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Koala populations outside surveyed areas are at greater risk of extinction due to negligence, say a group of Sunshine Coast residents, who have received the support of the Australian Koala Foundation.

The warning follows the State Government’s release of shocking survey results on Saturday (23 May) which show that koala numbers in an outer Brisbane region – known as the Koala Coast – have more than halved from 4611 to 2279 since 2006, a 64% drop, as a result of habitat loss, vehicle strikes, dog attacks and disease.

Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones used the figures to introduce tighter measures to ensure survival of the marsupials in the 375km2 zone, in effect accepting that the Koala Coast population is now in its way to extinction and should now be listed as Critically Endangered.

The Minister is also reported as saying that the already announced koala response strategy would see the immediate planning of tunnels or overpasses in koala blackspots along the Koala Coast’s main roads, another measure which the Australian Koala Foundation says will do nothing to protect the koalas now.

The findings now have Sunshine Coast residents facing major infrastructure projects bracing for impending doom.

“The Sunshine Coast is also home to koala populations which, at this point, are disease-free but are increasingly put at risk due more and more infrastructure projects inundating the region, carving up significant habitat all over the place,” said Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) coordinator Graham Smith.

“The koala is listed as vulnerable here too and yet there is no surveying done here to monitor the affects of development or to more accurately assess the threat level.

“I suspect, like the situation along the Koala Coast to the south, these studies will only come when it’s too late and agencies are in damage control.”

The findings are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Report on Koala Coast Koala Surveys 2006–2008.

The new report has further angered landholder Dr Carlos Sanchez, whose Eerwah Vale property is in the path of Powerlink’s proposed Woolooga to Cooroy South (Eerwah Vale) Transmission Line and Substation Project.

Dr Sanchez said prime koala habitat, including large Tallowwood Gums, had been marked for clearance on his property despite no project personnel ever stepping foot on his land and koala sightings being recorded just metres from his boundary.

“It’s a disgrace that such major, destructive projects can be proposed with such poor studies – or in some cases, no studies – being done,” he said.

Local residents’ quest to save healthy koalas living in the path of proposed infrastructure has received the backing of the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF).

The newly-released survey results add scientific weight to the AKF’s nomination of these koalas as Endangered under Federal Government legislation, namely the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Australia Koala Foundation CEO Deborah Tabart OAM said: ”About 25,000 dead koalas have been found in south-east Queensland in the last decade”, adding that ”the hinterland of Noosa, and the Sunshine Coast in general, provided a sad example of this decimation as infrastructure continues to encroach on koala habitat”.

The draft EIS for Powerlink’s project was produced by paid consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) Australia. Submissions closed 15 May 2009, however, on 7 May, PB announced that people had until 29 May to submit supplementary or supporting information, provided that they submitted a response noting the kind of information to be supplied later by the original closing date.

PAGE, also known as People Advocating Green Energy, is a not-for-profit community organisation committed to promoting sustainable ways to meet the Sunshine Coast’s future energy needs, and to working constructively with the Queensland Government and its agencies to do so.

The group led the development of a viable non-network alternative, which includes significant ‘bankable’ demand management initiatives and scalable, local renewable solar-thermal generation with storage capacity, plus real employment opportunities for locals through the creation of green jobs.

To read PAGE’s 180-page submission or a summary, or to learn more about proposed alternatives and the campaign to date, visit PAGE’s website at www.saveeumundi.org or email contact@saveeumundi.org

PAGE MEDIA RELEASE Ends.

Note to editors:
•    Link to photos taken of koalas in the area in December 2008 – http://www.saveeumundi.org/2009/03/koalas-photographed-close-to-proposed-alignment/
•    For information about the Australian Koala Foundation’s campaign to save South East Queensland koalas, go to https://www.savethekoala.com/kc/joincampaign.html
•    The Koala Coast is located 20 km south-east of Brisbane, Queensland, and covers an area of 375km2. It is the largest population of koalas residing in such close proximity to a capital city anywhere in Australia. The region falls within the South East Queensland Bioregion where the koala is listed as vulnerable (Nature Conservation Act 1992).