Film Projects Koalas doco and #talkingkoala

Ballina Shire’s current Citizen of the Year, threatened species conservation ecologist Maria Matthes, escaped the flood in Bagotville by heeding her late father’s warnings (and getting on her roof). Her father said that if Lismore got X amount of rain in X hours, that’s what happened in 1954 (a previous flood). On the Sunday, the Bagotville house was isolated by floodwater, with water over the barrage in one direction and covering the roads and surrounding vegetation.

At 5 am, it was above Maria’s knees as she was ferrying stuff higher. ‘And it just kept coming. So I rang my SES controller in Woodburn. He said, “Oh, it’s madness. And you’re cut off. We won’t be able to come and get you. We’re evacuating the whole of Woodburn.”

‘Half the SES were isolated and couldn’t help. He said I should get out now, if I could.’

She didn't get out. ‘At 3 a.m., it was on the road’, remembers Maria. ‘It was like, wow, that was quick. So we got organized. Rob went up in the ceiling.’ At 5 am it was above Maria’s knees as she was ferrying stuff higher (onto the roof).

Maria didn’t have a boat. ‘At about six o’clock, I rang my neighbours up on the hill, and said, What’s it like?’ Luckily, the mobile signal was still working at that stage and texts. Another neighbour brought his dinghy over to help. ‘We unloaded everything off the roof, took it over, and made several trips.’ The neighbour’s house was slightly higher, so Maria and Rob evacuated. The water ended up coming almost to the top of her doors.

Maria is still smiling and pushing on. She is camping in her yard, with food being brought in by volunteers from Lismore. Her possessions are now outside, mostly flood-damaged.

The day we visited, volunteers from IFAW and Friends of the Koala were helping knock out waterlogged plaster walls. The house (her family's) which was full of souvenirs and memories of her childhood, is still wet and its future uncertain.

Maria appears in our documentary film "The Koala Corridor" https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/the-koala-corridor-working-title/

Maria's invaluable (and legendary) work saving Ballina's Koalas is now on hold while she rebuilds. She is uninsured. Please help her by donating to this fund. The funds will help her pay for tradespeople to clean up, rebuild, rewire and replumb her house, and to buy new household things.  To view our webpage: http://www.filmprojects.com.au/

Maria's twitter handle  #talkingkoala, #ballinakoalas: https://twitter.com/talkingkoala

The Echo article, Mar 22:

https://www.echo.net.au/2022/03/koala-champion-escapes-floods/?fbclid=IwAR2VFC8znJsMXPffVjikQnpkWCOAKYQHoqUoWgL2VXLsZ-jw7EmAoAby0Ss