from the ashes

IN THE DAYS that followed the Crestwood-Lake Innes fire near Port Macquarie, Ryan Tate and his koala detection dog Taylor, a four-year-old English springer spaniel, searched to find surviving koalas. Smoke lingered as they moved quickly and quietly through the canopied fringes of the scorched forest on the NSW Mid North Coast, after some 2880 hectares of essential koala habitat was destroyed.

Ryan, wearing a fire-retardant suit, hard hat and 15-kilogram backpack, runs behind Taylor in the summer heat as she seeks out the scent of koalas. She