Koala Conservation Hospital Port Macquarie

How Australia's Tourism Industry Is Recovering a Year After the Devastating Bushfires

"For many, the enduring memory of the bushfires will be the images of injured and disorientated koalas being plucked from burning forests. Seventy-nine of them ended up at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital on the Mid North Coast of NSW. While it was a stressful summer for volunteers working around the clock to nurse the influx of bushfire victims, President Sue Ashton tells me that not only have most of those koalas been successfully returned to the wild, but a crowdfunding campaign that raked in a staggering $7.9 million AUD has also helped the hospital fast-track some of its long-term goals. "We've been able to build 140 wildlife drinking stations that have been distributed across NSW and to other states, and we've also brought forward our wild koala breeding program, which will be a world first," says Ashton proudly. Like the hospital, the breeding center will also be open to the public upon its completion." - Travel + Leisure Editors