An emergency management report into how the Surf Coast blaze was handled has been presented to authorities.
Like most Australians, Lisa Neville has a fondness for our eucalypt leaf-loving icon.
But the Victorian Environment Minister is emphatic that it wasn't her koala concerns that forced controlled burns in the Otway Ranges to be cancelled in the months before a bushfire tore through the town of Wye River.
"I was talking about koalas almost every single day because there was international interest in the fact that 600 koalas had been euthanased. I wasn't talking about koalas and Wye River or any planned burns at all. I was talking about how we dealt with the over-population of koalas."
At the time, the Otways' koala population was at the centre of attention after details emerged of a secret mass cull under the previous Liberal Government.
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In a leaked March fire-control log-book, an unknown author has written to the minister wanted no burning in Wye River because of the koala issue.
Lisa Neville says she knows nothing about the entry.
"Let's be quite clear. It's a false allegation. I absolutely at no point intervened in relation to this controlled burn and the reason this planned burn was called off, the one between Kennett river and Wye River, was because there was too much rain. It was too wet to light the fuel."
She's been backed by the state's chief fire officer, Alan Goodwin.
"It's the department and senior fire management who decide where and when burns take place and this burn didn't happen because conditions were not right at the time, on the 27th. As the minister indicated, it got too wet."
It's the latest controversy in the ongoing aftermath of the fire, which destroyed 116 homes in the coastal hamlets of Wye River and nearby Separation Creek.
The Victorian Government is now considering the report into the Wye River blaze by the state's inspector-general for emergency management.
But United Fire Fighters Union secretary Peter Marshall wants a wider coronial inquiry to investigate just what was done in the lead-up to Christmas Day to stop the flames hitting coastal towns.
He notes that lightning started the Otways blaze a week before and dangerous conditions had been forecast for December 25.
"This is not a blame-game. It's about what went wrong and how we can prevent the loss of 116 homes in the future and importantly, to get to the truth of the matter."
The fire season is far from over, with temperatures set to rise in vulnerable areas of the state next week.
