--- title: Koala Stops Traffic on Highway description: Koala stops traffic on Brisbane Valley Highway in Queensland. canonical: https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-28T16:34:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:11.505Z og:title: This Koala Is Clearly in No Hurry to Cross the Road og:description: Koala stops traffic on Brisbane Valley Highway in Queensland. og:url: https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Koala Is Clearly in No Hurry to Cross the Road twitter:description: Koala stops traffic on Brisbane Valley Highway in Queensland. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch a Koala Bring Traffic to a Halt While Casually Crossing the Road  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 28, 2016 4:34 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 28, 2016 4:34 PM UTC Why did the koala cross the road? It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it does happen sometimes in parts of Australia. In fact, new video shows one of these mischievous marsupials temporarily halting traffic on a highway over the weekend. Facebook user Mike Phipps of Noosa Head, Queensland, uploaded [video](https://www.facebook.com/mike.phipps.1023/videos/1015694278498089/) of a koala scampering by a row of cars that appear to have been ground to a halt on the Brisbane Valley Highway. Footage of the incident has been viewed more than 2.3 million times and has been shared more than 5,100 times since it was first posted on Saturday. “It was only after a police officer arrived and guided the koala into a tree off the side of the road that traffic resumed,” [according to](https://www.facebook.com/FBNewswire/posts/1053011598070294) Facebook. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/"},"headline":"Watch a Koala Bring Traffic to a Halt While Casually Crossing the Road","datePublished":"2016-03-28T16:34:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:11.505Z","description":"A police officer had to guide it to safety","url":"https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4273736/koala-highway-traffic-australia/","name":"Watch a Koala Bring Traffic to a Halt While Casually Crossing the Road"}}]}] ```