In 2016, Ron Land walked into his local MP's office with a rough sketch on a piece of paper. He put it on the desk and said that if the will and support were there to build what he had sketched out, the idea would save Port Stephens' koalas from extinction.
On Saturday, Mr Land held back tears as he opened a multimillion-dollar wing of the Port Stephens Koala Hospital, the centrepiece of which will help those saving the national treasures diagnose critical injuries and illnesses in the hours when it counts the most.
If Mr Land and his team of conservationists can keep any of the 25 koalas in their care, on average, alive for the first 24 hours of treatment, their chance of survival and eventual return to the wild is better than half. It's the first crucial hours, though, that counts the most.
Along with a new theatre and multi-purpose triage fitted with augmented reality technology in the hospital's new wing - which was built with a $3 million grant from the federal government's Saving Koalas Fund - the prize piece is a new and state-of-the-art CT scanner.
The machine, which can take detailed x-ray images of a koala's body is the first of its kind in Australia and the only one of its type in the world being used in a wildlife facility.
"It enables us to make an immediate decision on treatment while triage is underway," Mr Land said. "The sooner we can make an accurate diagnosis, the sooner we can start treatment, and we have the biggest chance to save its life."
The operation that Mr Land oversees treats animals that have been hit by cars, suffered attacks from feral pests or contracted diseases that threaten the survival of the species. The facility is also working to train the next generation of veterinary and wildlife carers by advancing conservationist learning through its practice.
In July, the operation marked the birth of the first koala joey at the facility, hailed as a "beacon of hope" in the mission to sustain the local koala population.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was flanked by Paterson MP Meryl Swanson, Port Stephens MP Kate Washington, and the newly minted Port Stephens mayor Leah Anderson on Saturday, September 21, to open the new wing of the Koala Hospital officially, lauding the project for "going above and beyond for every single animal".
The funding that built the wing was drawn from a $76-million federal coffer set aside for koala conservation. Still, Ms Plibersek said the Port Stephens operation needed to be seen in the broader context of addressing climate change and sustainability.
Ms Plibersek pointed to the federal government's lofty national target to set aside 30 per cent of the continent's land and an equal amount of its marine water for conservation by 2030, in addition to the 40 million hectares of land added to the national estate in the last two years.
"Those big systemic changes will also be the thing that means that koalas will be there in our landscape, not just in our hospitals, for our kids and our grandkids to see in the wild," she said.
The federal minister's visit drew ire from local Greens, however, who accused Labor of "greenwashing" its lacking national response to climate change and the destruction of natural habitat through logging.
"Coming to our community and being photographed with koalas in captivity does nothing to actually help this iconic and precious species," Port Stephens Greens spokesperson Kim Scott said. "It will not stop climate change induced fires from burning through native forests, and it will not stop koala habitat trees being destroyed by the NSW Forestry Corporation."
In response to a feeble protest staged at the facility's entrance on Saturday afternoon, Ms Plibersek said the Greens' denunciation was "pointless."
"Right now, in the Senate, is legislation that would establish Australia's first environmental protection agency, and the Greens don't want to vote for it," she said. "You would have to ask them what actual difference they have ever made."
The hospital's wing was opened with the unveiling of a plaque before donors and supporters of the cause as the facility provided ongoing care for an estimated 32 koalas at the weekend. While Mr Land celebrated the strides the facility had made, he was frank about the need for ongoing support to save the precious native species.
"We need people, and we need money," he said. "We need a minimum of another 40 people right now, and we need to get our deployable care roster up to 250 people.
"We function seven days a week and sometimes 24 hours a day, and it's tough going. We need the federal government to roll the original $3-million grant over for three years at $1 million a year just as a straight wage supplement.
"We have proven here beyond a doubt that we will deliver if we are funded adequately."
