Koala Iluka And The Burnt Down Fire

• Elodie Whitaker, Grade 2C
• Short Story
• 2018

Deep in the outback, where only the Australian bush animals lived, a baby joey was born. The joey's name was Iluka and he loved his Mum and his favourite eucalyptus tree. Iluka was always happy and content along with his friends. His life was always calm and peaceful with all the other kind and respectful koalas until...

One quiet day Iluka was shocked by a loud and screeching yell from the furthest tree. It sounded like a whale's communication whistle it went for so long and far! Iluka raced all the way into his mother's warm pouch as Mum climbed to the top of the tree to see what was happening. Iluka was shaking with fear and was trembling even more, when he exclaimed "It's a fierce flaming fire!" and he snuggled right down to the bottom of the pouch. Suddenly his Mum called to all the animals 'Come to my tree, it's the tallest and it should fit all of us!" Just then, every single koala, as fast as lightning, scrambled up the tree. It took hours until the fire settled and everyone thought that Mum's tree would be badly burnt down but when everyone looked below, the tree had survived. Everyone thanked Iluka's Mum for letting them onto the tree and for keeping them safe.

Iluka felt miserable because he couldn't live in the same bush anymore. He felt like sleeping in his old eucalyptus tree but knowing that he couldn't he soon had a great idea. He quickly told everyone that they should stick together to find a new biome to live in, so they all stuck together to find another home. Every koala was in a line and set off to hopefully find a lovely new habitat for them to live in. It took two weeks of searching, and firstly Iluka's Mum found bush, but not with the type of gum leaves they like to eat. The next day Iluka's friend saw an enormous field but with no shelter. It took another week until finally, Iluka spotted something and it actually looked really good. Everyone followed Iluka and he could not believe his eyes. It looked like an artist's painting of the perfect eucalyptus forest but obviously, it was real! It had shelter and it had the perfect gum trees. Everyone scurried straight onto a tall tree with lots and lots of branches to settle into. It felt like home straight away. After a week it felt like the fire had never happened. All the koalas were happy and content again. It felt so good.