A heartfelt thank you to my friends and family for all of the conversations starting with, ‘Now, about my book . . .’ In particular, thank you to my wonderful husband Don, beautiful daughters Bethany and Charlotte, my parents Joan and Chris, and the wild card, a secret literary fan, my brother Ralph.
Thank you to my patient and invaluable critiquing friends, Marci Dahlenburg and Ann Harth, who read and re-read my stories with remarkable enthusiasm and tact. I am also grateful to Debbie Pointing from the Koala Action Group, Jeff Regan from Paradise Country, Wayne from Wellington Point Farm, Natalie from Ascot Demolition and Glenda Emmerson for their help with technical matters; to Deborah Tabart OAM, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Koala Foundation for her support and enthusiasm; and to Kristen Collie from the Daisy Hill Koala Park, Jill Richardson from the Australian Koala Foundation and Bridget Chenoweth from Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors, for their generous contributions to the factual pages of this book.
A big warm hug to my students in the Ronald McDonald Learning Program, whose perseverance and courage inspired Rose in the first place.
And finally, to the amazing team at UQP. What a fabulous experience to be published by you. Thanks to Kristy Bushnell (project editor), Aileen Lord (cover design and artwork) and to the talented Cathy Vallance (editor), for finding all the ‘gasps’ and ‘hugs’ (and much more) in the manuscript. And thanks to Kristina Schulz (publisher) for believing in me.