Koalas, A Different Kind of Wildlife Window for Ariel

Koala sitting in a tree outside a bedroom window at St Roch.

There's a particular kind of joy that comes from living somewhere wild things find you.

At the beach, it was dolphins. Seals. Rays. The occasional shark fin for keeping the crowds off the swells. Ariel would rush to the windows, then out into the garden, her heart jumping at the sight of creatures going about their lives, such as those. That instinct to drop everything, go, go now, the call of a wild encounter to be had doesn't leave you when you move. It is just redirected for a while.

At St Roch, it can be koalas. Wedge-tailed eagles, Kookaburas… But this post is about Koalas that visit from time to time.

Koala hang out in one of St Roch’s trees.

The eucalyptus canopy here has its own residents, and they are spectacularly unbothered by the humans below. One afternoon brought a magnificent grey bear of a koala to settle confidently in the fork of a gum, regarding the world below with the particular air of someone who has absolutely nowhere to be. Another was spotted higher up, as a silhouette against the sky, tucked into the upper branches with the quiet certainty that this tree, these leaves, this afternoon, were entirely sufficient.

Ariel, who is actually Priscilla, has always been drawn to the water and the life that moves beneath, on and beyond it, but now she has found a new window, a different kind of wave to watch. The sea gave her dolphins and surf; St Roch gives her fur, slow blinks, and the rustling of gum leaves as creatures navigate the grounds.

Not a bad trade to walk into the village with a Koala on occasion.