RIP Pan Da Koala

Sad news. Pan Da (above), a rescued koala that came to represent koala preservation in Redland Bay, Queensland, has been euthanised at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. Autopsy results haven't been released, but Pan Da had to be treated for cystitis in April. Considering the other, more gruesome forms of death faced by Southeast Queenslands's koala population, one would hope that a recurrence of the common koala malady is what took the little guy.

My brief time working in Brisbane introduced me to the preservation efforts of Redlands City Council (RCC). The area is home to the largest population of 'urban koalas' in Australia. A precious, valuable commodity? Hardly. A decade of mad development has decimated koala habitat, thousands are killed every year on Southeast Queensland's roadways, and irresponsible dog owners allow their pets to attack koalas scurrying from one eucalyptus tree to another.

It's a depressing situation. And, like kangaroos and wallabies, koalas are at the mercy of a human population whose fondness for them doesn't ... quite ...... translate ......... into ............ action.

The only tangible step taken by RCC was the creation of a Pan De Facebook page. I was lucky to meet the woman who for two years wrote Pan Da's status updates and posted photos that attracted over 13,000 'fans' from around the world. She understood the severity of Queensland's declining koala population and everyday smacked into an unmoving bureaucracy. The last time we spoke she remained optimistic that the foundation of concern she'd helped develop with the FB page would spur civic protection. (Her contract with RCC was not renewed this past April.)

I attending one meeting at RCC's shiny building in Redland Bay to discuss a koala preservation website with about a half dozen people. It was more than enough to evoke sympathy for any koala activist's plight amidst people with the willpower of dish detergent. The time to ACT was ten years ago, yet this collection of bureaucrats was interested only in ensuring their place in a circular loop of information that was, by design, not intended to progress beyond the discussion phase.

Nothing is less important to politicians and their gofers than the protection and/or preservation of wildlife. Native koalas will very soon disappear from Southeast Queensland. Hands will wring, voices will cry out, Southeast Queenslanders will soothe their collective conscience by swallowing the false claim that it couldn't be helped, and attention will return to that evening's telly offerings. Any footy?

All props to Pan Da's carers, who no doubt took the news of their little battler's death hard. It's up to the next generation of Southeastern Queenslanders to protect their precious natural fauna.

In that way, Pan Da's brief life and notoriety will have been more than a successful social media campaign for a gutless city council.