An Irish artist has raised €20,000 for a fund set up to care for wildlife injured in the Australian bushfires.
Audrey Hamilton, who is based in Dublin, raised AUD$32,250 for the WWF Australia Bushfire Fund by creating a unique painting of a koala bear.
The piece, titled KOKO, was produced into a limited edition run of 275 archival pigment prints which sold out in just over a week.
Audrey has pledged to donate 50% of the sales to WWF Australia.
She said she wanted to do "something to help ease the devastation" caused by the bushfires which have killed an estimated 1.25 billion animals across the country to date.
33 people have died in the catastrophic fires, with over seven million hectares of land burned and 2,000 homes destroyed.
WWF Australia has called for global support to establish an AUD$30 million Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund to deploy emergency funds to care for injured wildlife.
Audrey said her contribution marks "a modest donation from a small Irish business" but that she wants her donation to "represent the heartfelt sympathy that our community shares with those in Australia".
She said: "I wanted to find a way of helping through my art in the hopes that all of us could come together and raise some much needed funds for the Australian wildlife.
"I’m overwhelmed by the response and love people have shown for KOKO.
"This absolutely could not have been possible without the generosity of everyone who helped make this a reality."
She said that the KOKO prints have sold out and that the funds are being sent to WWF Australia.
Audrey also visited the Australian Embassy in Dublin last week and presented the Australian Ambassador Richard Andrews with a large KOKO print.
