Casual koala waddles down main street
A furry resident of rural Victoria has taken a break from munching gum leaves to go sightseeing at the shops.
On Monday, the koala strolled down the main street of coastal town Portland, stopping in front of popular cafe The Lido Larder to have his photo taken by a delighted young boy.
The cafe’s owner Wendy Price says she wasn’t too surprised by her casual new customer, who took the attention “all in his stride”.
• ‘Predator’ weasel rides into battle on a woodpecker
• Fish with two mouths caught in South Australia
• Very rare megamouth shark washes ashore
“It’s not uncommon for that to happen around here,” Ms Price told The New Daily. “The koalas are around a bit.”
“For us, it’s normal,” she said, “but I can see how others can be interested in it, because some people never see them.”
Kangaroos make the odd stop-in too, but far less frequently than koalas, she said.
Local resident Chris Kerrigan filmed the incident from one of the cafe’s tables and uploaded the footage to her Facebook account, where it has been shared thousands of times.
“I love Portland, It’s never boring, that’s for sure,” Ms Kerrigan wrote.
“Apparently he waddled down the street, crossed the road with some people and climbed up a tree on the foreshore,” she said.
“It caused a lot of laughs.”
The Lido Larder’s owner Wendy Price denied she had any plans to rename her establishment in honour of the marsupial’s visit.
“I don’t think so — it won’t be the Koala Lader, no,” she chuckled.