Way way back, at the very very beginning, there was a mystical place known as Dreamtime where the Aboriginal ancestors of Australia created the entire world. It was here where an orphan named Koobor lived.
Unfortunately Koobor did not having a nice time in the Dreamtime: his relatives treated him very badly, and due to neglect the poor little boy had to learn how to fend for himself. Finding something to eat was always a problem, but thankfully Koobor discovered that he could get by eating eucalyptus leaves; although this often left him feeling thirsty and there was never enough water around to drink.
But then one day, after his horrible relatives set off to gather food, he realised that they had left behind the water buckets. What luck! For once he could have a proper drink - and maybe save some for later too.
Thinking on his feet he carried the remaining buckets up a tree and hung them on a low branch. Once the last bucket was safely aloft, he then climbed to the top of the tree and started to sing and chant. Now, this wasn’t just any old chant, this was a very special magical chant, which made the tree grow and grow until it was the tallest and most magnificent tree in the forest.
When Koobor’s relatives came back and saw their water buckets hanging up in the sky next to the boy - in the tallest tree of the forest - they grew very angry and two medicine men climbed up and threw the helpless boy out of the tree.
As Koobor lay on the ground, broken after this terrible fall, the people came over to gather around the boys body. It was then that something truly magical happened. To all their amazement, Koobor the boy, turned into a Koobor the Koala, who arose and scurried up his tall tree.
Once he was safely back up in the branches - albeit in his lovely new fury condition - he made some laws for the people: for all the other Aboriginal folk. He allowed them to hunt him for food, but on no account must his skin be removed, and not a single one of his bones are allowed to be broken until the koala was cooked. If any of these laws were broken, then Koobor would unleash the severest of droughts that only the koala bear would survive!
To this day, the Koala doesn’t have to worry about drinking anymore, as he can get all the moisture he needs through eating scummy eucalyptus leaves; in fact, for many Australian native folk, the word ‘koala’ literally translates as ‘no water’.