It's pretty hard not to get excited when you see a koala in a tree or walking across the road. But, who are the awesome people behind rescuing these guys when they come off second best with cars and other animals? Today we chat to Mish Simpson, one half of the founders of Southern Koala and Echidna Rescue.

Tell us a little bit about your childhood, did you grow up here on the Fleurieu?

I grew up in South Australia but actually grew up in the north and north-eastern suburbs. I moved to the Fleurieu region in 2010 and yes, I've never looked back. We have wines and beaches, everything is in one spot. The northern suburbs don't have as much choice in that kind of stuff. We have lived down this way for 11 years now.

Southern Koala and Echidna Rescue - how did this start and why

We started as just my hubby and I. Recognising there wasn't any southern based koala rescues and that somehow became our focus. We were in the area and part of another group. Realising we were the only rescuers down South, we just decided it was time to start up our own little thing here. The echidnas were the same kind of reason. There's only a handful of people in the whole state that have permits to look after echidnas. Someone asked us to do some rescues and then we realised there was a missing gap. We began in 2019 unofficially. We started as a Facebook page trying to build our profile so that people knew that they could call us. Then February 2020 we registered as a charity, and now we have DGR status which means we can do tax deductable donations which is an extra level. Southern Koala and Echidna Rescue started as Wade and I and a couple of volunteers initially. Those volunteers are still with us, but we have grown to about 25 volunteers now. They help us with all sorts of things – admin, rescue, transporting, picking up items from places when we need them, helping with the care side of things, and the veterinary side as well. 

You get a call on your hotline about an injured animal – then what happens?

We've got our 24-hour hotline that we man. On a call we will ask some questions to assess the situation and try to work out who's the closest person with appropriate equipment to get to the animal. If the caller has an injured bird in a box, for example, then we try to provide them a vet clinic they can take it too, this helps the animal get vet treatment sooner rather than later. The majority of our work is for Koalas and Echidnas, but we will provide advice for all species.

A day in the life of an animal rescuer……I know this is not your full-time job – so what happens when you are the one called out?

If the injured Koala is on the ground, then we go and pick them up but if they are up a tree it's a little bit more complex. We have poles and big bags that we can put up. Generally, if it's within reach of our ten-metre pole we can get them to climb down and then grab them. We've now got a few volunteers including myself trained up to do tree climbing so we can go a little bit higher, depending on the situation. We have some really good arborists that we work with, so with bushfires for example, we would probably still stick to getting the professionals to do it.

You are in the process an expansion. Could you please tell our readers a little about this?

We moved to a 22-acre property in April 2020, which has opened up opportunities such as what we could do and how we could grow. We have a second building on site we are currently using as a temporary rehabilitation centre but we're building a new one. Currently we have the insulation and internal walls being done. This new rehabilitation centre will have indoor and outdoor enclosures so we can cater for all care situations. There will also be a clinic area with x-ray and ultrasound equipment which will mean less stress for the koalas as they won’t need to be transported for clinics for basic diagnostic imaging. We will have undercover enclosures for koalas that have bandages that can't get wet.  We are lucky to have our vet right next door and she'll be pretty much running this and taking it under her wing which is pretty awesome. We are hoping that the centre will be operational by Christmas. We are relying on a lot of very generous tradies to get it all up and running, which is amazing.

Do you have a most memorable rescue and or animal?

Itty Bitty is probably our most popular. We raised her from 380 grams and she was a bundle of attitude even at that size! Her and Harry were the two Koalas we had when we moved here. She was released at our property. We are still waiting for her to come back and visit – it’s been a year. No news is good news sometimes! She’s probably our greatest achievement because in terms of koala joeys raising from 380 grams is a lot of work. That involved four hourly feeds around the clock, for a few months. Then many months of bottles afterwards.

Then there's also cases like Chandler who was hit by a car and had his leg broken. He was tagged and had actually been picked up on the same road two years prior. The x-rays showed he had actually broken his leg that time too, but it healed by itself in the wild. This time he needed surgery to pin his leg back together so we were lucky enough to have a specialist surgeon who did an amazing job. We have a pre-release enclosure at Gemtree Wetlands in McLaren Flat where we sent him for a couple of months so he could build up his muscles. We then decided to release him there, rather than back where he had already been hit twice. He was spotted about 5 months after his release and he was in amazing condition and looked very healthy.

What’s the funniest thing you have done / seen (that you are willing to share)?

One time I had my wrist in a splint for some reason and Wade had dislocated his knee so also had his leg in a splint. We had been called to rescue a koala in Myponga that had being hit by car and had climbed up a tree. She was in a branch overhanging a paddock. She came down onto our pole, as it got about a metre from the ground the pole snapped and she started running through the paddock. Wade chased after her with his leg in a splint and managed to get her. If anyone saw what we were doing with the two of us bandaged up, it would have been pretty funny!

There’s been times I’ve been out for the night and I'm in heels and a dress and I'll be out getting a koala from a tree! We are not always necessarily prepared for a rescue, but it’s just what we do. We always get the koala, even if it’s in high heels!

You rely on fund raising and volunteers and public help for information but also for helping you to build the things like your rehab centre. Is there anything on the horizon that you would like us to share with our readers that they may be interested in helping with?

The Biodiversity Group is here on the 7th of November (today!). They are helping us get rid of some of the olive trees in the paddock that we want to turn into our food plantation for koala’s. Keep an eye on the Biodiversity McLaren Vale Facebook page for more information.

DETAILS: Starting today, 9am at 102 Kimbley Road, Onkaparinga Hills in case you want to come and help.

The Rotary club of McLaren Vale also run regular working bees (every second Wednesday) where they assist us with land maintenance and revegetation upkeep. They are always looking for more volunteers so contact them through Facebook if you are interested in helping with that vital work.

I doubt this doesn’t happen often, but if you ever get any time out, what do you like to do?

Yes, our spare time is essentially koalas, but we try to combine what we like. If we go out collecting food for the koalas around the McLaren Vale region during the weekend, we will often stop at a winery or two. We like our food and wine. Even when we are out for a nice meal I am usually answering our hotline, but as we grow hopefully that will be something I can have volunteers cover!

We now have five acres of Grenache so we are making our own wine. Southern Koala Wines coming out soon! Itty Bitty’s Rose and Harry’s Grenache named after our two most popular koala joeys. So, we have a few exciting little projects. Now we have our space here in the hills we like spending time here making it nice and making it a great place for Koala and Echidna Rehabilitation.

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