Koala Woman Says

Another electorate where half the bush was burnt in the summer of 2019 – 2020, but luckily most of the two known Koala populations escaped major harm. There may be about 50 in the Mumbulla, the Numeralla population appeared to be doing OK and 18 were rescued from the fires, but some must have perished.Sixty years ago there were many Koalas in this electorate, in an arc stretching from Dignams Creek near Cobargo to the Murrah State Forest near Bermagui, south to Tantawangalo State Forest, and north to Numeralla near Cooma. There may be quite a few Koalas between Numeralla and Queanbeyan, but no proper surveys have been done. Koalas are extinct in the Tantawangalo Forest and south of Edenit. What happened in this electorate? The fur trade in the early 1900s, and millions and millions of trees shipped to Japan as woodchips to make cardboard since 1970, that’s what. “Cheap as chips” has a new meaning when it comes to Koalas in Eden-Monaro.

Will she Act or Axe?