They’ve been Mavis Gersbach’s obsession for most of her 90 years but, it was not until this month, that she finally came face-to-face with a koala.

“Imagine being 90 years old and not seeing a koala, or touching one  — you wouldn't read about it!” Mavis told Orange City Life when she dropped by with photos of her recent koala encounter at a Queensland sanctuary.

Back in March, Mavis came to our office asking if we would urge our readers to do more to help the tragic plight of the iconic Australian marsupial. With bushfires and land-clearing devastating their habitat and a wild population of fewer than 100,000 — possibly half that — it’s feared that the koala could soon be extinct in the wild.

Doing her part for the cause, Mavis had “adopted” a koala through the not-for-profit Australian Koala Foundation, and was urging others to do the same.

What surprised us all then, was when Mavis revealed that she was still to see one in the flesh. Not that there hadn’t been a few failed attempts.

“Peter, my son, he did take me to Dubbo one day. It was a bit drizzly and we went in and… do you think we could find a koala? They must have been all under the leaves or something, but we couldn't find one!

“We saw all the other animals, but the particular one we wanted… no luck! The story of my life!”

But earlier this month, Mavis boarded a plane for Queensland, finally on her way to making a life-long dream come true.

“My daughter Val decided she'd put us on a plane,” Mavis said. “First time I've got on a plane… and I really enjoyed the plane ride; usually if someone first gets on a plane they get a bit nervous –  I was cool as a cucumber!”

Accompanied by three of her grandchildren, Mavis made the trip from Brisbane to, not just any koala sanctuary, but the Gold Coast home of her own adopted koala “Tallara”.

“It was lovely!” Mavis said, laying out the photos from her visit on our office desk and pointing out a young koala with its mother.

“That's ‘Mavis’, that's the one they named after me when she was born,” she said. “And this other one, I've adopted her for about three years, I think.”

With adoption time approaching on the calendar, Mavis tells us she plans on adopting her young namesake. It’s something she hopes other people may consider or find other ways to help save threatened koalas.

“They seem to think they're becoming extinct with all the bushfires and cutting the trees down and everything,” Mavis said, becoming visibly moved by their plight.

“It makes your heart bleed… I  get teary when I talk about it... I can't help it.”

There are many charitable organisations working to save our dwindling koala population, but Mavis has “adopted” through the Australian Koala Foundation. For more information, visit: www.savethekoala.com/adopt-a-koala