KOALA pioneer Jean Starr leaves a legacy like no other through her fiery passion for an Australian icon.
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Jean died peacefully at Mingaletta UnitingCare Aging in Port Macquarie on Monday.
Hastings wildlife advocates were grief stricken by the news, remembering her fondly as a humble and sensible woman who was deeply compassionate, particularly about koalas.
The 80-year-old founded the Koala Preservation Society Australia with her husband Max in 1973.
She was the society's president for many years.
From their home in the first year, a team of vets and the Starrs cared for three koalas.
About 24 koalas were tended to the following year and in 1975, the Port Macquarie Apex Club established the first building of the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. Jean encouraged a range of local community organisations and businesses to provide financial support for the hospital.
In 1986, a second building was developed. Country crooner John Williamson, who kept in regular contact with Jean, raised $300,000 from proceeds of his popular ballard, Goodbye Blinky Bill, to build an intensive care unit at the hospital.
Williamson met Jean in the 1980s and was inspired to write the song warning of the plight of koalas. Hospital supervisor Cheyne Flanagan referred to Jean in the realm of wildlife expert Steve Irwin.
"She was another wildlife warrior," Ms Flanagan said. While passionate, Jean was level headed and understood the circle of life, Ms Flanagan said.
"She knew if they weren't going to make it and never carried on about it," she said. Jean alerted researchers to chlamydia spreading through the species in 1973 and worked with a veterinarian in Armidale and later the University of Sydney to investigate the outbreak and develop treatment.
"She was an ordinary wife with wildlife in her blood," Ms Flanagan said.
Current society president Bob Sharpham's thoughts were with Max and his family. He said Jean was instrumental in helping the hospital grow to what it is now.
"If Jean hadn't been part of it, the hospital probably wouldn't be what it is today," he said.
"The koala is an Australian icon and an important part of Port Macquarie, and she knew it needed to be cared for."
Jean helped develop burns treatment such as bandage wrapping techniques, which continue to be used at the hospital today.
Ms Flanagan said Jean was known worldwide for her tireless work, her name cropping up in countless research papers. The Jean Starr Walk at the hospital is complete and will be officially launched tomorrow at 2pm.
Ms Flanagan said its opening would go ahead to commemorate Jean's memory. Jean's funeral is also tomorrow at 11am at the Innes Gardens Memorial Park Crematorium on Philip Charley Drive.
