By: Susan Jones
Female Koala at Gertrude Petty Place
Photo by Susan Jones
This afternoon about 4pm we stopped clearing weeds and sat down at Gertrude Petty Place for a cool drink and something to eat.
To my amazement, a female koala jumped to the ground from a sapling gum a few metres away and headed out onto the grass. I squatted with the camera to take a shot, not realising that the Tallowwood gum I was hiding behind was the koala’s next destination! It shot up the Tallowwood, only stopping once to look back disdainfully at me.
People sometimes forget that Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve is an enviromental park where visitors share the habitat with koalas, echidnas and many other species.
It is wonderful to see people enjoying the Summit and Federation Outlook tracks, particularly with the increasing sightings of koalas. However, many people parking at Gertrude Petty Place then go walking dogs off-leash in our conservation reserve.
The presence of this koala at Gertrude Petty Place today, is a very good reason why we should be encouraging dog owners to keep their animals on-leash in the Reserve.
Your dog wants to play off-leash? Visit Abbeville Street Park.
Mount Gravatt Environment Group 
May 17, 2012 at 7:16 am
Wow what a fantastic encounter with a Koala! It looks quite different to the other female Koala with the joey… there really do seem to be a lot of Koalas around Mt Gravatt at the moment. It really annoys me to see a lot of dogs off leashes too, I will make sure to say something the next time I see someone with their dog off its leash and I hope others will. There are no large, clear signs at Gertrude Petty that Im aware of to tell people to keep dogs on a leash on the mountain, maybe that could be something to campaign for?
May 17, 2012 at 8:55 am
Hi, Sue – what a lovely experience! Yes, dogs are only visitors but this is the koalas’ home – there need to be signs encouraging dog owners to keep their pets on the leash. People forget about the lizards and goannas on the mountain too.
July 29, 2012 at 4:36 am
[…] specially chosen to provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, bees – and of course, our resident koalas! What a great team! In just over an hour all the plants were in the ground and it was time to […]