Australian PM eulogizes a koala

As far as executive tributes go, Australia’s latest ranks pretty low.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke today in fond memory of Sam the koala, who died in surgery six months after she was rescued from the country’s worst wildfires and became an international “symbol of hope.”

The four-year-old koala suffered second- and third- degree burns on her paws in the February fires across southern Australia that killed 200 people, destroyed 1,800 homes and devastated more than 1,500 square miles of land. A video of Sam’s rescue by a volunteer firefighter made celebrities of them both. But during a risky operation to remove life-threatening cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects more than half of Australia’s koala population, the disease was determined to be far too advanced and Sam was, sadly, euthanized.

To all those who question Australia’s political relevance, Rudd retorts:

The symbol of hope for so many people around the world was the great picture of that wonderful koala being fed water by one of our firefighters. And I think that gave people of the world a great sense that this country, Australia, could come through those fire — as we have, and Sam the koala was part of the symbolism of that and it’s tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us.

Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty images