A COOMERA Waters man who saved a koala from a drain said it would have died if he and his dogs had not found it during their nightly walk.

Larry Dawson, 67, was walking with his partner and two poodles along Ragamuffin East when he heard a sound coming from the drain around 5.30pm on Tuesday.

“One of the dogs started sniffing when she heard a little sound and looked inside the drain and at first I thought it was a cat to tell you the truth,” Mr Dawson said.

“I looked in and here was a poor little koala and she had been in there for quite a while.

“It was under a very heavy steel grate drain just whimpering, so I grabbed the grate and nearly did my back to get it off and she was sitting in there helpless.”

media_camera Larry Dawson saves koala from drain. media_camera Photos: Bronwen Bell

Mr Dawson jumped into the drain and the reached down as far as he could to hold on to the koala, which he believed was about four years old.

“I grabbed it from behind its neck as if I was it’s mother and it was squealing as I picked it up but I was very careful,” he said.

“Cars spotted us and slowed down as I took her back towards the bushland and she calmed down when she saw where we were going.

“I set her down where there is 10 acres of bush and I cleaned her up a little bit from all the junk she had on her from in the drain.

“She just sat there and looked up at me and I waited with her until she started to make her way up a tree — I wanted to make sure she didn’t go back towards the road.”

Larry’s partner Bronwen Bell took photos documenting the ordeal while she held the couple’s dogs, Molly and MoJo.

Larry and Bronwen have been wildlife warriors and carers for many years and have saved koalas and other animals before.

“We have adopted koalas at Dreamworld for years,” Bronwen said.

“You can tell we are very passionate about our wildlife — the Australian Koala Foundation does amazing work.”

The couple often take photos of koalas to give to the council to document local populations.

“This koala was a bit disturbed after being in the drain — there’s no way she would have been able to get out of there.

media_camera Larry Dawson saves female koala. media_camera Photos: Bronwen Bell

“I think she would have died.”

However, Larry doesn’t think helping the koala was a hero act.

“I had to get a snake out of our house the other day and that was definitely more heroic,” he said.

“That three-foot-long tree snake was huge and a lot more scary than a koala with claws.”

President of Wildcare Karen Scott said while it was unusual to hear of a koala being found in a drain, it was becoming more common for koalas to end up in danger on roads and in backyards around the Coomera area.

“As development encroaches on their space with mass amounts of land clearing, koalas are losing valuable habitat and are losing connectivity and are struggling,” she said.

“Coomera was once home to the Coast’s largest koala population, and koalas can’t get from one place to another if there is a huge big road on the way, so they are travelling through people’s backyards or trying to get across roads.”