Mothersole_D_and_J ---- David was one of the first koala carers

“ Our wonderful Island in the eighties. “

David and Jo MOTHERSOLE

one of our first koala carers

A story as told to us by Jo Mothersole who moved here with her husband David almost 30 years ago.

Our interest in the Mothersole family was first raised by Charlie Murray, a long time resident down 11th Pde. He thought that we might like to talk to Jo about David’s involvement with koalas and Landcare.
Jo has now been on her own since David died 13 years ago and loves the Island and is very happy with her own company.

The first thing we talked about was how different the Island was so many years ago.

As Jo recalls: “ We settled here in the days when we had a ferry called “ the old yellow peril “ . It was a time when the Island was so much smaller. We knew almost everyone. I remember a group of us selling “T” shirts and windcheaters . The colour was green, it had a motif, a yellow circle with a koala in it. It was to raise money for the CFA.” When we asked her what the CFA money was raised for, Jo thinks ( not sure though ) that it might have been for a truck .
Jo continues : “We had a wonderful time in those days , progressive dinners with people like Suzie Morton, Pat Taylor, Jan Pianto, . All have left the Island now but for me. Dances, concerts. It was fun. “
How did it all start ? “ We used to come down here during holidays and spend some time with David’s sister. David was an engineer by profession and had worked for 20 years with a large plastic packaging company in Melbourne .

One day, out of the blue David had a severe heart attack. He tried to go back to work, but it did not work out and he retired shortly after . We both decided to get out of the rat race and move down here.
Years before we had already bought this block and so we decided to build.
David and I loved it here. He became great friends with Peter Manuell and Paul Clayton and the three were very involved in the early Landcare days. Jo remembers that the three had sore hands, backs, sore everything from poisoning of “ feral weeds “.

Then one day it happened , the day David became one of the first KOALA carers on the Island. He found a sick one on the beach near their home . David knew of a group in Bairnsdale who looked after koalas and a man came out and took the koala away. From then on he was almost in constant touch with that group. In the end they supplied cages to him. Jo remembers that at one stage David was the only carer on the Island .
David knew little about Koalas ( No Google for info in those day ) Whenever a koala died the Bairnsdale group would perform autopsies to learn as much as they could . As Jo remembers “ A lot of them suffered from the Bairnsdale Ulcer and a lot were injured by dogs “
(Nothing seems to have changed)
What Jo remembers most about David and his koalas was that all the caring was self-taught and over the years David gained plenty of experience , but there was very little expert knowledge he could draw on .

Jo pointed to a large tree stump in front of her home, she explained that it once was a huge tree which sadly had to be cut down. David used to call it the “ Nursery Tree “ and at one time it had three mothers and three babies living in it.

Respecting David’s love for the Island we asked Jo what he would think of it if he could see it now ? “ He would say ,” I loved the Island the way it was” he would dislike the way Paynesville is developing, he would never have liked the canals and the big houses people are building
.
He saw this area as “ a nice little place “ and progress would spoil it.
We hope that many Islanders can still remember the times Jo talks about and enjoyed this trip down memory lane.

Editors note : You may wish to Google “ Bairnsdale Ulcer “ There is plenty of information.

Mothersole_D_and_J ---- David was one of the first koala carers