WILDLIFE // KOALA RESCUE
The summer from hell. Koalas on the brink.
The Australian Summer of 2019 was the most catastrophic bushfire season on record.
Hundreds of thousands of hectares of native bushland destroyed. Houses Razed. Lives Lost. Australia's Koala population decimated. The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has borne the brunt of the disaster, rescuing and rehabilitating hundreds of koalas, and releasing the koalas it can back into what’s left of the Aussie bushland.The Summer from Hell tells the story of the volunteers, national parks and wildlife officers, firemen, vets and nurses who worked the hottest summer of their lives to quell the bushfires and save Australia’s most iconic animal from being wiped off the map.
Based at the hospital premises, and on location along the Australian eastern seaboard, the one-off documentary starts at the initial bushfire catastrophe and then follows care and rehab that goes into saving one of the last wild populations of koalas. Populations of the cute vulnerable mammal are being rescued from drought ravaged habitats and blackened and useless Australian bush.
It’s a story of heartbreak and hope – where the human spirit of dedicated Koala carers cuts through above the white noise and politics of political obfuscation and climate change deniers.
