It has emerged that the emotive story of “Sam the Koala” is not all that it first appeared.
The video of Dave Tree, a volunteer fire-fighter from Mirboo North, stroking a burned Koala was actually taken in the week leading up to Australia’s worst ever natural disaster in which more than 180 people were killed.
The video shows Tree offering water to the koala, now known across the globe as “Sam”, as the animal rests its paw in the fire-fighter’s hand.
Tree has stated that there had been no intention to deceive the public and that it had not been an attempt to garner media attention. He had emailed pictures of the encounter to friends in an attempt to cheer them up, he has said.
The encounter with the koala occurred during preventative back-burning operations that Australian fire service were undertaking in the week leading up to what became Australia’s worst peacetime disaster – the deadliest bushfires in the nation’s history.
3 News.