For 11 lucky wild koalas rescued from the NSW firegrounds, there was no need for a menu plan or temporary pens when they arrived on campus at the Australian National University.
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Instead, they received the five-star treatment at the hands of a specialist team led by researcher Dr Karen Ford, whose expertise is koala nutrition.
It was by a sheer stroke of luck that the six large research pens and 12 smaller enclosures on campus were empty of marsupials because the ANU team was conducting a habitat research project on the NSW North Coast.
So when the desperate call came from the Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust, near Jerangle south of Canberra, asking for help to house their koalas as the Good Good firefront approached last Thursday, she and her team were perfectly placed to lend a hand.
The trust's koala sanctuary was lost to the raging bushfire shortly afterward.
Another tragic post-script is that the Hercules C130 aerial tanker which crashed last week near Cooma with the loss of the three US airmen aboard had been tasked with protecting the Two Thumbs sanctuary,
Fittingly, the trust named three of the koalas Ian, Paul and Rick, after the men whose lives were lost in the crash.
"We have a long-running relationship with Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust Koala Sanctuary and ordinarily they would have gone there but it was burnt down in the fires," Dr Ford said.
"I am really pleased we can help these koalas otherwise I don't know where they would have gone."
Koalas extract most of their water requirements from their food, so they arrived "mostly skinny and quite a bit dehydrated".
However, with a specialist nutrionist now in charge, they are unlikely to stay that way for long.
"Koalas are quite particular in their diet needs; they feed on specific eucalypt species and to complicate matters further, on particular trees within that species," Dr Ford said.
So the daily smorgasbord is prepared from a variety of sources, including trees on the university grounds but mostly from Dr Ford's own property at Forbes Creek.
Given the koalas cannot be returned and the university will need its pens back, after recovery they will be sent to various locations until their habitat regrows.