A barefooted Irishman risked his life to save a koala bear in Australia by stopping busy motorway traffic for the Oz icon to cross safely.
Will Thornton, 39, was called a hero and dubbed a real “Aussie now” for his lifesaving heroism after a video of his rescue effort for the endangered species went viral.
The Dubliner was having breakfast with his Australian wife Sarah in Queensland when they spotted the terrified koala trying to dodge cars.
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Married dad Will admitted he didn’t know “what the hell” he thought as cars flew towards him and he feared drivers would think he was “some sort of crazy guy”.
He said: “Myself and my wife were having a coffee on the balcony when we noticed a koala coming out of the tree below us.
“I thought it was pretty cool. As he started moving towards Gold Coast Highway, I thought that would be bad, so I bolted down to help him.
“I wanted to keep my distance because I didn’t want to spook him too much.
“He was hellbent about getting across the road. I’m assuming his habitat was there.
“He just sort of kept going, so I thought, ‘I better stop traffic and help him across’.
“I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing. I was trying to get the cars to look.
“It’s such a busy stretch of the road. That’s what I was conscious of. It got a little bit scary with the cars sometimes.”
He added: “But the people in the cars were pretty understanding, they stopped when I stepped on to the road.
“He nearly made the full way across the road before but he stopped and had a bit of a rest.
“The highway was quite busy at the time, so it was kind of lucky that it happened in the daytime when we could help him.
“It was a bit surreal. I had to put my hands up so the drivers wouldn’t think I was some sort of crazy guy.
“But they could see that there was a koala on the road and they understood. I’m just glad he made it.
“It was all very quick how it happened.”
Will’s mother-in-law Katrina Boyle recorded his death-defying decision to step barefooted into the middle of incoming traffic to create safe passage for the koala on Thursday.
Her video has been watched by thousands online.
It shows the marsupial crawling over the infamously busy Gold Coast Highway in Burleigh Heads, which is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland.
Katrina said: “Watch our Irish son-in-law escorting a koala across Gold Coast Hwy.”
Will added: “You can see in the video, there’s a cyclist who had a good chuckle at me and other people gave me the odd thumbs up.”
Throngs of people praised Will’s actions during the height of koala breeding season, which runs from September to February, when more marsupials are on the move.
One wrote “that man deserves a beer – good on ya mate” and another said he is a “pure Aussie now”.
Conservationists also praised him and claimed his actions highlight that koala habitats are shrinking.
One said: “We need as a society to establish crossings for wildlife when building roads.
“We all know what we see here doesn’t happen for most bush critters.
Australia listed the koala as an endangered species last February across most of its east coast, including Queensland.
Animal groups estimate that summer bushfires over 2019 and 2020 killed 5,000 koalas and affected 24% of habitats, leaving only 50,000 koalas in the wild.
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