Friends of the Koala Inc. - March 2013 Patron: Margot Sweeny … · 2016-09-28 · ia Day awards. Friends of the Koala is the proud holder of the 2013 Award; the second time we have

Licensed by the Office of Environment and Heritage to rescue, rehabilitate and release koalas—Licence No. MWL000100225. ABN. 69322819171

Fundraising authority CFN 17840 P.O. Box 5034, East Lismore NSW 2480 . Phone 02 6622 1233 . www.friendsofthekoala.org. The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of ‘Friends of the Koala’ Inc.

The Newsletter of Friends of the Koala Inc.

March 2013

Patron: Margot Sweeny (CEO, Summerland Credit Union)

Treetops Cleaning up Oswald’s Mess

E x-Tropical Cyclone Oswald hit the Northern Rivers in late January.

Being from Western Australia, floods are not something I have ever experi-enced and while I sat at home for the third day of torrential down-pouring and wind gusts that put the Fremantle Doc-tor to shame, I still didn’t comprehend what was happening around me. Living in Eureka (between Bangalow and Clunes), I was atop a hill so the col-lection of water wasn’t really evident. It was when I was called out on Monday of the Australia Day Weekend that I began to understand. Care Co-ordinator Pat Barnidge called to tell me a joey had been found in Goonengerry. After speaking to the rescuer (Margarite), we agreed to meet at the Eureka school for the handover. Once I got on the road, I began to realise the extent of the storm. Debris was everywhere. Trees down, branches covering the road, leaf matter inches thick and water… so much water. Puddles, swollen creeks and what seemed like rivers running over the road. The rain was still falling so I drove at a snail’s pace to the school and before long, I had a little passenger with me – a boy, weighing just over a kilo, who is now known as Dexter.

Rick Stewart and Lola Whitney had planned to meet me in Bexhill so Dexter could get to Barb Dobner’s (home carer extraordinaire) as quickly as possible but Lismore was completely cut off. They tried several routes all of which ended in water obstructions. Seeing as Dexter seemed unharmed and there was no way to get him to Barb, it was decid-ed he would have a sleep-over at my place and we’d try again in the morning. With so many branches down around my property, Dexter had his choice of excellent leaf and I assure you, he ate a lot of it!

Tuesday morning came quickly and with a bright sunny sky. My early wake-up call was another rescue in Goonengerry. Lydia and Roland had heard and then captured a joey overnight who seemed fine other than being very wet and miss-ing his Mum. In the light of the day, they found his Mum lying at the bottom of a tree – still alive but barely. Getting to Lydia and Roland was easier said than done. Knowing waterways would be swollen, I tried to calculate a way to get there without endangering myself. First go was via Clunes (Mackie Road) where I came across a car sub-merged to its roof over what was once a bridge. Secondly, I tried Eureka Road and was presented with a river where once there was a little rambling creek. Finally, Federal Drive was my saviour. The relief of getting to Repentance

Creek Road was enormous. Five minutes before I arrived at my des-tination, Pat called again. Another res-cue on Dunoon Road… okay, one at a time. Lydia and Roland faced problems of their own with a huge tree lying over their carport and home, but they made time to bundle up Mum and bub and pick extra leaf for them. Mum did not look good, but the little boy (later named Archie) appeared unharmed. I loaded them in the car and headed out but before I was out of the driveway, Pat called again. Another rescue – this one in Durroughby Road. At least I’m head-ing in the right direction! I should point out that during all of these rescues, I don’t think I exceeded 40km/hr and most of it was closer to 20km/hr. The road was so slippery from all the leaf waste and while the SES had done a great job of cutting up the biggest road obstacles, there were still plenty to be had. In addition, I had never travelled these roads before which resulted in me getting lost a few times. I arrived at Tracey’s home in Dunoon Street at about 1pm to collect my second passenger. Tracey, who is a volunteer at FoK, had picked up Nunu from Coopers Creek Road the night before. The rescuer (Carol) and her husband had witnessed Nunu falling from a tree only to be lodged in the fork of a branch. They watched as Nunu tried to free herself unsuccessfully and decided to intervene. It took both of them to dislodge her and she was limp when they gave her to Tracey. By the

Dexter drying off

—continued on page 5

What’s Inside

Nunu safely in care

» President’s Message ..................................... 2 » Care Coordinator’s Report ............................ 3 » Koala Care Statistics ..................................... 4 » Leaf Harvesting Report ................................ 4 » Care Centre Coordinator’s Report ................ 5 » Working with Farmers and other Landholders who really care for Koalas, Part 2 ............... 6 » Koala Connections – Securing Koala Habitat in Tweed and Byron Shires........................... 6 » Koala Count .................................................. 7 » Diego’s Long Journey .................................. 8 » Diego and Kurt's Move to Soft Release .... 8-9 » Advocacy and Policy Reform Report ......... 10 » Reflections on the Koala Ecology Workshop ..................... 11 » Towards Integrated Koala Management .... 12 » Dates for your Diary ................................... 13 » Bulletin Board ............................................ 14 » Member Profile – Paul O’Donnell .............. 14 » Application/Renewal Form ......................... 15 » Contact Details ........................................... 15

Page 2 Friends of the Koala 1989 - 2013 - 24 years of licensed koala rehabilitation

Treetops … the Newsletter of Friends of the Koala Inc. March 2013

President’s Message

P utting aside the consequences of extreme weather and the E-zones

review debacle, koala conservation and Friends of the Koala have got off to a flying start in 2013. First was long-time supporter Christine Scott’s successful nomination of us in the Sustain-able Environment category of Lismore City Council’s Austral-ia Day awards. Friends of the Koala is the proud holder of the 2013 Award; the second time we have won it. Following quickly on its heels was the announcement that Lis-more’s Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management for South-East Lismore had at last been approved by the NSW Department of Planning & Infrastruc-ture. A long and highly politicized strug-gle, that approval gave cause for real celebration. Next there was a very generous donation made by a local supporter who had tak-en a tour of the Care Centre and then quietly returned to Co-ordinator Lola to say that she was very impressed with what she had seen and heard. Such do-nations are few and far between and when they do occur they really knock my socks off, bringing home as they do the very deep appreciation that many in the community have of our work. Then there was the well-attended Koala Ecology Workshop presented by Ross Goldingay and Steve Phillips; a great day in itself for the region’s koala junk-ies and which facilitated a couple of valuable offers of assistance to us: the first in creating curriculum-related fact sheets and activities for senior science students and the second in developing a process for mapping our records. Our QR Code is up and running. It’s now featured on some of our stationery and even Treetops. The brochure on the Koala Care Centre which will be paid for as our prize for winning the Nature Conservation Council’s 2012 Member Group Award is well ad-vanced. Thankyou to the lovely people at ecoDesign ecoPrint of Wolli Creek. A couple of exciting project in which FOK is involved or has a strong interest: the National Park’s Associa-tion’s NSW-wide Great Koala Count

2013 (see p.7) and the com-missioning of Dave Scotts to prepare a novel, cross-tenure methodology for mapping the koala populations of the Upper Mid-North Coast (see pp 12,13) were also pro-gressing.

The recent news that the Environmental Defender’s Office and more particular-ly its Northern Riv-ers office is finan-cially secure is also a great relief. The Committee’s Strategic Plan-ning Workshop planned for mid-April is coming along nicely. Dr

Lynn Webber A/ Manager of Reserve Establishment and Land Information (OEH) has offered to facilitate for us and Kate Smilie, Manager Revolving Funds for the Conservation Trust of NSW will be stirring the collective grey-matter of participants (hopefully stake-holders as well as members) by address-ing us on some of the strategically sig-nificant issues in koala conservation. Organisationally planning is not a partic-ular strength in Friends of the Koala. In my time as President we have held only two planning days – the Futures Plan-ning Workshop in early 2006 and the Care Centre Redevelopment Design Workshop held in mid-2008. That’s not to say that planning doesn’t occur. Every grant application I write requires some vision of the funding peri-od’s activities and the outcomes we ex-pect to be achieved. But that‘s not what strategic planning is about. The group has changed quite a lot in the past five years and so has our op-erating environment. It’s time to step up,

above the day-to-day stuff and to focus on the horizon (and beyond) – to consider our mission and how we can best achieve it. What are the essential synergies and partners? How do we attract and retain active and competent members, man-age succession, build our organisational capacity? What do we want to be remembered for? It’s always a pleasure to welcome other koala cam-paigners to the Care Centre. In January Jenny Hayes, founder of Tweed’s Team

Koala and a few members visited and at

Lorraine Vass

the end of February, Josie Sharrad, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Oceania’s Native Wildlife Campaigner dropped in. Josie has been in this new position for a matter of months. It is an outcome of re-structuring in the Ocean-ia Office and we are very pleased to see it. Although IFAW has a long history of providing small grants to wildlife carers (including seed funding to assist the formation of the NSW

Wildlife Council and sponsorship of various national wildlife rehabilitation conferences), it now wants to take a more active role in native wildlife pro-tection policy reform and to work with carer groups on the ground. All good news! Finally a word about Sam Kendal. While we are delighted for Sam that she has won a great job as a Ranger Co-ordinator with the Central Lands Council working out of Alice Springs, I’m sorry to lose her from the Committee. Sam has done some great work in FOK over the past four or five years. We all wish you the best of luck Sam. Sam’s resignation from the Management Committee has created a casual vacancy. Under our Constitution we are allowed up to 13 Committee members. At the AGM held in November only 11 were elected. The Committee meets every two months. Now would be a wonderful op-portunity for anyone curious about Com-mittee membership to come forward for the remainder of this term.

—Lorraine Vass

Friends of the Koala, Inc Management Committee

Expressions of Interest to fill three (3) positions of General Member for the duration of the 2012–13Term will be received by the Secretary until Friday 26 April.

Enquiries to Lorraine: [email protected]

phone 6629 8388

Josie Sharrad, Native Wildlife Campaigner, IFAW

Pepe Clark, CEO, Nature Con-servation Council of NSW, presenting our Award Certifi-cate

Friends of the Koala 1989 - 2013 - 24years of licensed koala rehabilitation Page 3


Care Coordinator's Report Two other females had back-young and along with three other joeys found on the ground these five were taken into home care for warmth, food and assessment while our wonderful vet Ray Austin dealt with the adults. It was such a sad

sight to see these animals so wet and waterlogged. Some were very near death. It must be said however that every one of these animals presented with underlying disease and the bad weather was too much for them to overcome. The young ones were all found to have pneumonia and sadly one little girl died due to chest infection. It was a very stress-

ful time for those involved and just get-ting these animals into Lismore was a difficult exercise (See lead story)

Other tagged koalas that returned to care for this reporting period included a fe-male named Japara who had been at-tacked by a dog. Japara also had a pouch young and was at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital under the care of vet Michael Pyne. We were hopeful that Japara would come through her ordeal as she had been progressing so well. Again we were disappointed. Her pouch young was found deceased and not long after Japara herself took a sudden turn for the worse and suffered renal failure. Our only consolation was that she had had a productive life since her soft-release in 2007. She was seen with two back young during this time. Amelia was another soft-released joey from 2010 who was found on the ground and was diagnosed with bi-lat cysts and euthanased. Ernst also came in after being released in 2007. He was suffering from a severe ear infection which could not be treated. An un-named female was

I t’s March and all is quiet on the koala front. The wet weather still covering

the Region has meant few calls being received on the Hotline. One tagged koala was reported dead in East Lismore Ceme-tery. It turned out to be a boy called Dahlward who had only been released in November last year. He had been found on the ground in a backyard. His vet check identified he was slightly anaemic. We put him on a course of vitamin supplements for 10 days and released him. This time he was lying in a ditch full of water. It looked as if he had fallen from a tree but his emaciated condition indicated that perhaps he had underlying disease. At Whian Whian in Lismore’s north-east, a back-young had fallen from a tree and attempts made to put her back in the tree with her Mum. When she fell a second time she was brought into care. Initial assessment revealed this unfortu-nate back-young had two fractures in her arm. She was very weak and in poor condition. Weighing only 1kg she was taken to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where sadly she died whilst under an-aesthetic.

The effects on our koalas of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald at the end of January stretched our resources to the limit, with 17 koalas coming in over a 7 day period. The majority of these cases had fallen from trees due to the heavy rain and high winds.

The only adult to survive was a female with pouch young who had fallen from a tree and become wedged in another branch. It took some time for the rescu-ers to dislodge her. The good news is she was released a few days ago back in her home range. Sadly her little pouch-young had been found in her enclosure deceased a few days after coming in.

Pat Barnidge

reported deceased and her tag revealed that she had been released back in 2003 so she was 12 or 13, which is a good age for koalas in this region. McLeod had come into care in March 2011 with conjunctivitis. He was from St Helena in Byron Shire and at the end of his treatment was released back there. On New Year’s Eve he was found wan-dering backwards and forwards across the Pacific Highway near the speed camera, skinny, dehydrated and totally disoriented. We believe that stress brought about by the disturbance to his habitat by the Pa-cific Highway roadworks may have brought on a relapse of the chlamydia; this time manifesting as cystitis. McLeod went up to the Australian Wild-life Hospital but had to be euthanased: “...he was constantly crying on urination and his bladder had reached a point of no return due to scarring and thicken-ing". McLeod’s sad end may or may not have been an indirect casualty of the road-works but there have been other mortali-ties directly attributable to the works at Bangalow and we are fearful of more as the work on the Ewingsdale interchange cranks up. To date our negotiations with Roads and Maritime Services and their contractors have not been particularly fruitful. Some good news came our way about a girl that was in care in 2011 with a pouch-young. She was again sighted recently and it was found she had anoth-er pouch-young. It was music to our ears. At present we have two joeys who are ready for release but due to the bad weather their carer is waiting for some fine weather to at least give them a good start. Another two joeys will be going to soft release sites soon but again we are holding off for some finer weather.

I can also share with you that I have another little bub in my flat (my second) - a survivor of the storms. I’m hopeful she will move on to the next stage of her care very soon, which will make my cat very happy.

A huge vote of thanks to all of the FOK members who did their bit in the rescue and care of our storm patients. Let’s hope for some sunny days soon so that our furry friends dry out and relax again. Footnote: Since my last report Cheddar and Thomas were let out of their soft release in the New Year. They have been sighted looking fit and well.

—Pat Barnidge

Bedraggled koalas were seen over much of the Region

Nunu released but she lost her pouch-young



Koala Care Statistics 11 November 2012 – 10 March 2013 Friends of the Koala attended to or provided advice on a total of 206 koalas

In Care

Released Died Dead on Arrival

Euth. Trans. Unable to capture

Advice

Injured (5) 1 3 1 HBC– Road strike (13) 3 1 4 4 1 Dog attack (7) 2 1 4 Diseased/Sick (78) 6 7 6 1 40 1 7 10 Health status un- known /unrecorded (24)

6 3 15

Healthy/Assumed Healthy (63)

63

Orphans/joeys (13) 5 1 4 3 Permanent Care (3) 3 Totals (206) 17

9 16 12 52 1 11 88

NativePlantPropagation&

Re-vegetationWorkshop

FridayApril12

9am–2.30pm

EnviTEEnvironmentNursery AtrearoftheCrematorium,

offSkylineRoad,Goonellabah

For details and to register contact

[email protected] or 0266219588

Numbers are limited. Bookings essential.

Koala Habitat Restoration Workshops

Want to learn how to restore koala habitat through planting and bush regeneration?

Connor Rd, Tregeagle is 7km along Rous Rd from Ballina Rd on the right.

For details of each workshop and to register contact Maree Thompson on 66219588 or [email protected] Numbers are limited.

Bookings essential. Tools, equipment and morning tea will be provided.

Location Date & Time Topic

374 Connor Road, Tregeagle 2480

Wednesday April 17

9.30am - noon

Bush regeneration demonstration of weed control techniques with professional bush regenerators and oppor-tunity for hands on experience.

246 Connor Road, Tregeagle 2480

Wednesday May 1,

9.30am - noon

Planting koala food trees see koala food tree planting. Learn about site preparation. Plant and guard trees with ad-vice from Friends of the Koala.

T imes are tough for the trees. Two flood events and wind gusts of up to

100 kms per hour have left an interesting legacy for leaf collectors. Please read below, my own account of a leafing morning towards the end of February. Fellow leafer, Nathan and I noted the lovely new growth on the Swamp Ma-hogany trees at Wyrallah Rd Primary School. We received a phone call from Paul (another keen leafer). Paul said that a large Tallowwood had fallen near the Goonellabah Sports Club. Tallowwoods are a Primary Food tree for koalas. Just as Nathan and I were preparing to leave Wyrallah Rd School to follow up on Paul’s information, a passer-by, walking his two fluffy little dogs, mentioned that he’d just seen a damaged tree “with big leaves” which he thought we might like to have a look at. We thanked him and went to have a look at the spot he had described.

Nathan and I stopped at the tree located in Wade Park, East Lismore. Sure enough a Swamp Mahogany had snapped in two, right through the middle of the main trunk (see picture). Most of the leaf was easily accessible. An enormous amount of fresh leaf was collected from the mor-tally wounded tree. On to Goonellabah – the fallen Tallow-wood was equally generous in its load of fresh leaf made available courtesy of the storm conditions. A small amount of Forest Red leaf was found at nearby Richmond Hill and with the van full to overflowing, we returned to the Koala Care Centre to place our bounty in the leaf bins. More than enough leaf had been collected to feed seven koa-las for the weekend. On another note, the Leaf Roster is work-ing well. Every day is filled except Sun-day. Unfortunately Melanie Duncan, our Sunday leafer, has had to call it a day.

Leaf Harvesting Report

Melanie has been a “leafie” for a num-ber of years. She and her husband, Mi-chael, often went out leafing together. Melanie was a carer at the Centre for an even longer period. If there is anyone in our membership who is interested in Sunday leafing, I can guarantee a wonderful experience awaits you. Stepping out in the early part of the day with the cool air, the birds, and an occasional koala sighting as a morale booster….there’s nothing like it.

—Dot Moller

Damaged Swamp Mahogany



Care Centre Co-ordinator’s Report to the koalas. It’s bad enough for koalas in the wild but when food is being brought to them we must be on the look-out for changes in a koala’s receptive-ness to the leaf it is offered. Koalas in

care are already vulnerable and we must be extra vigilant. The weather hasn’t kept the tourists away, nor has it inter-fered with the beginning of the academic year. I suppose even the soggy sub-tropics beats a European winter. The campus is buzzing again and we’ve got a goodly number of student volunteers from the United States, Canada and Japan. We look forward to

their continuing assistance through the year.

The Ecology Workshop held in mid-February attracted a strong audience from across the Region. Although I was unable to attend, many people have commented how satisfying it was to hear Ross Goldingay’s presentation on the urban tracking study. Care Centre volunteers had a particular interest be-cause most of the tracked animals had been our patients and we provided many of the trackers. The Basic Training Day held recently was a bit later this year. We had 35 par-ticipants, which is a bit lower than usual but again we saw some new faces from across the region, particularly Tweed and Byron. Although we hadn’t know-ingly factored in the extreme weather, it was probably helpful that people had a bit of a chance to get over that in order to turn their thoughts to things beyond cleaning-up chores. On the other hand it was a beautiful day so perhaps people did not feel like being indoors. Next month we will be holding treatment training at the Care Centre. At present we only have six koalas in care at the Centre and three of them we hold permanently. Some volunteers are wondering whether this should be cause for concern. In fact the statistics for this

time Nunu was in my car, she was up-right and eating, which was a good sign. My last rescue for the day was in Dur-roughby. While clearing some of the fallen trees on his property, Adam had found the koala at the bottom of a tree, covered in flies. She was very sick and not responsive. I was fast running out of room in my car so she sat in the front passenger seat for the long drive back home. Over an hour later, I arrived home in Eureka. I checked the road warnings and decided the safest route to Lismore was via Ballina through Alstonville. I added Dexter to my already full car and off we went. It was 4 pm when I arrived at Keen Street Vets and I was about ready to rattle apart. Pat and Marg Russell met me there and immediately saw my dis-tress. Nothing that a couple of hugs couldn’t fix! We unloaded my precious cargo and Ray saw to us straight away. I don’t think I could ever say enough good things about Ray – he really is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met and is generous with FoK to a fault. He saw all 17 of our patients that week, most of which weren’t happy end-ings I’m afraid. While it can be upsetting and sometimes quite stressful rescuing koalas, the re-ward is so much greater. Nunu made a full recovery and was released late Feb-ruary. Dexter and Archie are in home care and continue to improve in their health and strength. As a rescuer, it doesn’t get much better than that.

—Susannah Keogh PS Archie unfortunately has not pulled through

—from page 1

quarter for animals attended to are re-markably similar to the same period last year, 118 to 122. The number of advice calls is almost the same as well. I think why we get so concerned is that this reporting period follows on from our busiest time of the year - late Winter/Spring (165 animals in 2012). The other difference at this time of the year is in the lower number of advice calls we receive (83 in 2011-2012 and 88 current-ly). This compares with 173 during the 2012 Winter/Spring quarter. The annual number of animals admitted into care has been remarkably consistent for the past 4-5 years at around 300.

—Lola Whitney

L ife at the Care Centre over the past three or four months has been

eventful. The torrential rains have washed the sand and gravel from the enclosures on several occasions. The strong winds which have sometimes accompanied the rain have caused havoc as well. Just after Christmas a Tallowwood came down on my car which was parked in front of the Care Centre. The car took the brunt of the fall, sustaining quite a bit of dam-age. Fortunately the Care Centre escaped almost un-blemished – a mere dent in the guttering. We were blessed that none of us was hurt that afternoon. I had only just driv-en back to the Care Centre and the girls on shift had returned to the building. There was an almighty bang and it took a minute or two for us to work out what had happened. Help was close at hand however and in the end things worked out quite well. I’d like to thank those who came so quickly to cut out the car from under the tree, including the SES for clearing the parking area. SCU con-tractors have trimmed damaged limbs from trees around the Care Centre.

At the time of writing the grass and weeds are growing in leaps and bounds and the mould has well and truly set in. We’ll hold a working bee as soon as the ground dries out a bit. Others have written about the incredible impact that the extreme weather has had on the region’s koalas, especially those that are chronically unhealthy. They manage to hang on under normal cir-cumstances but are easily pushed to the edge when the going gets tough. We imagine that the incidents that have been called in are only the tip of a co-lossal iceberg. We tend to forget that the extraordinary amount of rain has consequences for tree health including leaf. Some trees can’t cope with water-logged root sys-tems. The chemical make-up of their leaves change and become unpalatable

Lola Whitney

Mark Wilson talks Koalas and their habi-tat with SCU students

Lola’s car and the offending Tallowwood



I n the December Treetops I wrote about Scott and Lucy in Riverbank

Road, Lismore. They are one of the land-holders involved in Lismore City Coun-cil’s Restoring Koala Habitat in the Richmond Catchment Project on their working cattle farm of 300 acres. I was going to start by complaining about the fact that grant expenditure deadlines and ideal planting weath-er do not always coin-cide. It has been a long hot slog through Summer planting and tackling weeds with plenty of sweat and cold beers at the end of the day. The traditional planting time is Autumn which is kind-er to plants and planters. However since then we had the cyclone event and a second flood so things have cooled down rapidly. Heat is no longer the problem – it’s whether or not the eucalpyt saplings will surface after a flood to face another day.

The good news is that those trees that were drowned in muddy water have dropped their leaves but are now re-shooting. Another landholder in the project is Chris Newnham of Sandy Point Lane – not far from Scott and Lucy. Chris lives in the old schoolhouse and has 5 acres

on the river. Chris is a fabulous exam-ple of what can be achieved with one of the weediest riverbanks we have ever seen, some team effort and a ride-on ! His bank was cov-ered in coral trees with a serious in-festation of balloon

vine and morning glory. The 100m long weedy edge was at least 20m high and in some areas was up to 100m in width with “a few browns in there”. Once Chris had charged in on the ride-on and

I n 2010 Tweed Shire Council was awarded a $100k NSW Environment

grant to implement a three year project, Koala Connections. Through this pro-ject, thus far, Council has facilitated seven workshops, undertaken restoration on private land and planted about 3,000 koala food trees in the Tweed Coast region.

In June 2012 Tweed and Byron Shire Councils were awarded a Bio-diversity Fund grant of $2m from the Federal Department of Sustainability, Environ-ment, Water, Population and Communities’ Clean Energy Future Plan to implement a four year project that will augment the work already done with the Environment Trust Grant and advance the Koala Connections program.

With cash and in-kind contri-butions, this $3.5m program will improve habitat to protect koalas and many other species of endangered fauna and flora through tree planting, weed control, community engagement, invasive verte-brate pest management and fire manage-ment and planning. Guided by the Tweed and Byron Coast Koala Habitat Studies by Steve Philips, the project will improve north-south and inland to coastal indicative koala linkages, and

Working with Farmers and other Landholder who really care for Koalas, Part 2

cleared around the coral trees it took a combination of drilling, spraying and loppering to tame the beast, ready for planting. At the far end of the property a magnificent fig was freed from the vines and revealed a mini forest of Pepperber-ry, Silky Oak, Whalebone, Blackbean etc growing around it’s huge trunk and buttresses. The planting of 250 Forest Reds and Swamp Mahoganeys will eventually replace the coral trees. Chris used to work for LCC Parks and Gardens and was generous enough to work alongside us and he has the skills to maintain the planting. Not only that but he provided cold beers at the end of the day. Tip of the hat to Chris ! PS The plants at Scott and Lucy’s have grown at an astonishing rate (up to head height after just a few months) and this week another 800 trees are going in ad-jacent to the Wilson’s River making a total on their property of 1200 koala food trees recently planted. Their prop-erty should be crawling with the little critters in a few years.

—Fiona Dawson

Koala Connections – Securing Koala Habitat in Tweed and Byron Shires improve ecosystem resilience and adap-tation to climate change.

In the first year of the project, the Koala Connections work in Byron Shire has focussed on the enhancement of the linkages between the hinterland koala populations around Coorabell, and the coastal populations near Tyagarah. An East-West Corridor has been identified through the Myocum area.

Many landholders from this area have indicated their keenness to be involved in the project. Due to the need to con-nect habitat through many small hold-ings, several neighbours are getting to-gether under the Koala Connections program, to develop a strategy for on-ground works. Action plans will provide

the guidance for each site to regenerate the habitat. The habitat enhancement pro-gram is building on the work of Friends of the Koala in this region over many years.

Through March, April and May several thousand koala food and native habitat trees will be planted as part of this corri-dor enhancement program (if it stops raining). The sites are strategically locat-ed to link existing patches of koala trees in the landscape.

Most of the indicative corridors east of the Pacific Highway identified in the Tweed Coast Habitat Study traverse vast areas of cleared land used for cattle graz-ing where we have, thus far, not been as successful as hoped in engaging land-holders in the program. Over the next few months we will concentrate on the more vegetated properties to the west of the Highway while we consider other ways to encourage farmers to participate.

The overall response to the project has been very positive. As a result of media coverage, more landholders are asking for koala food trees at Tweed’s Council nursery. Reporting koala sightings has increased greatly. Although coastal de-velopment is still a significant issue for the coastal human and koala populations, the high level of koala awareness and interest in the Byron and Tweed Shire communities shows promise for a better future for our Koala.

Planting underway at Sandy Point Lane

Koala Connections Steering Committee, back row (lr): Shane Ivey, Angus Underwood, Chris Roberts, John Turnbull. Middle row (lr): Wendy Gibney, John Nagle, Lorraine Vass, Andrew Goodwin. Front row (lr): Sally Jacka, Jo Green




What is it all about? The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) will be running

the NSW Great Koala Count 2013, building on the success of

one held in South Australia during 2012. We will recruit mem-

bers of the public to act as citizen scientists and collect data on

where Koalas are found so we can determine their distribution

in relation to the many threats they face. What is a citizen scientist? Well there is one very well known citizen scientist - Charles

Darwin. Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle as an unpaid com-

panion to Captain Robert Fitzroy, not as a professional scientist.

Like Darwin our citizen scientists will collect data on what they

observe in the environment. Data will be collected by members

of the public from all over NSW in a rigorous and systematic

way, enabling it to be used by decision-makers. This means that

the data you collect on Koalas will have a real impact on con-

serving both Koalas and its habitat. What are the threats to Koalas in NSW? The threats that we know of include habitat loss, fragmentation

and/or degradation, diseases, domestic dogs and cars. NPA is very concerned about climate change and its potential threat to Koalas. With an increase in temperatures, changes to rain-fall, increase frequency and intensity of droughts and in-creased fire, the Koala is facing a whole new range threats. Important food trees are expected to be displaced with hotter temperatures compound the existing threats of habitat loss and fragmentation that are currently causing declines. Changes in mean annual rainfall will influence foliar water availability and evaporation will increase as the climate be-comes hotter and dries. This means Koala populations are going to become seriously stressed. Stressed Koala popula-tions often result in diseased animals or death. How will counting Koalas help? By finding out where Koalas are present and where they are absent, we will be able to determine how the Koala is using the landscape. Koala will often have resting trees and feed-ing trees that they move between. We need to know what species these trees are and how far Koalas have to travel to locate them. This will enable us to determine the threats to population around NSW.

When will this all happen? The Count will occur for a period of one week during Novem-ber 2013. At this time of year Koalas move lower down in the trees so are easier to detect then at other times. As it is also breeding season, joeys are present so we will be able to record information on the number of young. How will the data be collected? A smart phone app will be available for our citizen scientist to

download in order to record the GPS location of the Koala and for

easy input of data. People who don’t have smart phones can enter

their recording s onto NPA Koala research portal. How will the data be used? The data collected by our citizen scientists will inform the government on that state of Koalas across NSW. As the public have collected this data and have surveyed for threats that Ko-ala’s are facing, it is hoped this will push the government to take action for the sake of this iconic species. Will this data help other wildlife? Yes very much so. Results from data collected will provide multi-species benefits via integration with other measures to conserve biological diversity and to maintain ecological sys-tems and processes. Are there opportunities to sponsor the

2013 Koala Count? The Koala is one of Australia’s most well known native ani-mals and this high profile will ensure that thousands of people will participate in the 2013 Koala count right across NSW. The Koala Count is a unique opportunity for any organisation wish-ing sponsor the event.

For more information on how your organisation can work with NPA on this project please contact Dr Gráinne Cleary on 02 9299 0000 or e-mail [email protected]. Want to know more about the 2013 Koala Count? For further details on the 2013 Koala Count please contact

Dr Gráinne Cleary

phone: 02 9299 0000

e-mail: grainnec@npansw. org.au.

Great Koala Count 2013



lease can be properly assessed. Very young orphans of course have no experi-ence of the wild at all. An occasion to celebrate, Care Co-ordinator Pat Barnidge, Care Centre Carer Susannah, Home Carers Deidre and Michelle, and Soft Release Supervi-sor Joy, spent a recent sunny Sunday afternoon at Joy’s beautiful property at

There’s no doubt in the world that pre-paring their charges for release back into the wild is a magic time for wildlife-carers. Soft release is that crucial stage for koa-las that have spent many months in care where they are released into an enclosed tree/s, still attended to by a knowledgea-ble carer so their readiness for full re-

Diego and Kurt's Move to Soft Release (with a special appearance from Inez)

D iego has seen quite a few ‘friends’ come and go during his time with

us. There was Baby Jaguar, Judah, Inez, Miss Piggy, Pixie, Tinker, Bickie, Pipi, Baby Belle, Rudy and Mintie. These orphaned koalas were all being raised during the year and a half that Diego called the basket, patio enclosure and outdoor enclosure home. His story started at the end of July in 2011 when he was left orphaned follow-ing his mother’s euthanasia due to an untreatable injury, possibly from a fall. He was 280 gms, all ears and only

furred on his head and shoul-ders. Until he grew a thick coat of fur he was odd-looking with wrinkly skin resembling a sharpei dog (pic). He soon got a basket

companion, Baby Jaguar, who was fully furred and getting fluffy already at around the same weight.

Diego eventually grew a full coat of dark woolly fur and was quite striking in contrast to some of his light-grey furred companions (pic) He was a well behaved joey, drinking all his bottles and gaining weight every week. He progressed from his basket with a bit of encouragement (i.e. he was evicted!) to tree forks in an enclo-sure under a patio. Diego frequently found a soft pillow to sleep on, named Judah (pic).

He never really had a large appetite, preferring to snack for 10 minutes at a time on the best bits of leaf while his companions devoured his leftovers. This might have been his undoing, as a prolonged period of rain in July 2012 while in the outdoor enclosure, meant that he didn’t have enough reserves to let him cope with a reduced food intake in the cold weather and he lost nearly 300g in three days and stopped eating. So at close to 3kg when he should have been getting ready for release, and al-most exactly one year after coming in to care, he was back to where it all began, at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in intensive care. It took three weeks of intensive treatment, including drug ther-apies, papping, supplemental paste feed-ing and handfeeding of leaf, until Diego regained his appetite and could be dis-charged back into our care. The wonder-ful staff at the AZWH took great care of him, and he quickly won them over with his unique look and sweet nature.

This temporary setback meant that he was now very humanised again and al-most 1kg less than his companions. Inez, who was due to get released with Diego, couldn’t wait any longer, and went to pre-release and back into the wild in Au-gust 2012. Pic: Diego at the AZWH on the road to recovery, one leaf at a time. Diego munched his way through the living trees in the out-

door enclosure, steadily putting on weight while slowly getting weaned off the supplemental milk paste formula that koalas find so addictive. By the beginning of December Diego had reached 4kg and was paste free. . . well al-most.

By January 2013 he was ready to return to the AZWH under better circumstanc-es – placed in the plantation where he continued to practice his defoliation techniques on the living trees while

becoming less humanised. Pic: Yes, addic-tive! Release day finally arrived! The rainy days had cleared to a beautiful day of blue skies in March. Word had got around because Inez,

still living on the property, was within 20m of the soft-release enclosure on this day. On closer inspection, Inez had brought an-other koala to witness the long-awaited day, but this little one was still too young to stick its head out of her pouch – she was carrying a 2-3 month old baby! How rewarding to see Inez with a young, and Diego slowly scampering up the living tree and settling down to munch on some tasty blue gum! Many people have contributed to the successful rehabilitation of Diego, from the FOK rescuers, family, friends and other carers that helped with baby koala-sitting duties, staff at the Australian Wildlife Hospital and finally the proper-ty owners at the soft release site. That little scrawny thing that came into care so long ago has finally made it!

—Deidré and Michele de Villiers

Diego’s Long Journey

Diego [soft] released

the western end of the Tweed Valley engaged in this magical undertaking for Diego and Kurt. Some of Diego’s story has been told already. Back-young Kurt joined Diego late in 2012. after he had been hit by a car. Inez had been a back-young mysterious-



Diego says goodbye to his long time carers Michelle & Deidre who raised him from when he was a hairless joey.

Kisses for Deidre...

Kurt can't wait to get up the tree... lem-me out lemme out!

He's only small (just over 3kg) but he scampered up the frame quick smart (just look at that tummy).

Kurt stops to see what's taking Diego so long...

Diego has a tight grip on his Mum, not really sure about this tree with a frame around it...

After some encouragement, he slowly started making his way up the frame.

Meanwhile, Kurt is half way up the tree...

Diego took his time...

..and stopped when he was about halfway up the tree. After telling his carers 'Good-bye' (it sounded more like "squeak... squeak") he moved a bit further into the tree and began eating his little heart out. Al-ways a good sign. Good luck little man - you are a miracle on legs and we wish you a happy and full life darling!

Meanwhile, Kurt has finished his ascent and starts eating while being blown around, 20 metres in the air! He's very confi-dent, jumping from branch to branch and I hope that confidence serves him well. Best of luck to you Kurt!

Hang about - who's this? It's Diego's sister Inez (also raised by Deidre & Michelle)! She has come back to the area she was released just in time to welcome her brother! Can you see how her tummy is a funny shape? That's because she's carrying a joey in her pouch! She's healthy and has a baby - doesn't get much better than that!

Inez has a little stretch and we can see her full pouch! So won-derful!

ly handed in to a vet in February 2012. She had also been home-cared by Deir-dre and Michelle. Susannah clicks and writes: What a wonderful afternoon! Yummy coffee and cakes followed by meeting Deidre and Michelle; then moving the

boys out to soft release. Kurt was keen to climb, Diego wanted to cuddle Mum a little bit longer and once on the tree frame, slowly followed Kurt’s path squeaking all the way. Inez was very close by and gave us all a wonderful surprise by showing us her

occupied pouch. She was only soft re-leased in August so the boys didn’t take long! It was a fabulous moment for us all! Thanks again Joy for the lovely after-noon tea and for the fabulous job you do looking after these little creatures.

—Susannah Keogh



T he positive headline in this quarter’s report is incontestably approval,

back in January, of Lismore’s Compre-hensive Koala Plan of Management for South-east Lismore; a great achievement in the present political climate - on now with implementation. The good news is that Council is plan-ning to establish the Koala Advisory Group in readiness for the new financial year. Engagement of a NRM Partner-ships Officer is underway, and a budget of $30,000 allocated for initial imple-mentation in 2013/14. On top of this are external grants such as the existing $50,000 NOROC has to spend on the wild dog control project and others un-der active negotiation; not to mention application for $2-$4 million of grant funding under the Federal Biodiversity Fund (with EnviTE) in a project that includes koala habitat restoration as a major component.

The Tweed, Byron and Ballina CKPoMs are chugging along at varying stages so it’s encouraging to read in the agenda for Richmond Valley Council’s March meeting that the Office of Environment & Heritage has offered Council a grant of $40,000 from its Iconic Species Fund for preparation of a CKPoM. Let’s hope the Council accepts!

The negative headline is Tweed Coun-cil’s draft LEP 2012, which amongst other things does away with Council’s ability to appropriately protect and re-cover the koala populations on the Tweed Coast in accordance with Coun-cil’s previous resolutions on the matter. Effective protection of koala habitat and

koala food trees (via tree preservation provisions) will be reduced across the Tweed Coast Koala Study Area from 19725ha to approximately 9435ha most of which is built up urban areas not gen-erally frequented by koalas. Approximately 1244 ha of lands previ-ously identified for environmental zon-ing under Draft LEP 2010 within the Koala Study Area has been assigned to other zones in Draft LEP 2012. Most of this land has reverted to rural and non-urban zonings where koala habitat will not be able to be adequately protected. The State government’s E-zone review road-show rolled out across the region, offering “drop-in” information sessions and the opportunity to submit written submissions. We participated in both, hammering the point that SEPP 44, un-der which CKPoMs are prepared, ex-pects that vegetation used by koalas will be included in an E-zone in the local environment plans of those councils where koalas are known to exist. As we all know, SEPP 44 is only triggered when a DA is lodged so E-zones give stronger protection. Just how much notice will be taken of us will become clearer when the inde-pendent reviewers, Parsons Brincker-hoff Australia Pty Ltd present their in-terim report for comment in a month or two. Since December we have lodged a sub-mission regarding a DA for the con-struction of tennis courts and lighting at Pottsville (Tweed). We’ve also written to the ANZ objecting to their invest-ment in Whitehaven Coal, responded to

Advocacy and Policy Reform Report

Help Friends of the Koala scope its future

The Management Committee invites all members and stakeholders to participate in a

STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP

to be facilitated by Dr Lynn Webber

A/Manager, Reserve Establishment and Land Information, NPWS

Saturday 20 April 2013 9.00am – 3.30pm Southern Cross University, Lismore Campus Watch out for your emailed invitation to participate. To register please contact Lorraine: [email protected] Phone 6629 8388

NSW Planning (copied to the Feds) on the Kings Forest Preferred Project Re-port (Stage 1), supported the environ-mental protection zonings/wildlife corri-dors/riparian buffer overlays in the Draft Byron LEP 2012, copied our objections to Draft Tweed LEP 2012 to sundry pollies, objected to the Highway Up-grade Woolgoolga to Ballina EIS (copied to the Feds), responded to the Draft Lismore Strategic Road Review, sought assurance that Lismore CC’s 2013-14 Delivery Plan will provide for implementation of the CKPoM, and supported retention of the E-zones on the Far North Coast. Negotiations with Roads and Maritime Services and their contractors Baulder-stone regarding koala mortalities during recent Pacific Highway upgrade road-works in Byron Shire were less than satisfactory. We won’t give up on that one. A few Committee members have met with Lismore Council on several issues including implementation of recommen-dations concerning FOK from the 2009 Independent Best Practice Planning Re-view. In early February I attended an excellent Council Workshop on the forthcoming Biodiversity Management Strategy. We’re very pleased that Coun-cil has confirmed the appointment of FOK’s Donna Graham to the Stakehold-er Reference Group which will hold its first meeting on 10 April 2013. . We continue to actively support the Bet-ter Planning Network’s NSW Planning Review campaign.

—Lorraine Vass



Reflections on the Koala Ecology Workshop

A large group of koala enthusiasts packed into the Southern Cross Uni-

versity lecture room to hear research sci-entists Steve Phillips and Ross Goldingay, talk about, guess what, koalas!

It was a great day with opportunity for questions and discussion throughout. The style of the two presenters, teacher Ross and consultant Steve nicely complemented each other. Not having been involved in the urban tracking project undertaken by Friends of the Koala, my comments focus on Steve’s presentations.

Steve is principal of Biolink Ecological Consultants. He is involved in a number of koala studies for councils across the Northern Rivers. Over recent years there has been a resurgence of interest by local government in koala conservation.

Pushed by community expectations and encouraged by financial assistance from the State Government the North Coast now appears to lead the way in developing comprehensive koala plans of manage-ment under State Environment Planning Policy 44 (Koala Habitat Protection). The Plans under development (Lismore’s has recently been approved) cover private land. They are attempting to recover some populations and to keep others stable and thriving.

From his work and calling on the studies of others Steve has confirmed some points about koala habitat and social behaviour, and also unearthed some interesting facts about koala genes. For instance we now know that some koala populations in our region have more robust genomes than others, which may help them recover bet-ter and faster from impact and stress than other populations in similar circumstanc-es.

To date on the Northern Rivers three gene groupings have been categorised: a north-ern, more genetically robust group, a southern less robust group and a coastal genetically impoverished group. The northern and southern groupings may well have resulted from the presence, until Eu-

ropean settlement, of the Big Scrub. The coastal group, east of the Pacific High-way in the Tyagarah area may be a more recent phenomenon brought about by the barrier now presented by the increasingly “upgraded” Highway.

Steve bases his research around the con-sideration of an average six year genera-tional breeding lifetime for a koala, with a preference for all decisions relating to long-term koala management to cover at least 18 years - or three koala generations - to get a clearer picture of what is going on with them. By this we now know that the prognosis for the Tweed Coast koala population, with an estimated 144 re-maining individuals, is ranked very poor. With a 50% reduction in numbers over the last three generations, the expectation

now is that koalas could possibly be gone from the Tweed Coast within the next three to five koala generations if nothing is done to re-verse the decline.

One major impact on this dwindling population is shown to be road traffic. However two devastat-ing fires were responsi-ble for taking out a good 50% of the population, which triggered the downward slide. This means now that all inci-

dental deaths from cars and dog attacks are no longer sustainable. A loss of just 3% - 4% of the remaining population each year from now on will likely see a localised extinction event.

However, all negatives are positive in the field of science and already a nomina-tion is with the NSW Scientific Commit-tee to have the Tweed Coast population listed as critically endangered. Also gov-

ernment agencies are not oblivious to the problem. Discussions following the dev-astating fires have led to some common ground agreements, and a Fire and Biodi-

versity Conservation Consortium is in place with a priority research task to find how better to manage fire in terms of koala protection. Meanwhile all CKPoMs now recommend that area bushfire risk management plans identify koala habitat as an asset to be protected. Preventative fire management regimes are being modified to encourage koala population improvement.

Another area of increasing concern is the long-term impact of legal forestry operations on koala habitat. This can now be clearly demonstrated in the Port Macquarie-Hastings, Coffs Harbour and Kempsey local government areas.

The main problem, Steve underlines, is our lack of ability to grapple with the problem of threatened species. Our laws don’t work where we need them to work, and there is no will to enforce rules to benefit animals that most people never get to see. This leaves the health and future of koalas still reliant on edu-cation, community good-will, conserva-tion work of all types carried out pro bono and the high unlikelihood of every development application considering all negative impacts on koalas. Steve sug-gests, one thing all concerned wildlife care groups can be doing is lobby for improved road construction standards that better deal with the needs of all na-tive animals.

Koalas do not appreciate the blues In the wind-up session after lunch Ste-ve's focus moved to music festivals, which are now springing up, particularly in Byron Shire. From his 2010 work on the BluesFest site it is known now that while koalas are not unduly disturbed by the noise of people, traffic and site-preparation, music makes them agitated and move away, even outside their tradi-tional ranges. All radio-tracked koalas displayed this same negative dispersive

behaviour in reaction to the music, and while those beyond 600-700 meters were not so obviously dis-turbed by it, one fe-male with a range next to the site stayed outside her range for the full duration of the festival, then moved back virtually as the last note faded. This knowledge of how koalas respond

to noise is something councils and festi-val organisers need to pay attention to. Already this is happening with the con-sent conditions for

Steve Phillips (l) and Ross Goldingay (r)

Northern Rivers Koala Junkies listen attentively to Dr Goldingay




I n mid-March I attended the launch of the report: “Conserving Koala

Populations of the NSW Upper Mid-North Coast: Preliminary Mapping of Populations as a Basis for Further Sur-veys, Research and Planning” prepared by Fauna Ecologist David Scotts, prin-cipal of Wildlife Matters. The report was presented to the Mayors of Coffs Harbour and Bellingen. Susie Russell, President of the North Coast Environment Council, Inc., one of the commissioning partners, facilitated the launch. Friends of the Koala has a very strong interest in this report as part of the study area, the Richmond Valley local government area lies within our li-censed purview. We believe Dave’s novel, tenure-blind approach comple-ments the comprehensive koala plans of management being developed under State Environmental Planning Policy 44-Koala Habitat Protection. Susie’s address follows.

—Lorraine Vass

Welcome to you all and especially Den-ise Knight the Mayor of Coffs Harbour and Mark Troy the Mayor of Bellingen Shire.

I would like to acknowledge the tradi-tional owners of the country where we meet today, the Gumbaynggirr and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. As each year passes I grow increasingly aware of the wisdom held by Australia's earliest inhabitants and the way they understood the land and respected earth's creations and the role of each small part in maintaining the whole. We have much to learn from that perspective.

Today we are here to launch the report prepared by David Scotts “Conserving Koala Populations of the NSW Upper Mid-North Coast.” We no doubt all agree on the need to conserve koala populations, but where are they and how do we do this? These are the ques-tions that lead the Bellingen and Clar-

ence Environment Centres, the Nam-bucca Valley Conservation Association, the NSW National Parks Association (NPA) and the North Coast Environ-ment Council to commission the work that you have in front of you today.

We asked David Scotts to do this work because of his experience in interpreting landscape and habitat. His 2003 work “Key Habitats and Corridors for Forest Fauna”, identifying the regional and sub-regional wildlife corridors that provide links for fauna particularly, from the mountains to the sea, was ground-breaking and is a widely consulted refer-ence. He has a thorough understanding of the data available and is able to value-add to it to help us understand the man-agement imperatives we need to under-take if as a society we are to maintain and enhance the environment and biodi-versity that sustains us as human beings.

The Scotts report is the first to look at Koala conservation across all land ten-ures on the North Coast and to look at it from a population basis. He has identi-fied Koala meta- populations, regional populations and finally sub-populations

and identified the barriers to koala movement and dis-persal between those population classes. These terms are defined and ex-plained in the re-port.

At each population scale he has estimat-ed population num-bers from current

survey data and local expert knowledge and I take this opportunity to thank all the local koala knowledge people who contributed their knowledge freely to the project.

Dave also identified and described the habitat, the tenure, the threats and the conservation challenges and opportuni-ties for each of the 24 koala sub-populations identified in the report . This information, now available for the first time is invaluable for the planning of Koala conservation efforts.

This community based study started off covering Bellingen, Coffs Harbour and the Clarence Local Government Areas. It quickly extended to include from the Macleay to the Richmond Rivers and now I understand the NSW National Parks Association has obtained funding to extend the study throughout the entire North East of NSW.

The study has promoted a strong interest amongst local community groups to

initiate applications for Koala conserva-tion projects to the Federal Govern-ment’s Biodiversity Fund which is poised to allocate some $760 million. These include:

• The Nambucca Valley Conservation Alliance and Nambucca Council

• The Bellingen Environment Centre and partners

• The Coffs Harbour /Bellingen Nation-al Parks Association and partners

• Lismore Council and partners (2 pro-jects), and

• Ballina Shire Council and partners The Scotts report and the recent study “The Eucalypt Forests of Northeast New South Wales” by Boudicca Cerese and also commissioned by the NPA has led local community conservationists to the realisation that the Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Dorrigo area is the global centre of diversity for tall eucalypt for-ests and is also home to a wild popula-tion of Koalas of national and interna-tional significance identified as the Coffs Harbour to Guy Fawkes Koala meta-population.

The Koala is apparently the second most recognised mammal in the world next to the Panda. The Chinese Government has established a world heritage area as part of the protection of wild Panda popula-tions. Why not World Heritage for the forests that are koala habitat and support diverse eucalypt forests like those found in the landscape link between Coffs Har-bour and Guy Fawkes National Park?

With the continued decline in the hard-wood timber industry local conservation communities are developing a conserva-tion campaign to add the best of our most magnificent tall eucalypt forests and our outstanding Koala habitats to the existing rainforest World Heritage List-ing.

Such an outcome would recognise this region's rainforests, eucalypts forests and koala habitat as of outstanding universal value to the World. It could form a sus-tainable platform for carefully planned expansion of ecotourism in this region.

In handing over these reports I ask both Mayors to join the community in Koala community conservation efforts and on the journey to international recognition of our eucalypt forests and koala habitat.

I realise Coffs Harbour City Council has been a leader in preparing a comprehen-sive koala plan of management for pri-vate land in the Shire and for some years waged a brave fight against the Department of Environment and Herit-age for approving 'carte blanch' unre-stricted logging of


Towards Integrated Koala Management

(l-r) Denise Knight, Mayor of Coffs Harbour, Mark Troy, Mayor of Bellingen, Dave Scotts and Susie Russell



Dates for your Diary

Treetops is printed on recycled paper.

Friends of the Koala is being assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust's Lead Environmental Community Grants Pro-gram and the Australian Government through the Grants to Voluntary Environ-ment for Sustainability & Heritage Or-ganisations (GVESHO) Program.

the Splendour in the Grass Festival at its new venue at Yelgun.

Dogs. No problem!? Briefly touching on other findings from his work, Steve took issue with the em-phasis given in the Federal report The Koala - Saving our national icon, namely recommendation 12: The Com-mittee recommends that the Australia Government consider further wild dog control options in priority koala areas.

While dogs (both companion and wild) are seen by koala care groups and oth-ers as a major threat to the Koala, Steve cited results from a review he has been undertaking that found, of 10,721 dog scats examined, only three proved posi-tive for koala hair, and those could have been scavenging events. His point was that the science does not support con-jecture and that there is, therefore a need to make a distinction between the very real and significant impacts of domestic dog attack on koalas, and the prey preferences of Wild Dog/Dingoes.

It was evident though that this pro-nouncement did not impress the gath-ered group of experienced koala carers, who all know full well that dogs do not need to eat koalas to be a problem to koala survival.

One other thing we can now be sure of by Steve's research - where habitat is protected and the koalas are left in peace, they have a great recovery ca-pacity. That should now be our focus.

—Pat Edwards Clarence Valley WIRES,

Koala Co-ordinator

private native forests. The environment movement strongly supported your Council in that campaign.

I also understand Bellingen Shire Coun-cil has recently committed to vegetation and habitat mapping as a precurser to a shire-wide Koala management plan for private land and I congratulate Council for that.

As you well know your shires have ex-tensive areas of Eucalypt plantation and of native forests scheduled for clear-felling or industrial logging practices. It is unlikely your Koalas can survive such a widespread onslaught and changes must occur and occur quickly.

I hope you can both lead your councils to support improved recognition and conservation for our Koalas and their dependent eucalypt forests and use that as a foundation for a soundly based eco-tourism industry that will provide signif-icant local employment while guarantee-ing a future for Australia's most iconic animal.

—from page 12

FarmerCharlies

Lismore

FruitandVegetable Raf�le

Fourteenvolunteersareneededto

sellraf�letickets

Thursday,Friday,Saturday–April11th

12th13st

Twopeopleneededforeachthree-

hourshift.

RegistrationformsattheKoalaCare

Centre

orcontactPatBarnidge–66223690

Yourassistancewillbegratefully

appreciated

11,12,13 April 2013: Friends of the Koala Fruit & Vegetable Raffle, Farmer Charlies, Lismore

12 April 2013: Native Plant Propagation & Re-Vegetation Workshop, 9am – 2.30pm, EnviTE Environment Nursery, Goonellabah

13 April 2013: Treatments Training, time to be advised, Koala Care Centre

14 April 2013: Friends of the Koala Stall, 7amish to 2pm-ish, Lismore Car-boot Market

16 April 2013: Koala Club Lunch, The Deck SCU, Noon

17 April 2013: Koala Habitat Restora-tion Workshop (Bush Regeneration), 9.30am – Noon, 374 Connor Road, Tregeagle, 2480

20 April 2013: Friends of the Koala Strategic Planning Workshop, 8.45am – 3.45pm, SCU Lismore Campus

1 May 2013: Koala Habitat Restoration Workshop (Planting koala food trees), 9.30am – Noon, 246 Connor Road, Tregeagle, 2480

4-5 May 2013: Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s Regional Conference, Bathurst

12 May 2013: Friends of the Koala Stall, 7amish to 2pmish, Lismore Car-boot Market

17-19 May 2013: National Koala Con-ference, Westport Conference Centre, Port Macquarie

28 May 2013: Contributions due for Treetops (June issue)

—from page 11

Other activities planned for the next few months are tree plantings, work-shops on invasive vertebrate pest species and effective weed control and natural regeneration in koala habitat.

On March 10, the Koala Action Plan for Tyagarah Crown Lands was presented to the local community with koala talks and afternoon tea.

For more information about Koala Con-nections activities, contact Jo Green at Byron Shire Council on T: 02 6626 7068 E: [email protected] or Sally Jacka at Tweed Shire Council on T: 02 6670 2561 E: [email protected] Web: http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/YourEnvironment/KoalaManagement.aspx

—from page 6

This report may the downloaded from the North Coast Environ-ment Council’s website: ncec.wordpress.com



New members A very warm welcome to the following new members who have been formally accepted into Friends of the Koala over recent months. Lucy Kinsley of Wyrallah, Renata Phelps & Don Metcalf of Rock Valley, Jamie Rowling of Corndale, Luca Jones of Girards Hill, Ben Garland of Larnook, Julian Southcott, Paul Cre-gan and the Huggins Family of Goonel-labah, Heather Hurst of Casino, Julie Sulpice of Byron Bay, Allen Pearson of East Lismore, John Curnow, Morgan Archer and Carolyn Willems of Lis-more, Gillian Abbott of Ashby Heights, Daniel Shead of Mc Kees Hill, Warren Lewis of Whian Whian, Luca Frattini of Bangalow, Anais Hatch of Deepwater, Caroline Sutherland of Myocum, Luke Lovatt & Denya Cock-ram of Mullumbimby, and Michaela Morello and Meranda Termaat of Lis-more Heights. Jenny & Dave Carey of McLeans Ridges and Michael Brown of Ocean Shores rejoined. Rope bridges for koala? Some of you may have noticed the varie-ty of rope bridges strung up at the north-ern end of SCU’s Lismore campus. They are the work of a master rope weaver keen to assist in ameliorating the huge mortality of wildlife on our highways. The first lot of images from the monitor-ing was downloaded recently. No koala records to date. Without some “funnelling” mechanism it is hard to see how roaming koalas would choose to venture across any one of the bridges, however we live in hope.

Food Tree plantations FOK has been working with Lismore Council for some years trying to identify Council land for further food tree planta-tions similar to our existing ones in Wyrallah Road (Council) and at How-ards Grass (Rous Water). Initially some Council staff seemed to have difficulty with the sites identified or there were financial implications for FOK, so this has been on the back burner.

Bulletin Board It’s now being pursued again and this time we all seem to be eager to see some positive outcomes. We’ve identified a number of sites and Council staff have investigated and specified nine sites as feasible. Tour of the sites is imminent and from that a priority list for further work will be identi-fied. Watch this space! South Coast Koalas The Cooma-Monaro Shire Council’s Koala Plan of Management Committee held its first meeting in Feb-ruary. GVESHO Assistance We’ve received a grant of $3,000 to assist with administrative costs under the 2012-2013 [Federal] Grants to Vol-untary Environment, Sustainability and Heritage Organisations program.

Wilsons River Catchment Schools Education & Restoration Project The project’s second event took place at Kadina High School on 22 March with 47 koala trees being planted along with 200 other native trees and shrubs. The good news for us is that the school has agreed to make the koala food trees available for harvesting. Around 45 stu-dents participated. Lismore Visitor Information Centre Great to see koalas and the Koala Care Centre featured in the VIC’s recent re-furbishment. A new brochure we are developing on the Koala Care Centre as a venue will nicely complement the light panels.

P aul started collecting leaf at the be-ginning of 2009 when Rick Stewart

recruited him. He’s been collecting on and off since then, in between broken bones and shoulder inju-ries. What's the best thing about where you live? I could say that floods bring a certain excitement to life but trepidation too because of the uncertainty. Lismore has one of the most diverse mixes of people in Australia - Nimbin alternates

mix with traditional farmers, sea-change refugees from the big city, an active gay scene, green warriors, conservative busi-ness people, local and international stu-dents. What are you reading? ‘Bad Lands’ by Tony Wheeler, the originator of the Lonely Planet Guides; his tourist guide to the lands of the Axis of Evil and sev-eral other countries with bad reputa-tions. What is your favourite movie? This week, Whip It!, a teen coming of age film mixed with the excitement of roller derby. Great fun and well acted. What's your favourite hobby/pastime? Collecting leaf is relaxing. My great love is interacting and dealing with young people, especially teenagers. My other job is Scout Leader which takes up much of my time when I am not hassling my two teenage boys to clean up their rooms. Your idea of a perfect Sunday? Wak-ing up at dawn to the sound of birds in the bush or beach, crawling out of the tent, gathering by the fire with friends to make breakfast and then out to explore this great country for the day. Your most memorable travel experi-ence? Too many. Walking for two hours with a heavy backpack to a youth hostel in London before I realized the sun is to the south, not the north, so hav-ing to trudge for hours the other way. What would you most like to be doing in five year's time? Driving around Australia or New Zealand in a van. Who is the person you'd most like to meet? There are two: Jared Diamond and Leigh Sales. What has been your favourite koala moment? Seeing a koala that came into the Centre sick, with its head buried in a branch munching away happily.

Member Profile – Paul O’Donnell

Paul O’Donnell

Jesse van den Bosch (Rous Water), Mark Wilson (FOK) and Kadina High School students

Overhead rope bridge being monitored for wildlife use on SCU’s Lismore campus



Name………………………………………………………..………………….

Postal address…………………………………………………………………..

City/Suburb……………………. Postcode……….Country……………...

Phone……………………….….. Mobile…………………………………

Email…………………………………………………………………...............

Membership category (please tick)

� Ordinary—Individual/Family (within Australia) ................................. $20

� Concession—Full time Student/Pensioner (within Australia) .............. $10

� International—Individual/Family (outside Australia) .......................... $50

I/We would like to make an additional donation of : $ ................

Total payment is: $..................

Payment by:

�Direct Debit (your name as reference) to: Friends of the Koala Inc., BSB 722-744

A/C 38533 Southern Cross Credit Union Ltd.

or �Cash (preferred) �Cheque �Money order

�Credit card (amounts over $20) Cardholder Name…………………………………….

Card Type (e.g. Visa)….…….………..….Number…………………………….…….Expiry Date (mm/yy)…./.…

Post to: The Treasurer, Friends of the Koala Inc., PO Box 5034, East Lismore, NSW 2480

I agree to abide by the licensing requirements, the constitution and the policies of ‘Friends of the Koala’ Inc.

Signature…. ………………………………………………………………………………Date….…/….…/……..

The Management Committee reserves the right to refuse any application for membership or renewal.

I/We are interested in: (please tick)

� Tree Planting

� Plant Nursery work

� Caring for sick & injured koalas

� Leaf collection

� Rescue

� Committee / Administration

� Fundraising

� Publicity

� Education

� Surveys / Mapping

� Information Technology

� Phone Roster

� I/We would like someone to phone and explain about

volunteering with Friends of the Koala

Office Use Only

Date Received……………Receipt #...................Donation Receipt #.....................Date Passed by Committee………..

Contact Information: 24 hr Rescue Hotline: 6622 1233 Koala Care Centre: 6621 4664

email:[email protected] web:www.friendsofthekoala.org

Volunteers Working For: Koala Rescue and Rehabilitation . Advocacy . Education . Environmental Repair

President Lorraine Vass 6629 8388 [email protected]

Vice President Rick Stewart 6622 4258 [email protected]

Secretary Louise Charter 0410 570 672 [email protected]

Treasurer Susannah Keogh 0431 707 883 [email protected]

Trees Officer Mark Wilson 6624 5032 [email protected]

Care Coordinator Pat Barnidge 6622 3690 [email protected]

Care Centre Coordinator Lola Whitney 6621 3523 [email protected]

Training Officer Beverley Smith 6621 3671 [email protected]

Leaf Harvesting Coordinator Dot Moller 6628 4270 [email protected]

Phone Roster Coordinator Pat Barnidge 6622 3690 [email protected]

Application/renewal form — ‘Friends of the Koala, Inc.’ Membership runs from 1st July to 30th June.

� Please tick here if a receipt is required

� Please tick here if you would like to receive Treetops by email (pdf colour file)



POSTAGE

PAID

AUSTRALIA

IF UNDELIVERABLE RETURN TO:

‘FRIENDS OF THE KOALA’ INC

PO BOX 5034

EAST LISMORE NSW 2480

PRINT POST APPROVED

1100002148

Deadline for next newsletter: Tuesday 28th May 2013 Contributions gratefully accepted – please post to FOK or email [email protected]

81 Molesworth St, Lismore Enquiries 13 23 91 Interruptions 13 20 80 www.essentialenergy.com.au

Documents

Friends of the Koala Inc. - March 2013 Patron: Margot Sweeny … · 2016-09-28 · ia Day awards. Friends of the Koala is the proud holder of the 2013 Award; the second time we have