Senator Bob Brown
Leader of the Australian Greens
Parliament House
CANBERRA  ACT  2601

Dear Senator Brown

Re:  Senate Inquiry into the status, health and sustainability of Australia’s koala population

I am writing on behalf of Friends of the Koala’s 370 members to congratulate you and your team on delivering on your pre-election promise to propose and gain support for a Senate Inquiry into the status, health and sustainability of Australia’s koala population.

Our organization is a community-based, totally voluntary wildlife rehabilitation and advocacy group, working at the coal-face of koala conservation. We have been licensed by the NSW Department of Environment Climate Change and Water for 21 years to rescue, rehabilitate and release koalas in the Northern Rivers Region.

We engage in a range of activities which aim to protect and restore koala habitat in the Northern Rivers and to educate the community about the fragile plight of koala populations east of the Great Divide. We also have research linkages with a number of universities and the Australian Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland. Our mission is conserving koalas, particularly in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales, in recognition of the contribution the species makes to Australia’s biodiversity.

The Region’s coastal areas are amongst the fastest-growing in the nation. This development is adversely impacting on koala numbers and their future viability. In the Region’s forests koalas are being displaced by inappropriate and even unlawful logging practices.

Earlier this year, survey work commissioned by Tweed Shire Council revealed escalation in the rate of range contraction and decrease in occupancy rate along the coast. Five years ago the estimated koala population had been 400 but numbers have dropped to somewhere in the vicinity of 200; critically low and getting towards the minimum viable population of around 180.

While recent surveys are lacking, we suspect situations similar to this prevail in many other areas of the Northern Rivers.

The evidence of our statistical record is damning enough. In 2008-9 we rescued well over 300 koalas, 170 of them suffering from disease. Of these animals 130 either died or were euthanased. Forty-five females were euthanased because of severe damage to their internal organs resulting from cyst growth. Of the 300 odd koalas brought into care only 64 were released back into the wild. In 2009-2010 a similar number of koalas came into care and we released a mere 50 animals.

Senator, as you are well aware, every level of government has been grappling and will continue to grapple with protecting Koala and its habitat. Those of us working on the ground know that the battle is being lost. The Commonwealth will not intervene in the States’ powers and the States have demonstrated a decided lack of capacity and will to deal with sustainable land-use. In New South Wales we have had a State Environmental Planning Policy to protect Koala habitat (SEPP 44) in place for 15 years. It is an abject failure.

Friends of the Koala’s grass-roots, community driven conservation work is a practical response which is addressing the serious issue of declining koala numbers on the Northern Rivers. Our volunteers work with passion and commitment 24 hours a day; seven days a week to do everything in their power to save the Region’s koalas.  

We look forward to hearing that the Senate Environment Communications and the Arts References Committee will make every effort to enable groups like ours to present our evidence to the Inquiry.

I am enclosing copies of our annual report for 2007-8, 2008-9 and 2009-10 which I trust will inform your understanding of the day to day reality of one koala rescue, habitat and advocacy group working for the survival of the Nation’s iconic faunal species.

Yours sincerely

Lorraine Vass
President
19 November 2010

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