Goonellabah’s Luke Kane has always been a natural electrical genius. Now a qualified pyrotechnician, lighting and sound expert, he works with Lismore Theatre Company – among other things. He’s also rescued over 500 koalas for Friends of the Koala and wants people to understand the plight of koalas in our area.

Luke Kane has always loved fireworks – and koalas.

As a Lismore boy, growing up on High Street, Luke Kane would see fireworks at the Lismore Show from on high and would listen to his parents talk about “back in the days of cracker night”.

“They were long gone when I was born,” Luke lamented. “I did a few illegal things with fireworks and mum said you can’t keep playing with fireworks unless you get a licence - so I did.”

A local boy, Luke grew up and went to school in Lismore, before studying lighting and sound production at TAFE. He honed his skills in the entertainment industry, working for companies like Queensland Performing Arts and found he was able to combine skills in pyrotechnics with lighting.

Luke setting up at Tropical Fruits in Lismore Showground for NYE.

Pyrotechnics

Now, as one of only 300 licenced pyrotechnicians in Australia, he is in big demand for shows – but that was before Covid hit. Even Luke’s work at Tropical Fruits New Year’s Eve at the showground has been cancelled this year.

In fact, Covid also impacted on Luke’s work in lighting, sound and production with Lismore Theatre Company, which is in hiatus because of restrictions.

“Covid is hurting a lot of industries – the entertainment industry is in a lot of trouble,” Luke said.

Curious kid

“Lighting has always fascinated me from a young age. My father tells me the day he couldn’t answer my questions was when I sat on front steps and asked him how the torch worked.

“Thankfully my grandfather was a trained electrician and helped me learn things. Eventually, my parents would bring home gadgets I could pull apart because they got sick of me pulling apart good stuff. 

“They were hesitant to give me access to hot things like soldering irons, but I started doing Dick Smith kits, building doorbell intercoms and annoying the crap out of my parents.

“In year 7 at high school, a design teacher saw my interest and encouraged me to design a skill tester based on something I saw at a carnival.

“I even fix my cousin’s toys - usually it’s relatively simple – their parents were not that way inclined.”

Present day

Now 32 years old, Luke works for Jackson’s Technical Services as well as Mr Fireworks International. As the head technician at Lismore Theatre Company, he would also supervise work placement students at the theatre.

“Recently, I worked for The Memory Bank, a local company - converting old video tape and film to digital,” he said.

Old machines

“I keep machines older than me running. Earlier this week, I worked on a machine from 1965 - I was born in ’88. It was interesting to work on something almost as old as my parents.

“It was an old reel to reel video machine with gears, pulleys, belts and large components – that was before microcontrollers. Now, capacitors and resistors process digital info.”

Luke said he has mastered the dying art of soldering by working on older machines.

Luke working at the Rochdale Theatre in Goonellabah with Lismore Theatre Company.

Lismore Theatre Company

“I started working with Lismore Theatre Company (LTC) when they advertised for a tech person,” Luke said.

“I started on a show called ‘Wait until dark’. The last two scenes had to be lit only by a radio and a fridge. So, I found a fridge hidden in a shipping container, cleaned it up, put lights in it and found a radio. I made some sugar glass for it and also had a working phone on the stage.

“At the time, I didn’t think too much of it - I came from a professional theatre background where anything can be done.

“Afterwards, I was told ‘I know how we would do it without you’. These days, we now do more planning about what we will need at the beginning of the season.

“Over the years, I’ve made good relationships with different companies and they have given us fixtures that work. LTC had 15 fixtures at first, now we have over 100 because different lights do different jobs.

Cage Birds

“When we did 'Cage Birds', we used 60,000 LED lights and 14 lighting effects. At first people said ‘why so much work?’ but at the end they said it was amazing and they understood.

“Our first show we got reviews about the tech. People said ‘I felt uncomfortable – the lighting made me feel claustrophobic’. That’s what I wanted - I knew I could pull off the effect.

“If you can make people feel things through simple lights, colour or effect, that makes me happy.”

Covid

Luke said Covid is hurting a lot of industries – and had really hurt LTC.

“The entertainment industry is in a lot of trouble,” Luke said. “It’s not designed to function under Covid restrictions and are not adaptable to a new normal – venues are designed to pack in people to make them profitable

“Some companies have State Government backing, but we don’t. LTC runs on the smell of an oily rag and relies on volunteers.”

Luke goes up to rescue a koala.

Friends of the Koala

“As a kid I loved watching wildlife and in Brisbane I volunteered with the RSPCA answering the phone lines. So, when I came back to live in Lismore, I started doing koala care work with Friends of the Koala (FoK), then answering their hotline.

“Now I’ve rescued 100 koalas a year for the last few years. Sometime koala rescues are challenging and need someone who’s not scared of going in up in a bucket lift to rescue a koala from a power pole.

Goonellabah rescues

“There are more and more koalas needing to be rescued in Goonellabah every year.

“We’ve gone from 300 to over 400 a year from when FoK started – it jumps about 25 a year.

“I get calls all the time – some days are worse than others. Once I got four calls in 45 minutes and I had run out of people to send. I had to leave the hotline and do it myself.

“I’ve had koalas show up at peoples homes clinging onto doors with scared parents and babies inside wondering what to do.

“I show up and scratch my head and wonder ‘how did this happen?’ or ‘how did a koala get up a power pole when it’s walked past six trees. It makes no sense.

Silly story – koala on my doona

“Sometimes you wonder if someone is pulling your leg.

“One call at 2am was a bloke who rang and said ‘I’ve got a koala in my campervan’. He said he was driving and saw a koala on the road, so he stopped, walked up to him, but he didn’t move then followed him into his van.

“He said he drove home with the koala in the van and the koala was on his doona.

“I told him to get out of the van. Koalas might look friendly, but they aren’t. If they feel threatened, they might bite and scratch - and it hursts. I‘ve been bitten and scratched many times.

“The koala turned out to be one we knew, who was raised by us - it had a parasitic infection in his blood.

Luke as a boy, always had a soft spot for koalas.

Weird ways

“Koalas act in weird ways when they are not well. If you find them in places that is not in a tree, call us – there’s probably something wrong with it.”

Luke said calls to FoK were increasing because encroaching development of housing and roads was impacting on the available habitat for koalas.

“When you take away the trees, you affect a lot of animals,” he said. “I’ve pulled so many off fences with dogs barking under them.

Dogs

“If a dog bites a koala, you have 12 hours to start antibiotics. Dogs communicate with their mouths and if they bite a koala you may not see the punctures – koalas don’t bleed like normal animals –

you might not see blood even when there is a puncture.

“If you are in doubt, call us. I’d rather go and check it out than not.

Grommet the koala – serial offender

“Grommet is a wild koala who lives in East Lismore. I’ve rescued him four times in three years. He’s been hit by three cars and the first time I rescued him, he was drinking out of a puddle.

“He’s not too sensible and a difficult koala.

“Recently, he was sitting on the ground watching kids playing with a ball. I picked him up and every time he bites me and he is vocal and tells us what he thinks. Sure enough, he had injury to his abdomen - an impact trauma so we gave him antibiotics and took him back.

“Grommet is an idiot, but he’s cute. I take him back to the wild and tell him please don’t it again.”

Luke when he was young, with his sister - and a koala.

Koala stories

Luke wanted to make an impact on how people in the community looked at koalas, so he started writing funny stories about the rescues he would do and posted them on Facebook.

He said he wanted to connect people back to what was happening in their backyards.

“I want to make sure people know what to do if they see a sick or injured koala and do what they can to help FoK.

Help FoK

“We always need volunteers and donations so we can keep rescuing, housing and feeding koalas – and we always need volunteers who can recue, answer the hotline, do admin and social media hotline.”

If you are interested in helping out, or find a sick or injured animal, you can find more information by visiting https://www.friendsofthekoala.org or phoning the FoK 24 hour rescue hotline (02) 6622 1233.