Koalas  

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In the Dreamtime, a long time ago in Australia, there lived a young boy in a tribe. Because he had no parents or brothers or sisters, he did as he wished. Because he had no relatives to correct him he became very mischievous and lazy. When the dry season came, Koala refused to fetch even his own water. He would wait till others in the tribe filled their coolamons and then pester and beg them until they gave him some water. At first some of the people in the tribe would give him water from their coolamons but after awhile when they saw that he was only being lazy, they refused to give him any more water and hid their coolamons. One day when the tribe went looking for honey ants and roots, Koala remained behind. As the day wore on he got thirsty and decided to find and steal the tribe’s coolamons. Koala, after drinking his fill, looked about to find a good spot to hide all the coolamons. He spotted a coolabah that looked to be a good place to hide them. He climbed up and down the trunk of the coolabah until he had placed the coolamons all around him in the branches. When he was finished, he being the lazy boy that he was, fell asleep in the coolabah. As he slept powerful magic took ahold of the tree and caused it to grow high, high into the sky. When the people of his tribe came back, they discovered that someone had taken all of their coolamons. Right away they knew that it was Koala who had taken their coolamons. "Koala!" they cried, "Give us back our coolamons!" But, Koala, secure in his high perch in the tree just laughed. One by one members of the tribe tried to climb up the coolabah but they did not have any luck. Finally, everyone in the tribe gathered around the coolabah and grabbing a hold of the trunk began to push and pull. Koala began to be frightened and started to cry and whine. The branches of the coolabah swayed and shook out all the coolamons and Koala! He came down with a thump! But up he jumped and climbed back into the tree. As he climbed up, he began to change. He began to grow fur and his nose became black. Hair began to grow out of his ears and his hands turned into paws. Koala still lives in the coolabah and still won’t fetch his own water. And if he is startled or scared, yes, he still cries and whines.