featured-image

Chicagoans were fascinated with the Land Down Under during the 1980s. AC/DC and Men at Work album sales. Rugged Australian actor blew audiences away with his naive charm and backwoods virility in the 1986 film Then in 1988, Olivia Newton-John’s boutique opened at Northbrook Court and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra embarked on a .

“I think it’s our turn, really,” Men at Work lead singer told the Tribune in 1983. “On an international level, people are now accepting the fact that Australia exists.” And it didn’t hurt that the continent’s creatures were adorable too — as visitors to the are now discovering with the introduction of males Brumby and Willum.



(Though the zoo purchased in South Australia in 1971 and opened on its grounds here in 1974, koalas haven’t previously been in the care of the organization.) But it’s not the first time koalas have called Chicago home — Lincoln Park Zoo welcomed a pair of these marsupials (not bears) 36 years ago. At the time, koalas were at the in their homeland and zoologists were interested in furthering the species.

It wasn’t an easy relationship, but it was a boon of visitors and merchandise sales. A Sept. 6, 1998, edition of the Toronto Star shows koalas Point Blank and Nutsy just before they departed the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo for Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.

(Colin McConnell/Toronto Star) After a 10-week stay at the Toronto Zoo, almost 9-year-old Point Blank and 5-year-old Nutsy (who would be renamed Dinkum a.

Back to Beauty Page