Tweed coast sportsfield ‘threatens koala survival’

Luis Feliu

The survival of the remaining Tweed Coast koala population hangs on a thread which will be further impacted by a proposed men’s shed and an open koala/dog-proof gate at the Black Rocks sportsfield south of Pottsville, it was claimed this week.

Tweed Shire Council will tomorrow (Thursday) deal with the two issues at the sportsfield, located in an isolated area within the Pottsville wetlands, a vital koala breeding hub and junction of several linkage corridors for the endangered marsupial.

Koala campaigners say the Black Rocks sportsfield and access road compromise the viability of the koala population in the area, regarded as possibly the most important koala recovery location on the Tweed Coast, and want to revegetate the fields with koala habitat trees.

Their fears about the coastal koalas’ survival have also been heightened recently by the revelation that koala numbers are dropping rapidly and it’s likely there are now as few as 110 koalas left on the Tweed Coast (well down on the last official estimate several years ago of around 144 animals).

At tomorrow’s council meeting, Cr Katie Milne will try to overturn a previous council decision to leave a new koala/dog-proof vehicle-entry gate at the Black Rocks sportsfield open in daylight hours.

The Greens councillor says that decision conflicts with the council’s Koala Advisory Committee recommendation that the gate be locked day and night, except when being used by sporting organisations.

In another move, Cr Warren Polglase will push for council to prepare and lodge a development application (DA) for the men’s shed to be erected at the sportsfield.

The veteran pro-development councillor says the move is in line with a council decision in August for the concept design of the shed, which is to be demountable.

But Pottsville resident and koala advocate David Norris says Cr Polglase is jumping the gun, as another site for the men’s shed at Pottsville, instead of Black Rocks, was currently being investigated by council staff therefore council should wait to see if that site was more suitable.

Mr Norris said the Black Rocks sportsfield has a history of vandalism and a men’s shed ‘would be an easy target for vandals intent on securing the expensive tools which would be stored within’.

He said oxy-acetylene equipment used for metalworking activities in the shed also posed a risk if it fell into the wrong hands as any fire there would spread to surrounding koala habitat and ‘wipe out the Black Rocks koala population’.

‘In the past, fires have been deliberatly lit close to this habitat,’ he said.

Mr Norris says many koala campaigners believe the proposed men’s shed at Black Rocks sportsfield ‘is little more than a Trojan Horse intended to establish a development footprint within the grounds, and so increase the perceived importance of the site for human-themed activities, with little regard for the koala issue’.

In July, council resolved to support the construction and operation of a men’s shed at the sportsfield so its proponents could apply for a community grant.

Council staff said the shed at the sportsfield would help provide passive surveillance to deter anti-social behaviour.

But Mr Norris said the shed intended to operate only one-to-two days a week between 9am and mid-afternoon ‘meaning there would be no passive surveillance for 58-64 hours per week, during which time offenders will have easy access to an isolated location 300 metres in the middle of the bush to pursue koala-impactive activities undetected’.

He said it would be impossible for men’s shed members to see what was happening along most of the access road ‘where offences occur in areas of significant primary koala habitat’.

Mr Norris said he supported the aims of the men’s shed association and had been involved in ongoing negotiations with the Pottsville group in order ‘to secure a more centrally-located, less koala-impactive alternative site’.

Gate a waste of money

He said leaving the koala/dog-proof gate open during the day was pointless.

‘It’s an exercise in futility and a waste of ratepayers’ money to install a gate aimed at protecting koalas, but then to render it ineffective by leaving it open, especially when the adjacent pedestrian access gate has a sign which says “Help protect the koala, please shut the gate”,’ Mr Norris said.

‘Over the last three years I have documented 34 koala sightings in the area. This includes significant daytime on-ground koala activity (including breeding) on and immediately adjacent to the access road.

‘Now that the vehicle gate is open between 7.30am and 5.30pm each day, hooning activity has resumed in the middle of the koala breeding area, with easy access for unleashed dogs. ‘This is unacceptable, especially considering that it is now koala breeding season.’

He said two Black Rocks koalas were euthanased this year, suffering from the stress-related disease Chlamydia.

Wildlife experts say when koalas are stressed their immune system becomes compromised and they are then unable to fight the Chlamydia bacterium, which then becomes dangerous and fatal.

Koalas become stressed due to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, dogs, road trauma, bushfires and disturbance generally.

‘We cannot afford to lose any more, the decisions that are made (on the Black Rocks sportsfield) will determine whether there is a chance that the koalas may secure safe stress-free habitat essential to their survival,’ Mr Norris said.

According to the recently adopted Tweed Draft Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management, the Tweed Coast koala population has been halved within the past decade.

Mr Norris said the findings of the 2011 Tweed Coast Koala Habitat Study which informed the management plan were ‘alarming’ with ‘only an estimated 144 koalas left on the Tweed Coast, divided into three distinct source populations, with poor connectivity between each source population struggling in a lack of quality koala habitat’.

According to Mr Norris, koala stressors associated with the sports field such as hooning, unleashed dogs, motor bikes, go-carts, shooting and model aeroplanes crashing in their habitat are putting the resident and breeding koala population at high risk of disease and death.

‘The choice between life and death of Tweed Coast koalas is up to us. If we don’t provide them with the safe habitat they need, they will be lost forever.’

In June this year, Team Koala, which has 650 members, embarked on its campaign to revegetate the sportsfield with koala habitat trees, with 2,256 people asigning a submission in support of the move.

Meanwhile Cr Milne took a swipe at Cr Polglase for taking up the men’s shed proposal.

‘It sounds wonderful, in theory, for council to undertake development applications for community groups, as proposed by Cr Polglase for the Pottsville men’s shed,’ she said.

‘But apart from the terrible location in this highly sensitive koala habitat, the other problem with Cr Polglase’s motion is that council picks and chooses particular pet community groups for assistance with developments, with no criteria of who gets helped and who doesn’t.

‘As an example, last term council adamantly opposed all my efforts to assist the You Have A Friend organisation for the homeless.

‘Council refused to either find a suitable site or to lodge an application for this group, even though the homeless were dying in the streets.

‘Council staff claimed that assistance for You Have A Friend would cause an unmanageable precedent. It was argued that the hundreds of community groups in the shire would all feel entitled to demand the same assistance from council which would pose a significant financial burden on council.

‘Since then, council has found a location for a motorbike club and lodged an application on behalf of a tennis club. It appears sports and men do well in this arena of favourites’.