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Woman saves brawling koalas from becoming roadkill

Two koalas refused to let traffic get in the way of their heated stoush.

Two koalas refused to let traffic get in the way of their heated stoush.

A woman was confronted by road rage of a different kind when she came across two koalas brawling in the middle of a Victorian road.

Sharon Brecely stopped and tooted the horn before pulling over and making attempts to shoo the animals off the Portland-Nelson Road in Portland, in south west Victoria.

It proved more difficult than she expected.

Especially when a truck travelling at 100 km/h emerged in the distance posed an imminent threat to the preoccupied marsupials.

Ms Brecely waved her arms, indicating for the truck driver to veer into the service lane to navigate its way around the koalas.

Watch the pitched battle below:

“I stopped first and tooted the horn for a little while and they weren’t going to move,” she told 9News who obtained the footage.

“I thought ‘oh no, the poor koalas! I’ve got to slow him (the truck driver) down’.

“He (the truck driver) was great. If he didn’t do that, if he didn’t slow down and move, he would’ve collected them both.

“They wouldn’t have had a hope. They were on his side of the road and, yeah, they both would’ve been goners.”

Ms Brecely’s urgent screams eventually pushed the koalas to continue their argument in the bushes on the side of the road, out of harm’s way.

“They’re so silly, they’re so slow,” she said.

“I’ve never seen them fighting on the road before.

“But it’s not unusual to see koalas on the road, I’ve moved several off. There’s a lot that get hit between Portland and Heywood.”

Ms Brecely said she had thought about carrying them off the road but said the larger of the pair appeared it would have weighed about 20 kilograms.

She has worked with animals for 30 years, caring for six cats, five dogs, a bird, horse and cow on her own property.

Eventually the brawling pair fled into bushes away from the harm of the road and dangers of traffic.

In another unusual sighting, a koala wandered in to a restaurant in Adelaide last week, much to the surprise of diners.

Wildlife experts advised that it was important to first take care of personal safety before trying to help a koala in danger or other animal.

Koala populations in some parts of Australia are in decline due to deforestation. Figures estimate there are now less than 80,000living in the wild.

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