Luis Feliu
Campaigners fighting to save the Tweed Coast’s remaining koalas from extinction have hailed a recommendation by the independent NSW Scientific Committee to list the dwindling koalas as an ‘endangered population’.
They also welcome NSW Labor MPs and candidates on the north coast throwing their support behind the listing recommendation.
But they say koalas elsewhere in the Tweed and scattered populations in Byron Shire north of the Brunswick River should also be looked at for protection.
The latest developments are timely, given that just last week the long-sought and vital framework to protect the koalas (the draft Tweed Coast Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management) went on public exhibition till 2 December.
This week, the NSW Scientific Committee gave official notice of a preliminary determination to protect the dwindling koalas east of the Pacific Highway in the Tweed.
Submissions to the committee close on 30 January next year, and campaigners are urging the public to comment.
In a joint statement yesterday, NSW Labor’s environment spokesman Luke Foley, shadow north coast minister Walt Secord and Tweed Labor candidate Ron Goodman threw their support behind the listing.
They said that the committee, in its preliminary determination said the koala in the Tweed ‘is facing a very high risk of extinction in NSW in the near future’.
As part of the process, Mr Foley also called on the state government to prepare a koala recovery plan to ensure the survival of the Tweed koalas.
The official proposed listing says that there is a total population of between 144 and 267 koalas in five areas: Bogangar-Kings Forest-Forest Hill, the Tanglewood-Round Mountain-Koala Beach, the Pottsville Wetlands-Black Rock-Dunloe Park, the Duranbah Environ; and the north of the Tweed River, who is expected to become locally extinct in the near future.
Mr Foley said ‘This is a first step, but the state government has to prepare a recovery plan to ensure their long-term survival in the Tweed’.
Mr Goodman said ‘the koala is under threat on the far north coast and the community wants them protected’.
Mr Secord said ‘koalas have suffered due to encroaching development, attacks by pets, imported disease and road killings, with vehicle strikes accounting for 34 per cent of known koala deaths in the Tweed shire’.
Friends of the Koala president Lorraine Vass said their support for the preliminary determination was welcome as ‘there’s no doubt that koala numbers on the coast are now so low that mortalities due to fire, car hits, domestic dog attack and disease are not sustainable’.
‘Preparation of the nomination of the Tweed-Brunswick Coast population of the koala for listing as an Endangered Population for the purposes of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 was recommended by the Tweed Coast Koala Advisory Group, on which Friends of the Koala is represented, in early 2012 when it was learnt that the population had declined by around 50 per cent over the past decade.,’ Mrs Vass told Echonetdaily.
She said the scientific committee only supported the koalas east of the Pacific Highway in Tweed shire but did not include koalas west of the highway and north of the Tweed River, ‘nor the population in Byron Shire north of the Brunswick River’.
‘These omissions are somewhat perplexing and we are keen to get feedback on its reasons,’ she said.
Team Koala president Jenny Hayes told Echonetdaily ‘we’re the brink of losing our iconic koala on the Tweed Coast forever’ and ‘everyone has to pull together now if we are to save our koala for future generations to come’.
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