At the beginning of the year, Kathryn Kermode, a resident of Sargent’s Road off the Murwillumbah-Kyogle Road, Cawongla, contacted us to enquire about the likely impact a three-day car rally would have on the koalas that share her property. The koalas are well known to her from years of interest in their comings and goings. They spend a lot of their time in the roadside trees through which this and future years’ Australian legs of the World Rally Championship are scheduled.

Kathryn and many of her neighbours have worked very hard throughout the year, learning more about koalas and negotiating with the race organizers to limit the risk to which their koalas will be exposed. They have met with some success, in that the organizers agreed to drop part of the road from the rally route.

United in their outrage at the event that has been foisted on them by their local and state politicians, the people on Sargents Road, led by Kathryn, have developed an amazing community project that has grown from their initial interest in their koalas into documenting what they are seeing by recording information about the koalas and encouraging local knowledge and awareness of the presence of koalas.

Kathryn writes, “What we have found has been fascinating and it seems as if we are only beginning to get the picture. Since the beginning of this year we have been watching the koalas along about 5km of road. This accessible public space gives us a small and narrow window into the territory of the koalas as well as having great views to the mountains. We have eleven individual koalas marked on our map, three that are single sightings, one deceased, but the other seven are koalas we have watched over a period, in the case of Sargent (see below) for the last 6 months. Without identifying ear tags or a radio collar to locate the koalas, they are found by luck, patience or not at all.

We record our sightings as digital images, these are uploaded to a web album for each individual animal. The web albums can be accessed by anyone who has this link, http://picasaweb.google.com/k.komodo

It has been useful in enabling independent experts to look at an image and give a basic assessment of the koala. Over time and seasons, the images will display the changes in each of the koalas. Each tree that a koala has been seen in is also marked on a map of the road using Google maps. The marker shows the type of tree (where known), the date, time and what the koala was doing and occasionally the weather if it is extreme. The map is just beginning to tell us how often the koalas revisit a tree and which trees they prefer. It is also a great opportunity to encourage local interest and participation in koala watching.

Our observations offer up a small but unique insight into the complex koala community surviving in our midst. I watch them clawing their way back and forth along the trees that line the verge of my road and it thrills me that I can experience them with little more effort than stepping out of my car. I feel very attached to them now and lament the fact that many koala populations are suffering from disease and loss of habitat. These koalas in our own backyards, like all koalas in Australia are in desperate need of Local, State and Federal recognition and protection but first we need to establish where they live.”

Kathryn writes about one of her favourite koalas, Sargent:

“Sargent the Koala seems lazy, even by koala standards. His days are passed sleeping in trees beside the road and he is so lazy, passers-by don't even know he's there. Sargent will happily spend his time in the same tree and the same branch and then one day will suddenly wake, have a scratch, stretch and mid afternoon, will decide to change trees. Such exertion is often followed by a nap of an hour, or ten. At a glance, koalas have it made but in compensation for their lazy life, they are the only mammal whose brain doesn't fill their skull. The koala's rump is pale with light spots blending into their grey coat, markings which camouflage them from the ground so they blend into the gum leaves. Each individual koala has different markings and patterns.”