Two nine-month-old joeys can be seen wrestling on the ground, jumping on one another, clawing and attempting to climb up a tree together in a minute-long clip shared to the Queensland sanctuary's Facebook page.

Koala expert Dr Bill Ellis said while joeys were often more active than their parents, they don't often play with each other in the same way as those in captivity.

"We don't know too much about what they do in the middle of the night but as a rule it is not as if they hang out together when their mothers are there," he said.

"They stay pretty close to mum all the time, you rarely don't see two young animals together, that is normally something you would see in captivity.

"Seeing them play is pretty unusual."

Dr Ellis said most wild koalas felt more comfortable in the treetops, away from cars, dogs, and other predators.

However there was one population of koalas on St Bees Island off Mackay that don't also don't fear being on the ground.

"We have a study site (on the island) where there are no dogs or cars and we noticed they don't mind (walking on the ground) they will walk from tree to tree, even when you are watching them," he said.

"They have no fear of being on ground, normally they are looking for the first tree to climb up."

Dr Ellis said one of the biggest issues in conservation was trying to protect a species like the koala that were largely arboreal but relied heavily on using the ground to get from tree to tree.

"Even though they spend 90 per cent of their time in tree, it is not that common they use the canopy to move from tree to tree," he said.

"They need to use the ground and that is when they get into the most trouble."