Once the mayor of Lismore and an academic at Southern Cross University, Ros Irwin now spends her time doing everything she can to help our endangered koala population with Friends of the Koala. With her partner Bill Shaeffe, they have transformed their property into a koala sanctuary, under a perpetual conservation agreement. Her mission now is to create a better future for koalas.

Walking through the Friends of the Koala (FoK) Care Centre and koala tree nursery on Rifle Range Road in Lismore, FoK president Ros Irwin shows her obvious passion for koalas.

At a large wire net enclosure, she points to a large koala who is making a loud grunting noise (like a pig), while hiding inside a clump of eucalyptus branches.

“That’s Triumph, when he makes that noise it means he’s a randy boy,” she said.

Nearby, another koala called Marley is the oldest koala FoK has in care. 

“We had to get a tree climber to rescue him,” Ros said.

In another caged enclosure, signs on the door pronounce the koalas inside are Lauren, Charlotte and Sweetie.

“Sweetie can’t be released due to state government law that a sterile koala can’t be released into the wild,” Ros said. “It’s a shame because she could be looking after the young koalas.

“Lauren has retrovirus and her kidneys packed it in. It could be the end of her soon.”

Ros Irwin has spent her life helping people, and now she devotes her time to helping our endangered koala populations. 

Over the last three years, FoK has rescued 438, 369 and then 394 koalas per year.

“50% of the koalas rescued in NSW are rescued by Friends of the Koala,” Ros said. 

Big job

“FoK takes my time and my concern. 

“It’s a huge undertaking and I’m not sure where we are going if we can’t meet the ongoing costs of running the care centre.”

These days, Ros spends her time writing grant submissions, annual reports and newsletters, and is on the regional koala conservation committee.

“I spend a lot of time educating people about what a healthy koala is, especially kids in schools,” she said.

“If we can teach kids about koalas at a young age, we know they will tell their parents to slow down when they see koala signs on the road.

Friends of the Koala care centre koala tree nursery.

Tough game

“It’s a tough game to be in when you look at the koala statistics.

“It’s financially difficult and it keeps me awake at night.

“In Port Stevens and Gunnedah, there are no koalas left – and Kyogle council still need to identify how many koalas they have in their area. We rescued 27 koalas there last year and they were mostly euthanised as sick animals.”

Funding 

Recently, FoK received a $56K community projects grant to construct 3.5m fence to make an enclosure at the care centre into a koala kindergarden - and Ros wrote the successful project application.

Ros is also working on the Hinterland Project, where Ballina Byron, Tweed and Lismore councils work together and give FoK $15K a year for three years to pay for a vet and vet nurse.

FoK also received $50K from National Parks and Wildlife for rescue equipment. 

But Ros said the problem is lack of funding for long term maintenance.

“Lismore Council doesn’t fund us, except for $2000 a year to take dead koalas to the tip,” Ros said.

“We rely on donations - a big donation funded our new office and public education centre and a vet building, but we need sponsorship.

“We are running a volunteer organisation, but have to pay staff too and we’re not funded for ongoing running costs.”

Volunteer jobs

Ros has the president of FoK for two years and has spent five years on the committee.

“We have our annual general meeting on October 24,” she said.

“We desperately need a treasurer - a retired auditor or an accountant would be good. We need a vice president too.

“Most people want to do practical jobs like collect leaves for the koalas every day, and we are always looking for help - especially on the committee.”

Ros and Bill looking at the collected leaves for feeding koalas.

Ros and Bill

Ros and her partner Bill Shaeffe have been together for 13 years have a koala kindie at their 4.65 hectare property in Caniaba.

It’s an animal sanctuary with a conservation listing in perpetuity, making it land for wildlife, protected under State Government legislation.

“We can’t look after it forever and we want to make sure it will always be there for koalas,” Ros said.

“We spent five years every Sunday clearing weeds from gullies and now have the Bush Connect program helping with rainforest regeneration.

“We’ve rehabilitated three different types of rainforest and we’ve seen koalas using the rainforest too. Its cool in hot weather for them.

“We soft release them there first into big trees so they can build up their muscle tone and later we’ll release them close to the place they were taken from.”

Ros and Bill are also staffing the FoK rescue phone one day a week.

“We are also rescuers and we might get called to a rescue at 1am,” she said.

“I picked up a burnt koala from Drake after bushfires. It had blood in its kidneys and was put down.

“It’s a huge responsibility and you learn a lot about koalas. It’s a 100% full time job. 

“Bill and I laugh – there’s no retirement for us.

“Our passion originated when Bill picked up a big male koala hit by a car. 

“When he was brought to the care centre, we tipped the cage a little so we could slide him out and he screamed. Every bone in his body was broken.

“When koalas are first hit, the adrenaline kicks in and they race up a tree.

“So when we go to collect them, we need to put a trap around the tree to stop them jumping into other trees.

“They are not stupid animals – they don’t actually sleep 24/7. They rest for about 18 hours. 

“If you are under their tree chatting, they know and will move ten minutes later. They know what we are doing. 

“Koalas are amazingly gentle lovely animals.”

Ros had been scratched by a koala once and said it hurts.

“We are lucky at our place. We have 54 trees in the koala kindie,” she said.

“We had one dominant male koala we released called Sid. 

“He comes back near our place to visit and he impregnated a young koala called MacKenzie. 

“She loves to hang in the French forest redgum tree and we saw her one day there with a baby with her. She came home with her bub to show us.

“Beyond the kindie there are more trees and we saw a wild koala there. It could have been one of the baby koalas we released, they are chipped but not tagged.

“We are trying to find out where and how far do koalas move using spatial analysis with GPS. 

“It’s aproject with wild koalas where we track them. This info will feed into the koala management plan in the area.

“FoK also spent 20K on research by Sydney University to find out why koala joeys often die after they are released. 

“We don’t know why. It’s the first study done. 

One of the koalas in care climbing in its enclosure.

Labour of love

It’s a labour of love for Ros and Bill and they raise a family of koalas. 

“It’s good for your soul rescuing and looking after koalas,” she said. 

“So few of them get released into the wild. 

“They are a complex animal and their closest living relative if the wombat.

“We need a better state government strategy for them and deal with the biggest problem which is the removal of their habitat. 

“We are driving them to extinction.

“When we remove their habitat, it puts them on the ground and they get stressed, diseased and attacked by dogs. 

“The stress stimulates the koala retrovirus – its like AIDS. And chlamydia affects the females, giving them cystitis on their ovaries and makes them infertile.

Recently, FoK responded to a call by someone who found a dead koala found hanging by its head on a farmers gate.

“We know it was attacked by a dog," Ros said.

“We need to educate people to train their dogs not to attack a koala, or to fence their yards and stop koalas getting onto their land.

“Dog attacks are the worst - at least a car hitting one means immediate death. 

Hot spots

“Some of the hot spots where koalas are hit on the roads are on Wyrallah Road at the Bora Ring, Ruthven and McKies Hill Hall.

“That’s where we want to see 40 kmh signs posted on the roads, but that needs $40K in funding.

Ros outside of one of the FoK koala enclosures.

Council

Ros spent nearly 18 years on Lismore City Council as a councillor, from 1992 to 2008, as well as being deputy mayor for two years, then Mayor.

She was also on Rous County Council as the chair for two years and a member of the Local Government Association Board for five years.

“I always said when I was on Council I wanted to get a koala plan on management in place,” Ros said.

“Bob Gates was the mayor then and it didn’t go anywhere. I knew back then I wanted to work with Friends of the Koala. 

“I was very busy at that time. 

“I was working full time and doing my PhD in political science, conducting research into women leaders in government in five countries. 

“I took six months off work to finish my research, and then I met Bill and didn’t finish it as quickly as I wanted.

“My studies were done at night and I had trouble sleeping then. I’d be awake at 2am and do my study then.”

Ros also worked at Southern Cross University as a lecturer in social sciences for 15 years, before leaving Council to work in Bill’s coffee business, Caddies Coffee. 

After they sold the business, the two of them took on their koala conservation work full time.

Loving Lismore

“I love Lismore,” Ros said. “We have a diverse community here and it’s accepting of everything.”

Ros grew up with a father who worked for the Commonwealth bank and they moved a lot for work to different Australian capital cities.

“I was always the new kid in town. It was hard to make friends when you move all the time. 

“So when I came to Lismore I found community and felt like I belonged here.

“My upbringing made me more introspective and more of a hermit. 

“It’s important to be reflective.

“If anyone says they don’t regret anything they have done, they are not being honest. Everyone makes mistakes.

“Being a politician means you need to be in touch with what people in the world are feeling.

“I was a rebellious kid. I wanted to study law, but discovered boys and didn’t do so well at school, so I had to do extra school studies to get accepted into university. 

“Then I went to Latrobe and did legal studies.”

Ros first came to Lismore after working around Australia for the public service in employment and industrial relations.

“I came to Lismore as a corporate services manager and I was also working at Council writing management plans for them before I ran for Council myself. 

“I had a good understanding of what to do as I went to every council meeting. 

“I looked at people who hadn’t read the document before the meeting and thought, I’m going to run.”

So Ros ran on a community independents ticket with Diana Roberts and Lyn Carson was voted in as councillor in 1992.

“We doubled the number of women on council,” Ros said.

“I say to anyone wanting to run for council next year that if you are interested, do it. 

“You can make changes and get things done.

“One of the changes I brought in was to get the votes of councillors recorded so they were accountable for their decisions and introduced public question time.  

“It wasn’t always easy being a councillor – people hate you or love you.

“If you can please 60% of the people, you are doing well.

“Being on council is politics - and being a women on council does bring discrimination.

“I always treated everyone with respect until they showed me that I shouldn’t.” 

When Ros decided to leave Lismore City Council, she said she knew it was time.

“Every meeting seemed the same,” she said. “If you are smart, you know when it’s time to go.

“I walked away and I only go back to meetings now if they involve koalas.

“Now I just want to help people and koalas. 

“Money doesn’t make me happy, but it would be good to have more to help the koalas.”

If you would like to help out Friends of the Koala or find out more information, visit https://www.friendsofthekoala.org/