Wollongong retiree Bruce Wham was driving north on the New England Highway on May 22 when he noticed two kookaburras dart in front of him just before he collected one at 100km an hour, about 10km outside Scone.
Thinking the bird was dead, he continued driving.
When he stopped for petrol at Tenterfield he discovered Gorilla stuck in the vehicle's grille (hence the name), but again assumed the kookaburra was dead.
To his great surprise, and after a 700km journey to Queensland, Bruce discovered the next morning that his plucky little passenger had survived.
After the RSPCA freed Gorilla, his rescuers realised he'd lived through the ordeal with only minor injuries.
Within a few days the kookaburra was back to full strength, and plans were made to get him home.
After all, he had a lady friend waiting for him, the kookaburra he was flying beside when he was hit.
1233's Jill Emberson spoke to Leonie Rickard, senior wildlife officer at the Brisbane RSPCA, just before she boarded a plane with Gorilla to bring him home to the Hunter Valley.
Leonie says it's the first time they've taken one of their rescued animals on a plane.
"No, we've never flown an animal home before, we've sent a few on trucks long-distance but this is the first flight so it's pretty interesting," she says.
"Kookaburras and birds in general can be a little bit more susceptible to shock and stress so we want to get him back there as quickly as possible, and you know birds fly so I think he'll be happy with it!
"He's doing well, I wish he knew that he was going home today, I think he'd be a lot more excited.
"Gorilla is a wild kookaburra and he hates being in the cage here, he really wants to get back to the wild."
Leonie says they have a good idea where Gorilla was struck by the car and are confident they can get him pretty close to his home, although as a country kookaburra he would have a much bigger territory than his city cousins.
"They're a very territorial species so the most important thing is to get him back exactly where he came from, and the other reason is apparently there's a girlfriend waiting for him, so fingers crossed we can reunite the two," she says.
"They pair-bond really strongly so she won't have given up on him yet.
"Even if we don't see her, within a few hours they'll see each other."
This afternoon Gorilla was released near the town of Wingen, outside Scone.
He flew into a tree, ruffled his feathers then took off, perhaps to search for his lady love who wasn't there to welcome him home.
"This is definitely the best part of my job," Leonie says.
"We see a lot of injured animals and it can be pretty hard sometimes, but any that we can get back to the wild, and especially ones like Gorilla with such an amazing story, it really makes it worthwhile."
Leonie hopes Gorilla's story encourages people who hit wildlife with their car not to assume the animal is dead.
And she also reminds motorists who run into marsupials to check their pouches.
Gorilla
