes and dog attacks, but Brad Mustow records the journeys of those who undergo treatment until they are released.
Joey Buddies
The Ballina photography exhibition is also publicising Joey Buddies, a Friends of the Koala education initiative which provides updates and gets more people involved with helping koalas, especially orphans.
Buddies don’t just live locally, but around the world.
Mr Mustow says he has too many favourite koala photos to choose one, but his favourite koala was Meggs, who originally came into FOK as a baby in 2019 and ended up having a baby as well. That young koala now lives in the wild, although his mother has since died.
He said Friends of the Koala is now vaccinating all joeys against chlamydia before they return to the wild, with the disease remaining a major killer of koalas.
‘If you can release babies with some sort of hope for the future, that’s the big thing,’ he said.
Members of the public can support the lifesaving work of Friends of the Koala by purchasing prints and postcards from the photo exhibition.
You can also help koalas and learn more about them by joining Friends of the Koala’s Joey Buddies here.
Brad Mustow’s joey koala photography exhibition is at Creative Artisans Gallery, Shop 1, Wigmore Arcade Ballina, until the end of August.
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