I have received a phone call this afternoon from a friend that works at TMR informing me of the planned upcoming trimming and removal of dead or dying trees on the New England Highway Toowoomba Region, from Mt Kynoch to Hampton.  This will include trimming of the 500+ year old Eucalyptus Saligna in the centre of Hampton which has suffered terrible die-back during the long drought.

I have spoken extensively with TMR staff and have been reassured that Registered Wildlife Fauna Catchers will be on site for the period of the tree works.  I have offered assistance of our network of wildlife carers, should any animals need to come into care. I have also voiced my concerns about hollow dwelling species not being "let go" to find their own place to live and the precarious outcomes should this happen.  I informed TMR about the possible presence of vulnerably listed Greater Gliders.  We are waiting to confirm which wildlife spotter company will be in attendance. 

Three separate arborists have conduced the assessment of the trees and as much as possible will be done to retain tree hollows and wildlife habitat.

We thank TMR for contacting us regarding this upcoming work so we can reassure local residents regarding the preservation of any wildlife and wildlife habitat that may be encountered. 
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Full press release below, shared with permission.

Judi Gray
Toowoomba Koala and Wildlife Rescue.

ANIMAL NAME:  Mia #2
SPECIES:  Koala (Adult Female)
RESCUE DETAILS: Rescued by K Silk, My Bush Babies Australia, Toogoolawah Qld, January 2021
HOSPITAL/VET: RSPCA Wildlife Hospital
REHABILITATION DETAILS: Currently undergoing Final Tree Rehabilitation at Toowoomba Koala and Wildlife Rescue
RELEASE DETAILS: TBA

Koala "Mia #2" is currently in her last phase of rehabilitation at Toowoomba Koala and Wildlife Rescue's koala rehabilitation facilities, where she is gaining strength climbing trees in the outdoor treed enclosure.  
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Poor "Mia 2" is lucky to be alive, after she and her back-rider joey baby were hit by a car earlier this year.  Kathy from My Bush Babies Australia promptly attended the rescue of both Mia and her joey, but unfortunately her beautiful baby did not survive the serious car trauma. You can just only imagine what an emotional scene this rescue would have been for Kathy. "Mia 2" was rushed to the wildlife hospital where she received treatment for wounds, eye abrasions, facial injuries and bruising amongst other issues.  

Mia is a gentle soul and now that she has almost fully recovered, she now needs to regain her strength after her time in hospital so that she is fit and strong to return to the wild.  She will continue to be monitored to ensure she doesn't suffer any set-backs. She has adapted well to the rehabilitation facilities and has proven very difficult to photograph, as as soon as she sees me coming, she scoots up to the very top of her favourite tree.  

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This week the Australian Government has been in a complicated feud with Facebook and Google resulting in Facebook suspending all news, journalists and some non for profit organization pages.  It is unknown at this stage how this ban will affect Australian users of the social media profile long term, however if the ban spreads to all organization pages, it will be a big loss for our followers of Toowoomba Koala and Wildlife Rescue. There are rumours of the social media profile being banned altogether in Australia, which is very concerning for us, as a large number of our wildlife rescue calls for koalas & wildlife needing help come through our facebook profile. 

To ensure we can still share Koala and Wildlife Rescue Stories with you, we have set up a email newsletter platform. We promise not to spam you with emails at all, it is purely a back-up of a way we can send the koala story updates from our blog to our followers should our social media sites go down. (we really hope they don't).

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Other ways you can follow us for continued updates are on Twitter:
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You can also connect with us on our personal Instagram:
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We are very grateful for your support and for following our journey with Koala and Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in the Toowoomba Region.

The TKWR Team

​🐨 Little Koala “ARCHIE” & his mum 🤷🏻‍♀️ “RUBY” recently caused a delay in electricity re-connection to the area of Hampton. 😬 
🌳 The two koalas moved in on site overnight to an area where Ergon Energy was trimming tree branches required to re-connect the electricity. The Ergon team arrived onsite early in the morning to discover the two koalas had taken up residence in a most in-convenient spot! Ergon called Brendon to attend and he was able to go up in the bucket and retrieve the two koalas from the trees safely. Mrs Koala “Ruby” was not impressed at all, however little “Archie” was more cooperative. 🤣
Both koalas were in beautiful heathy condition and we were able to move them just down the road a bit, away from the electrical works, but still in beautiful habitat. They both launched up the tree on release and soon started eating. Cute release video to come. 
🙏 We would like to thank Ergon for all they do to ensure any wildlife they come across during their work in our region is safe and for their commitment to retaining natural old growth habitat in our area. We are grateful to have worked with them on many rescues and projects over the years. Such a great team of people, and how good is it being able to use a bucket-lift for rescues! We wish we could have one of those on hand all the time!