Scientists who had been looking for koalas in the Blue Mountains started to make exciting discoveries – but then the Gospers Mountains mega-blaze ripped through the ancient bushland.
Kellie Leigh had been searching for endangered marsupials with her professionally trained scat-search expert, and pet border collie, Grut.
"We had a real story of hope to start with; we were finding koalas just where we didn't expect, using tree species we didn't think we could use," said Dr Leigh, executive director of Science for Wildlife.
"Everybody … thought, ‘Oh, there are no koalas in the Blue Mountains and if there are, there are not going to be many because it's sandstone country.'"
Dr Leigh said the globally recognised icon was hunted extensively for its fur in the Blue Mountains in the 1800s.
"There are really old newspaper records of people going out around Hazelbrook and the lower mountains and shooting koalas for the fur trade, so the numbers were really knocked back," she said.
Based on searches by Science for Wildlife and other agencies, there are thought to be between 1,000 and 3,000 koalas in the World Heritage-listed area.
"We were still trying to work that out."
When help does more harm than good
Naturally, people tried to help when the fire tore through the mountains.
But some people did not know how to help, and unfortunately some may have done more harm than good.
Koalas were given water out of a bottle by bystanders, who Dr Leigh said clearly had the best intentions.
But she said that could cause health complications because the animals do not drink that way normally.
To help provide people with the right information, and to help the numbers of koalas recover in the Blue Mountains, an app has been created specifically for the area.
The Help Wildlife Near Me app has been supported by several agencies and is being funded by Landcare NSW. The federal government has come online to support the pilot project.
App to help save animals' lives
It has been dubbed as the "first of its kind" by Science for Wildlife because it had been created specifically for one location and its residents.
Landcare New South Wales CEO Turlough Guerin said information in the app could be the difference between an animal dying or surviving a crisis.
It could be used during emergencies to give people the right tools to help wildlife and link them with information on agencies and groups around them, and what they can do in their day-to-day lives to support native animals in their area.
"It becomes a one-stop shop for the community to know if they want to help wildlife, they can just get on and learn how to do something in their backyard or they can sign up to participate in a project," Dr Leigh said.
Helping animals and communities recover
It was a resource Blue Mountains resident and Science for Wildlife volunteer Kat Boehringer would have found helpful during the bushfire emergency.
Ms Boehringer said an app tailored for her community was an important step in giving residents some agency.
"You know, a big fire coming through, I think you feel quite a loss of control and it is really empowering to know that there is something you can do on the ground to help," she said.
It is hoped the app, if successful, could be used in all areas hit by natural disasters.
"Particularly under climate change, where we are seeing all of these extreme weather events already, there is just going to be more and more need for this sort of long term, strategic coordination," Dr Leigh said.
