Save the Koala

The rate of road-kill of koalas in Queensland, NSW, and Victoria is testimony to the unsustainability of human population growth and the cowardice of our leaders in the face of profit-driven developer groups. We drive too fast, we are too numerous, and we have far too greater impact. Are most of us ignorant, selfish and callous or is it mainly our leaders and the developers they protect?

The current system of protection is failing Australian wildlife. Too little too late. Does legislation claiming to protect really cause habitat destruction? Current legislation let wildlife numbers fall too low, creating genetic bottlenecks that reduce long term chance of species survival. Even the largest national park is just a gene puddle, rather than a gene pool, if it is not connected to other habitat. Article by James Fitzgerald, NSW Wildlife Council

"Minister Burke has ruled out protection for all koalas and we are concerned these northwest NSW koala populations may be left off the threatened species list, even while their populations are falling dangerously low." Zoologist David Paull: 75 per cent decline in the relative abundance of koalas in the Pilliga from 1993 to 2011. Estimates only 500 to 2000 koalas left in the area. “The spread of mines and gas wells, tree kills from coal seam gas spills and increased vehicles through the Pilliga Forest will likely put extra strain on these already declining koala populations." Wilderness Society, 29 April 2012. (This article elevates to an article a comment "Media Release - The Wilderness Society on Koalas," posted by Bandicoot on April 29-2012.)

Delightful koala pictures in this film which talks about why we need to speak up for koalas at the upcoming Federal Inquiry into the status, health and sustainability of Australia's koala population.

If Queensland's current runaway population growth continues, further encroachments upon the habitat of our endangered iconic koala are inevitible, practically guaranteeing their extinction in South East Queensland. Yet Premier Anna Bligh, by having renamed the 'population summit' to the 'Growth Summit', has told Queenslanders she is no longer interested in considering the one chance we have to save our koala, that is, population stability.

Protest to save our koala: Rally outside the main entrance of Queensland State Library, Southbank, Brisbane at 11.00am Tuesday 30th March 2010.

In a Parliamentary speech, Glen Elmes₁ warned how the vast discretionary powers, given to the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe (pictured), with his past history as a property development industry insider, would add to the consequences of SEQ's already shambolic urban planning and environmental management and runaway population growth.

Speech from Queensland State Parliamentary Hansard of Hansard of 12 Feb 10, linked to from Hansard page, See also: "SEQ Regional Plan a travesty against the people of South East Queensland" of 9 May 09 by Dr Jane O'Sullivan, "The downward spiral of hasty population growth" of 8 Mar 10 on Online Opinion by Dr Jane O'Sullivan.

Please attend public forums against population growth, featuring Kelvin Thomson, Mark O'Connor and others. Brisbane: 8:30AM - 12:30PM, Saturday 13 March, Sunshine Coast: 2:00PM-4:30PM, Sunday 14 March.(See article "Sunshine Coast environmentalists condemn sham population debate" for more details.)

Several communities of koalas in the Mumbulla and Murrah State Forests on the NSW South Coast near Bermagui are at risk of regional extinction due to plans by Forestry NSW to commence logging their forest habitat on Monday 1st March 2010.

Originally published 27 Feb 10, Updated 1 Mar 10 with Media Release of 27 Feb 10 from the Conservation Council ACT Region.

In October 2008, NSW Forests logged what it labeled “two compartments” in Bermagui State Forest north of Bermagui. It justified this under the infamous Eden Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). This RFA is one of three established in 1999, in which the NSW Government relegated 15.1 million hectares of native forests across New South Wales for logging anytime.
Recent anti-protester legislation has seen four forest campaigners who had allegedly entered Bermagui State Forest charged under Labor's Ian MacDonald's Forestry Regulation 2009 due to go before the court on 18th June 2010.

The Queensland government plans to move koalas from a site earmarked for residential development. To where in South East Queensland, with ever more of its bushland being bulldozed by the Labor Government's developer benefactors, and how the dislocated koalas can be expected to survive, let alone thrive, is unclear.

What you can do: Contact Premier Anna Bligh at premiers [ AT ] ministerial.qld.gov.au or Kate Jones the Qld Minister for 'Sustainability' at sustainability [ AT ] ministerial.qld.gov.au and demand they end the relocation.
See also: www.savethekoala.com, Conservationist says Narangba koala relocation a death warrant ("Anger at koala 'final solution'" in printed version) in the Courier-Mail of 19 Feb 10.

Tweed Valley Community levied for unwanted and disastrous development in region's main koala habitat.
Koalas are in danger of extinction within two years in Queensland and NSW cannot be far behind. No state is keeping proper wildlife statistics and development is ruining their habitat and ours. See where to send objections inside article.

There was an outcry about the illegal and brutal attack on baby koala Doug, and his consequent death, yet loggers will be allowed to destroy the habitat of a colony of koalas in the state forest on the NSW South Coast. They need protection before they are legally wiped out, simply because their homes are for woodchip profits!

Acland was the site of the last underground coal-mine in Queensland's Darling Downs, closed in 1984. Now the town itself will disappear into the maw of a vast new open-cut coal-mine, and with it all the creatures that cannot get a ticket out - like the koalas and the trees. Mark Copland asks, "What is the price of progress - and who will bear the cost? He compares the treatment of Acland people to the treatment of the people on the Planet of Pandora in the film Avatar, where miners from earth were prepared to sacrifice almost anything in the pursuit of more of something, which ultimately, will never be enough. Copeland says, "I am sure when the Acland mine was first proposed there was never any mention of closing down a town."

Originally published as "Community must ask who bears the cost of progress" by Dr Mark Copland of the in the Tooowoomba Chronicle of 5 Jan 10 (URL of article unkown).
See also: Web site of the New Hope coal company: www.newhopecoal.com.au (including environmental impact statements, newsletters and assorted other pro-coal-mining propaganda); Friends of Felton web sites: www.fof.org.au, www.friendsoffelton.blogspot.com. (See article for links to other articles related to Acland.)

What you can do: Sign e-petition calling for resignation of Queensland Government. For further information, please read "Why Queenslanders must demand new state elections" of 8 Jan 10. The original candobetter.org name of this article was originally "The Pursuit of Unobtainium in Acland, Queensland."

Details of the Save the Koala protest are:
Time/Date: 11AM sign-in for a 12PM start, Friday, 25 September
Place: Brisbane Square (in front of Treasury Casino)
Contact: saveourkoalas[AT]gmail.com, www.koalarescue.org.au

See also: "Bald Hills community fights sand mining threat to flood plains and Moreton Bay" of 31 Aug 09, www.savethekoala.com.

We publish and answer here pro-rally comments from "Jack," accusing "Greenies" of violence. Perhaps this is a classical case of "People in glass houses should not throw stones" - only who is in the glass house here? It is hard to deal with behaviour which has rightly been accused of causing threat to human life when you know that the situation which probably caused it left any protesters few if any legal or safe alternatives. Did Repco's and the NSW Government's actions place citizens in an untenable position by suspending environmental protection and democratic rights?

"We knew we were gone when the Judge said,
'Time's up, you’ve got one more issue you can raise.' We hadn’t even started. We had only just got past the argument where she dismissed both our ecologists’ reports." Before it has even been run, the REPCO car race has damaged local democracy with impacts far exceeding local boundaries. Environment and democracy, go hand in hand. Environmental destruction and corruption follow closely behind destruction of democracy through unbridled commerce. We think that all judges in the land should be concerned about this.

See also: Repco Rally route - the calm before the storm of 26 Aug 09, URGENT! Contact Peter Garrett re Injunction to stop Repco Rally of 29 Aug 09, Removing Environ laws results in violence"of Sep 5, 09.

We just learned, to our great sadness, that "Sam" the koala who was rescued from a burn-off gone wrong, has been euthanased due to severe structural damage from chlamydia. We salute the carers who looked after her and extend our deep sympathy.

At the last meeting of Tweed Shire council on 21 July, a raft of motions by Cr Katie Milne were unanimously approved by council. However, the question is will it be enough to save Tweed koalas when just over the border in SE Qld koalas are in fact critically endangered according to the Australian Koala Foundation? If Events NSW has their way this September Repco Rally will organise 100 competing cars tearing at top speed through koala colonies and rural habitat in breeding season destroying any chance of a meaningful Koala Recovery Plan being implemented in the future.

Kathryn Kermode, who lives on the route of the World Rally Championship races, planned for Kyogle and Tweed Shires, for September and every second year until at least 2019, shows how the races further compound the threats faced by the endangered Koala from rampant overdevelopment elsewhere in northern NSW and across the border in Queensland.

See also: "Development project threatens second largest Koala Colony in Tweed Shire" of 21 Feb 09, "Kyogle residents fight World Rally motor race" of 7 Mar 09.

Residents of the Kyogle district of NSW, just south of the Queensland border, are organising to protect their way of life and local wildlife from the threat of an FIA World Rally motor race scheduled to be held in September 2009.

Contents: A Kyogle district resident states the case against the motor race, The Repco FIA World Championship Rally is More Than a Koala can Bear, How the Kyogle District Chamber of Commerce, Rally Australia and the Kyogle Council imposed the motor race on local residents.

See also: "Tweed Shire Council General Manager, Director of World Rally Australia?" of 8 Apr 09, "World Rally is too noisy say residents" in the Sligo Champion of 19 Nov 08, "Damaged bridge 'won't impact on rally'" in the Leitrim Observer of 16 Jan 09, "Failure in bid to divert rally" in the Irish Independent of 11 Dec 08, "World Youth Day wash up" of 5 Feb 09 about how the supposedly cash-strapped NSW government, which is subsidising the rally in Northern NSW, squandered AU$120 million on World Youth Day last year.

As images of koalas injured by the recent bushfires moves the world public to donate desperately needed money and material to animal carers, Peter Garrett's Environment Department has refused to list South East Queensland's koala population as endangered because "the form had not been filled in correctly." No doubt this will spare the Queensland Labor Government, whose reckless encouragement of population growth has largely caused the koala's threatened extinction, from much embarrassment in the midst of an election campaign.

See also: "Queensland Government killing koalas for developer dollars" of 12 Aug 09, "Wildlife also bleed, also feel, also lost their homes" of 13 Feb 09, "Development project threatens second largest Koala Colony in Tweed Shire" of 21 Feb 09, www.savethekoala.com.

As the plight of Koalas injured and killed in Victoria's recent bushfires move people across the globe to act to save the Koala, now predicted to become extinct by 2020, a rare and relatively intact Koala colony in Northern New South Wales is threatened by a massive residential development. There are estimated to be less than 100,000 koalas remaining in Australia, considerably less due to the recent disastrous Victorian bush fires and Queensland floods.

See also: "Kings Forest Development threatens 21 Threatened Species of Fauna" on Blue Cray of 28 Feb 09.

Queensland Labor Premier Anna Bligh, in a letter published in the Courier Mail on 8 August, claimed concern at the decline in South East Queensland's koala population. However, it was her Government which only recently legislated, against community and local council objections, to fast-track the destruction of much of the remaining koala habitats in South East Queensland to make way for residential development.

What you can do: Email Premier Anna Bligh (premier [AT] ministerial qld gov au) and Deputy Premier Paul Lucas (deputypremier [AT] ministerial. qld. gov. au) to demand that they act now to end Queensland's economic dependency upon population growth, which threatens the koala and other native species, including the lungfish, with extinction.

See also: Locals join koala 'crisis' taskforce in the Bayside Bulletin of 7 Aug 08 including readers' comments.