SA Koalas in Hong Kong a state tourism showcase Annette Clark with Edmond at Cleland Wildlife Park. Pic Keryn Stevens Source: News Corp Australia MILLIONS of dollars in investment and years of planning surround a lucrative Hong Kong koala project first mooted by South Australian Governor Hieu Van Le in 2011. Mr Le was leading a Hong Kong Australia Business Association delegation when he got chatting to the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong John Tsang about the pandas arriving at Adelaide Zoo. "I said to them, in return for the generosity of China to Adelaide, what would you think if I proposed to our premier to offer you as a gift a couple of koalas," Mr Le says. As soon as I got back from Hong Kong to Adelaide two or three days later I received a letter from the chair of Ocean Park saying thank you very much for giving us the koalas, we have already allocated a block of land and he'd even sent a map of where it would be. Ocean Park in Hong Kong's new exhibit of SA koalas. Three years later, after quickly winning government support, the first of eight koalas has touched down in Hong Kong's premier theme park attraction Ocean Park, along with two SA kookaburras and six red-necked wallabies Intensive Hong Kong media attention surrounds their arrival after a Cathay Pacific 747 cargo plane was redirected from Sydney especially to take the koalas, four keepers and two vets. South Australia's koala project team is predicting enormous flow on interest in the state as Hong Kong's premiere Ocean Park continues to plough millions of dollars into their new $5 million Adventures in Australia exhibit. A Chinese article written about the new koala exhibit at Ocean Park in Hong Kong and featuring Adelaide keeper Annette Clark. SA's program manager Gary Joyce says it's a massive win for the state particularly because Ocean Park had agreed to make the new exhibit just about South Australia. There's a Flinders Ranges panorama, a video espousing the attractions of the state, photographs of different regions and a conservation centre aimed at educating its visitors about South Australia. Solar panels on a corrugated iron shed in the exhibit promote the state's commitment to renewable energy and there is information about our use of rainwater tanks and premium food and wine. "They are planning to have 1000 visitors an hour for 10 hours a day," Mr Joyce, who is program manager, commercial services at the Environment, Water and Natural Resources department, said. These visitors see a koala at Ocean Park but they can't hold it, they see all this information about SA and Adelaide, it could have been Australia or Sydney or Brisbane, but we've managed to get it all about Adelaide and SA and to me, that's the coup. Mr Le said if just five per cent of those visitors make it to SA to actually hold a koala it would generate an impressive economic impact. The South Australian Government has been working with the South Australian Tourism Commission, the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office, the Hong Kong Australia Business Association South Australian Chapter and The Cleland Wildlife Park on the project. But it is Ocean Park that had funded much of the work, not only on the exhibit but also in sending its own keepers to South Australia for months of training, and visiting with a contingent of 20 media representatives that created extensive press in Hong Kong. Plans to dedicate a month to Australia in the park when the exhibit opens in March next year was also on the agenda creating opportunities for South Australian producers to stock its seven restaurants with food and wine. A percentage of ticket prices was also likely to be devoted to establishing a joint koala conservation centre in SA with the University of SA and government departments. Adelaide business Georama was providing photography for the Hong Kong facility after being contacted by Chinese construction company W Hing. It had already merged 1200 photos of the Flinders Ranges for super high resolution tiles for two 40 metre walls, but it had now been assigned at least seven walls. Georama's Stephen White said the company was working through a direct contract with W Hing and to date, had delivered two images of the Flinders Ranges (near Hawker) and the Razorback lookout. "Our current task is to photograph the city and riverbank for opposite sides of the entrance corridor, and I'm going to need a cherry picker to be able to see through to the theatre and pagoda over the new bridge," he said. The park also appears to be taking no chances with the health of its precious new park dwellers. It had now planted 10,000 eucalypt trees in three plantations in southern mainland China and five smaller ones in the ocean park to feed the koalas. But until the koalas were comfortable with the local varieties of eucalypt, leaves from South Australia were being flown over weekly for their meals.