Perched high up in a Eucalyptus tree, swaying from side to side, lies a sleepy koala unaware of the means spent each year trying to obtain accurate baseline information about its presence. We have thrown all we could at it, from wildlife surveys to night spotting, bioacoustics, detection dogs, and drones equipped with thermal cameras. Yet, whilst critical to its conservation and management efforts, finding a koala remains an ambitious, time-consuming, and costly endeavour often producing insufficient results. However, little did we know that traces of koalas’ presence and that of its predators along with other native, domesticated, and invasive species, float in the air and can be detected using metagenomics. This study and despite high levels of co-sampled non-target DNA (e.g. humans and domesticated animals) confirms that koalas, species belonging to the wallaby and possum family and threats such as domestic dogs (a major predator contributing to koala population declines) can successfully be detected by sampling airborne particles. Together, it demonstrates the potential of airborne eDNA for the detection of terrestrial wildlife under natural conditions and presents achievable optimisation steps to increase its field applicability and validity.