Queensland Koala numbers down

It seems ironic while our Great Ocean Road Koala population is growing enormously and potentially in danger of over population that Queensland's Koala colonies are decreasing. A recent report shows south-east Queensland's Koala population could vanish within 20 years.

The survey showed that the Koalas population of the area has decreased by almost 50% over the last 6 years. This means urgent action is needed now to protect the animal’s environment in that state. One initiative now started is the Sunshine Coast Koala spotting project where locals are asked to report sightings to form a picture of habitat areas.

We can see again how lucky we are to have all these Koala communities living in our backyards on this magnificent Coast. We have to do all we can to protect them.

Koalas eating themselves out of house and home

Recently I spoke to some local residents along the Great Ocean Road near Wye River and Kennett River and found they’re worried about too many Koalas. How can that be? Not that don’t love the little critters, they do, but they are worried that too many Koalas may in time lead to too few. And that’s a shame for the Koalas, the residents in the towns and our many visitors.

For example some of Victoria’s National Parks are under serious pressure from Koala over-browsing. Mount Eccles National Park now has areas where Koalas have eaten all the leaves off Manna gums to the point where the trees die. And when this happens the Koalas themselves are in danger of starvation. This happened some time ago in areas like French Island and Stony Point.

When walking along some of our local tracks we can see dead trees in areas where there are hundreds of Koalas. Are the trees dying due to overbrowsing or drought? It’s hard to say.

The Parks people do have a Koala Conservation Strategy which includes surgical sterilisation and locating Koalas to other areas. A contraceptive trial is currently on at Mount Eccles National Park, where the aim is to treat as many fertile female koalas as possible with slow-release contraceptive implants.
Hopefully it will make a difference and if successful can ensure Koalas along our coast don’t eat themselves “out of house and home”.

Foster a Koala for Christmas

The Australian Koala Foundation does a lot of great work to help conserve koalas and their habitats in an increasingly difficult world. Help koalas by helping the hardworking team there - consider a worthwhile Christmas present of fostering a Koala yourself. Or give a Koala foster gift by going to the Foundations website.

It's Koala mating season

Sitting on our balcony at "Treetops" yesterday we heard a huge commotion of grunts and snorts and screams that can only mean one thing. Koala mating season. Sure enough a few trees away a courtship ritual was taking place with a male chasing a female up the tree and then getting up close and personal.
Meanwhile down in our village of Wye River two koalas were crossing the road at a leisurely pace. A reminder again how during the mating season these animals are vulnerable to car accidents more than ever. So a friendly reminder to motorists coming down to the Otway coast, Great Ocean Road please drive carefully! Romantic koalas don't care about road rules:-)

Doing the Koala count

Every year for the last 22 years a group of dedicated volunteers have counted Koalas in the villages along our coast. I recently chatted to Ray, one of these guys about how they do it and how the numbers are going. They have about 10 people and each one walks exactly the same path on the same one day of the year and does a count. He does a section behind our township, Wye River and this is what he's found. In 1986 he counted 2 Koalas. In 2008 he counted 36. Wow!! That pretty much confirms my estimation too. When we first purchased "Treetops" about 10 years ago we'd see a Koala about once a month. Now we see them every day and even have George, our resident literally living in our backyard. We do love George, he's pretty entertaining for a Koala that sleeps 20 hours a day, especially when he drops down onto the balcony and sits with the birds for breakfast. We hope he decides that "Treetops" is his home for a long time to come.

Eucalyptus trees - a Koala's favourite meal

Eucalyptus (from Greek, ευκάλυπτος meaning "well covered") is the name for over 700 species of trees that dominate the tree flora of Australia. Most of them are only found in Australia with a very few in New Guinea and Indonesia.
Today however the trees can be found in places as far afield as California, India and Israel. Especially in newly devoloping countries the eucalypt can be a fast growing source of wood, and oil which is used as a natural insecticide and cleaner.
The leaves come in many different shapes from almost round to long and thin, but all have the beautiful distinctive aroma of eucalyptus when you crush them in your fingers.
The eucalyptus trees come in small (up to 10 metres high), medium, (up to 30 metres) and tall (up to and over 60 metres high).
All of the eucalypts are evergreen and the distinctive flowers and fruit (called gumnuts) come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Some look like stars, others like spears or round like rocks.
The flowers with their fluffy stamens may be white, cream, yellow, pink or red. Some trees flower so much the color overwhelmes the tree but others have only a small sprinkling of flowers so small they are almost impossible to see.
The eucalyptus trees around Treetops holiday house include the spectacularly tall blue gums and the soft flowered manna gums.

First Koala to travel overseas

The first official record of a Koala going to an overseas Zoo was in 1880 when the London Zoo bought a Koala from a private dealer in Australia. At the time it was hard to get fresh eucalyptus leaves so the keepers fed it on dried leaves for about 6months until they got a supply of fresh leaves from Australia. But sadly the Koala died only 18 months after it got to the zoo because it was allowed to roam free in the superintendent’s office at night where it got its head caugh between the slats of some furniture and died from asphxiation.