Koala Woman Says

This electorate covers the City of Redland and includes North Stradbroke Island that has been nominated as a potential “island ark” for Queensland’s Koalas. This is wrong on two counts: the Koalas here lack genetic diversity, and anyway, what happens when two-thirds of the island is burnt as happened in the January 2014 bushfire and again in the spring of 2019?

There are 4750 records up until 2000, and about 150 since then. Point Halloran at Victoria Point was a place you could always see Koalas, there hasn’t been one reported there in the last 5 years. There are still a few at Birkdale, Ormiston and Cleveland, these Koalas are mostly hanging on in people’s backyards where they face the constant threat of dog attack or their home ranges are under threat of development. In 2005 Redlands Council estimated there were 3000 Koalas, in 2010 this had officially dropped to 1300 even though a phone-in survey reported only 100 sightings. The population continues to decline even though there have been Queensland Government “protections” in place since 1996 when there were an estimated 4,050 Koalas. Why? Rampant development with an attendant increase in habitat loss, disease, dog attacks, road upgrades, increased traffic and so on. In other words, “business as usual”.

Unless numbers are increased up to a sustainable 5,000-6,000, Koalas the “Koala Coast” will be relegated to history.

Will he Act or Axe?