Koala videoed on North Stradbroke Island beach

Ms Winchester was going for a morning walk when she saw a young koala sitting on a sand dune near Deadmans Beach.

“I started talking to him and then he walked towards me,” she said.

“He walked passed me and tried to climb a sand dune.”

Ms Winchester said he could not get up the sand and she thought he might be lost so she walked towards a bushy area while calling the koala.

“I was telling him to come around,” she said.

“I walked ahead and he followed, then he stopped so I stopped too.

“Then I walked ahead again and he followed, until we got to the scrub.”

Ms Winchester said the koala ran into the bushes and climbed a tree.

Thinking the encounter was over, she walked towards the sea.

“The koala followed me down to the water,” she said.

A dog and its owner came across the pair, but even the barking dog did not scare the trusting marsupial.

“He paddled with his feet in the water, before running across the beach and back into the scrub.”

Ms Winchester said the encounter linked to the topic of the book she was writing while on North Stradbroke Island.

“My research found the spiritual meaning of koala is to do with connecting to innate wisdom.

“That’s what my book – Empowered Pregnancy: The Secret Wisdom for Natural Birth – is all about,” Ms Winchester, who is pregnant, said.

As a first-time visitor to North Stradbroke Island, Ms Winchester said the writers at the retreat had experienced other memorable animal encounters.

“We also saw about four or five lots of whales passing by every day.

“It was very special.”