Strathmerton resident Kellie Payne was surprised to find a koala looking for a drink during the recent stretch of hot weather.
Kellie was feeding her pet cattle when she returned to the backyard to check on how the plastic ‘shell’ pool was filling up for her cavalier dogs and free-roaming sheep.
“As I was heading back I saw something sitting on the grass where the water had overflowed,” she said.
“I realised it was a koala who had been hanging around in trees for three weeks, which we have called Branches.
“So I grabbed one of our four (King Charles) cavaliers, Bobbie Jo, and took her inside with the others.
“I came closer to her to remove the hose. She didn’t seem to be in any fear or stressed that I was there, as I’m sure all she wanted was the water, no doubt after the horrendous heat we had the week before.
“Once she realised the pool was there she decided to go to it. I ended up putting a log in it so she could climb on it if she wanted to.
“She stayed drinking for 45 minutes.
“She watched me fill up the other pools around her. She went up a gum tree once she had finished.”
At last report, the koala had been moving between the peppercorn trees and the gum trees in the paddocks nearby.
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