Removed after last year's devastating bushfires but now a group of koalas have returned to their natural habitat in southern New South Wales.
After seven months in care, it was time for those koalas' to head back in to the wild, a bittersweet moment for the Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust.
Three US firefighters died there in Peak View, south of Canberra, when their air tanker crashed while trying to protect the area during last summer's bushfires.
"For them to come from the other side of the world to help us and die it's a huge tragedy. I'm in contact with the families... we named three koalas after those pilots," James Fitzgerald from Two Thumbs said.
Koalas were among the estimated 800 million native animals killed by the fires across the state.
"They were coming in on the verge of starvation. So it felt like they were skeletons because post fire there's just not enough food."
It's estimated that over a quarter of koala habitat in the south east of NSW was destroyed last fire season, putting extra pressure on an already vulnerable species.
Veterinarian Dr Adrianne Lowe says the first introduction of the koalas to the area will help them understand how the species responds upon returning to their scorched habitat.
They'll be watching closely to see how their recovery plays out.
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