Students rescue koala from mineshaft

A koala has been rescued from down a mineshaft twice by Victorian university students after the unlucky creature fell back down the hole on its first bid for freedom.



The third-year University of Ballarat students were on an excursion in the Victorian goldfields for an outdoor education class recently when they walked past the mineshaft and saw the koala trapped down the 4.5m hole. In an attempt to save the exhausted creature, they lowered a branch down so it could climb up to safety.

The koala managed to climb up the long branch but when it got to the top, it tried to leap to another tree and missed. It plummeted down to the bottom of the shaft, prompting horrified shrieks and gasps from the students.


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The koala seemed to recover quickly and managed to climb back up the branch to safety, choosing not to jump to another tree this time. The University of Ballarat Outdoor Education department suspects it may have been trapped down the shaft for days.