Koalas and Dorrigo

 Koalas and Dorrigo

We were going to leave Port Macquarie but we had a couple of places to visit before we left. 

The first was the Roto House, a late 19th century house built by a prominent citizen and it had been preserved as it would have looked when the owner built and furnished it. 

One of the three sides of the house that I took a photo of...

...the front door...

...and the other side. The fourth side was the back which wasn't photogenic.

And then right next door to the Roto House was the Koala Hospital and it was obviously a hospital because it had an ambulance...

...a detail of one of the koalas leaning out of the window.

A giant multi-coloured koala at reception.

A cute light coloured koala asleep in the trees.

And another having breakfast.

We spent an hour at the hospital but they had also had a birth but they are not licensed to breed. But it happened. 

The male concerned was Baz. During the fires of 2019 in the area which is a heavily koala populated area, suffered from several forest fires and many koalas were injured and captured and taken to the hospital. Injured koalas flooded in but the generous public also flooded the hospital with donations to take care of the sudden increased workload.  

Many of the injured koalas have been returned to the wild but Baz is the last surviving fire injured koala at the hospital. He had recovered but is so badly injured that he can never return to the wild but will be carefully looked after at the hospital. His pads, fingers and claws are badly damaged and he can't climb far or hang on to the tree with strength but he has limited mobility.

 It is uncertain how it happened but through the bars of their cages, and although the bottom third of their enclosures are sheet metal, Baz impregnated a female and a little joey was born, unbeknown to the staff. It was a little miracle but the joey will never be able to be released into the wild and will live in the hospital within shouting distance of mum and dad.

We took the Pacific Highway north to our lunch stop at Bellingen.

It is a pretty town with a river, called Bellinger as the cartographer misread the spelling and used an 'r' instead of the 'n'. 

On the walk down to and along the river, I came across this interesting local plant flower. 

The Bellinger River from the bridge and there were some big fish in the river.

It was time to leave Bellingen and move on to our next stop which was at Dorrigo.

We saw some wild turkeys.

But we found the waterfall. 

A close up of the people behind the waterfall. 

The bridge opposite the waterfall. 

And then we were on to our next stopping point just outside the town of Doriggo.  

At the Dangar Falls. If it was a cool day and there was no one swimming, them the shy platypus would come out to play. There are platypus here but only seen when it is quiet and there were still a lot of people about.

The plunge pool of the falls but there were no platypus to be seen so we headed back to town. 

A view of the hotel, a century old and a beautiful building, 

A view of the balcony. 

The war memorial which commemorates the 460 soldiers and one nurse of this small community who gave their lives.

The town clock.

A modern sculpture just along from the main crossroads.