how did a koala become a koala

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The Koala Boy

This story was told long ago by the aborigines in Australia. It explains why the koala must always be treated with respect.

There was once a child whose parents died, and who was left in the charge of cruel relatives who forbade him to drink the water they had collected from the creek. The child was forced to eat eucalyptus leaves, and he was thirsty most of the time.

One day, these relatives went off into the bush for the day to hunt for food. By an oversight, they left their water vessels in a place where the child could reach them. As soon as they were out of sight, he took the opportunity to drink his fill.



Then, thinking of what might happen when they returned, he had the foresight to take some full vessels and hang them among the branches of a small tree. After that, he climbed into the tree himself, and began to sing an ancient and magical song.



At once, the tree began to grow taller and taller until the boy was high above the forest floor.



At dusk, his relatives returned, tired and thirsty. They immediately looked for their water vessels, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then one of them caught sight of the child sitting in the tree, with the water vessels beside him.



The hunters became very angry, for they could not reach the water, and they knew the boy had tricked them. But they were clever people and spoke gently to the child, telling him they were sorry they had treated him badly and that, if he were only to come down and bring the water with him, they would be kind to him. The boy believed them and made his way down to the ground.



But straightway his relatives set about him with sticks and stones, beating him until his body was quite soft. Mad with anger, they continue to beat him until at last a strange thing happened. The boy began to change. He became shorter, stockier, and covered with grey fur. He was a koala!





At once, he turned and ran up the tree again, far out of reach of his tormentors.



They, in turn, began to chop the tree down, hacking away at its truck until it crashed to the ground, spilling the water vessels as it did so. The water poured down, flooding across the forest floor as a mighty creek, and the koala-boy disappeared for ever into the night.





Since that time, it has been forbidden for the Aborigines to break the koala's bones when they kill it. Though they may eat the animal, they may not skin it, and they must always treat its body with respect. If they do not, there is a danger that all the water in the land will dry up, and there will be a terrible drought.

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