The Native Bear, Kur-bo-roo, is the sage counselor of the Aborigines in all their difficulties. When bent on a dangerous expedition, the men will seek help from this clumsy creature, but in what way his opinions are made known is nowhere recorded. He is revered if not held sacred. The Aborigines may eat him, but they many not skin him as they skin the kangaroo and the opposum.

Smyth vouched for this belief when he recalled that, sad to say, he wanted a koala to make a cap from the skin. One day when an Aboriginal had brought in a koala to the camp before the rest of the Aborigines had returned to the encampment Smyth inquired about skinning it and recorded that:

He refused to skin it; but at length, by giving him presents, and showing him that no harm could come of the act, because all the sorcerers and all the blacks who could communicate with the sorcerers and other chief men were absent, he took off the skin and gave it to me. I took the skin to my tent, and meant to make it into a cap, but the young man became very restless. Remorse overtook him. He could not put the skin on again, not indeed had he wished to do so, would I have given it up. He said, “Poor blacks lose ‘em all water now,’ and he became very much alarmed and exhibited such contrition and terror, that the old doctors came to enquire into the cause. He told all. Much excitement followed. I said that the blacks had nothing to fear. I laughed at their terrors; but at length I was obliged to give them the skin. The skin and the bear were buried in the same manner in which a black man was buried. Though the bear was actually roasting, his body was taken away and buried in the skin. This ceremony they believed would precipitate the bears, and avert the calamity of a loss of water.

Jackson, Stephen. Koala : Origins of an Icon. Belmont: Allen & Unwin, 2008.

When the first people arrived, the country seemed new and strange, with narrow gorges and the towering sandstone cliffs of Boodyadella, the main dividing range. The people came to love these craggy ranges, but were sad that no trees or grass grew.

Some animals were already living in the ranges–Ngaargoo the grey kangaroo, Waarunn the wallaby and Didane the koala. They, too, were sad about the dry treeless land.

The tribal elders met to discuss the problem. They wanted to bring trees and plants to this beautiful country. But how? One wise elder suggested they try to get seeds from the trees growing in the sky. Perhaps a strong boomerang thrower could hit the trees and knock down the seeds.

The warriors of the tribe were called together, and the elders told them of their plan. All the warriors wanted to help. Each thought he would be the one to knock down the seeds.

The whole tribe gathered round. One by one, the warriors moved to the centre of the group and threw their boomerangs as hard as they could.

As the people watched in silence, the boomerangs swirled upwards into the sky, but then fell back earth.

After the last boomerang fell, the worried elders sat down again and talked about the problem. One wise old man with a white beard suggested they ask Didane the koala for help. With his broad chest and powerful arms the koala must be a good boomerang thrower.

Didane agreed to try. His friends Ngaargoo and Waarunn came with him to the place where the tribe had gathered. Didade brought his largest war boomerang. Silence fell on the group as he prepared to throw it.

With a tremendous swing Didane hurled his huge boomerang up into the sky. Its swishing sound faded away as it passed through the clouds and out of sight. All eyes were fixed on the sky as they waited for the boomerang to return.

They waited a long time. The boomerang seemed lost forever. Some of the women began to weep. They knew that if Didane’s powerful boomerang could not reach the trees there would be no hope for their land.

Suddenly a shower of seeds began to fall. Seeds of every kind, large and small, rained down on the hot, dry earth.

With shouts of joy the people began to dance around Didane. The was now a hear. Soon the rain came, cooling the land and filling the rivers. The seeds knocked from the sky by Didane’s boomerang began to grow in the fertile soil.

Jackson, Stephen. Koala : Origins of an Icon. Belmont: Allen & Unwin, 2008.

Source: Walsh, G.L. (1985), <i>Didane the Koala,</i> Brisbane University of Queensland Press, pp. 2-36.

During a drought the animals noted that Koala never seemed to suffer from thirst. Suspecting he had concealed a supply of water for his own use and was unwilling to share with others, they searched high and low. Various birds and animals maintained a watch on his movements day and night, but without success until Lyre-bird saw him scrabbling up a tree and hanging head downwards from one of the branches. In those far-off days Koala was equipped with a tail which proved useful in climbing and allowed him to perform gymnastic feats that his descendants are no longer able to imitate. Curious to know why the little animal had adopted such a curious posture, Lyre-bird crept close. It did not surprise him to find that Koala was sipping water that had collected in the fork of a tree.

It occurred to him that the tree might be hollow and filled with water. As he was unable to reach the branch where Koala was hanging and had no axe with which to fell the tree, he scuttled back to camp and brought a firestick, with which to set the tree alight.  The result was spectacular. The trunk burst into little pieces, releasing the water in a miniature torrent. Birds and animals plunged into the water that collected at the foot of the tree and, for the first time in many days, slaked their thirst.

The events of the day left their mark on Lyre-bird and Koala. If one looks closely at the tail feathers of a lyre-bird, it will be seen that there are brown marks on the outer edges where the feathers were scorched by the flaming firestick.

The result of the conflageration had a far more serious effect on Koala. As the flames shot upwards his tail was consumed. He saved himself by scrambling into the branches of an adjacent tree, but ever after he had to learn to live without a tail.

Jackson, Stephen. Koala : Origins of an Icon. Belmont: Allen & Unwin, 2008.

Source: Reed, A.W. (1965), <i> Aboriginal Fables and Legendary Tales,</i> Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Reed pp. 69-71