Wednesday 27 July 2016

Volunteering at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary // A Photo Diary



One of the most memorable and incredible experiences I have had whilst travelling was spending some time volunteering at a koala sanctuary near Brisbane when I was in Australia.


I spent one month living in Brisbane and working at the worlds first and largest koala sanctuary; Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. As cliché as this sounds it was one of those travel moments which creates memories you know you will treasure for a lifetime and which changes your outlook on life.


The sanctuary isn't just home to its 130+ koalas, but all sorts of Australian wildlife; dingoes,  kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus, a possum and many species of birds including kookaburra, cockatoo and lorikeets.

 
As a massive animal and wildlife lover it was so touching and rewarding to be able to help out at the sanctuary and to be able to interact with some beautiful native Australian animals and birds. Obviously it was hard work as well! Cleaning out enclosures, sweeping up animal poo, scrubbing off bird poo and keeping public areas tidy could get very exhausting in the Australian heat! But it was all worthwhile.

Every day I would spend time in the 'kitchen' with the other volunteers preparing the food for the animals and birds. This was one of my favourite parts of volunteering at the sanctuary as I found it so interesting learning about the animals and their diets. Then we would get to the best part of the day; getting to go with the keepers (or by ourselves depending on the animal) and feed the animals! All that hard work felt worthwhile when we got the chance to have a close encounter with beautiful mammals, marsupials and birds! 


Feeding the dingoes in particular was my favourite as they were so inquisitive and playful!



I didn't like to take my camera or phone around with me all of the time when I was working, so there are lots of incredible moments which I didn't get to capture on camera, such as handing feeding and stroking Daisy the Golden Brush-tail Possum, playing with a rescued joey kangaroo and hand feeding a flying squirrel and a tawny frogmouth owl. However, I think it's nice when travelling to not live looking through a camera and have some moments which are purely wonderful memories! I obviously did still get lots of photos of all of the gorgeously cute animals at Lone Pine and so I wanted to share them on here. Hope you've enjoying looking at them! 


Thanks for reading!
Chloe Rebecca xoxo 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Chloe,

    It's nice to bump into a blog which is related to my current interest.
    I am currently in Brisbane. I have visited the Sanctuary and I was really impressed with the place and its creatures.
    Could you please inform me how to volunteer in the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?
    Thanks a lot :)

    Rizka

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rizka!
      Thanks for your comment, glad you liked the sanctuary, it is a great place!
      All you need to do is to get in touch with the team at Lone Pine and ask if there are any volunteering opportunities at the moment. Their website is www.koala.net I'm sure you'll find some contact info on there!

      Hope this helps,
      Chloe :)

      Delete