treetops - friendsofthekoala.org · treetops. the june issue will have a new editor, new content...

Licensed by the Office of Environment and Heritage to rescue, rehabilitate and release koalas—Licence No. MWL000100225. ABN. 69322819171

Fundraising authority CFN 17840 P.O. Box 5034, East Lismore NSW 2480 . Phone 02 6622 1233 . www.friendsofthekoala.org. The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of ‘Friends of the Koala’ Inc.

Treetops Lismore’s Urban Koalas—Will they Survive?

as, is essential for koala survival in the ‘burbs. Unfortunately though, mortali-ties are high. We don’t know the number of koalas that inhabit the Goonellabah-

East Lismore area however we do know that between 20 and 25 mortalities occur each year. We also know that the Koala Critical Precinct to Lismore’s south-

east, encompassing Monaltrie and Tregeagle as far as Wyrallah is crucial for urban recruitment.

The Comprehensive Koala Plan of Man-agement for south-east Lismore (CKPoM), which was approved in 2013 aims to ensure that activities threatening koalas and their habitat in the study ar-ea, which includes urban Lismore, are avoided, minimised, mitigated and/or compensated. Achieving this is through the Development Assessment Frame-work (the CKPoM’s regulatory provi-sions). A Schedule of Management Ac-tivities and Actions (its non-regulatory provisions) aim to maintain or improve the koala population and its habitat. Continued p8

What’s Inside

L ismore City Council appears justifi-ably proud of its urban koala popu-

lation; after all there are very few left in NSW. But realistically, how much long-er will they survive and just how com-mitted is the Council to making the hard decisions to ensure they do?

Koala ecologist, Steve Phillips has pro-posed that the Lismore-Goonellabah koala population may well have been close to localised extinction, but over recent decades, has made something of a recovery. Steve’s analysis is based on the available historical data. If indeed this has been the case we would like to think that Friends of the Koala’s work has played a role, not entirely unreason-able given our formation in the mid-

80s. Council itself has probably played a part. Its first attempt to protect koala habitat occurred in 1993 with prepara-tion of a Development Control Plan for

the Northern Ridges following adoption of a Comprehensive Fauna Impact State-ment for the Northern Ridges, Goonel-labah at the beginning of 1993. It’s also very likely that Lismore’s slow growth through the 20 years from 1991 to 2011 was an important factor.

The vast majority of Lismore’s urban koalas hang on in the Goonellabah – East Lismore area. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly if you are familiar with the steep terrain, viable patches of primary koala habitat remain between Rous Road and Invercauld Road and between Mili-tary Road and Invercauld Road. The Southern Cross University’s 75ha cam-pus also provides valuable habitat – nat-ural forest patches as well as several hundred food trees planted around many of its buildings.

The opportunity for movement across the landscape whether through back-yards, public parks and sports fields, cemeteries, school yards, the golf course, SCU’s campus or protected are-

Proposed residential land release areas over the next 25 years in Lismore taken from Lismore to Bangalow road draft corridor strategy May 2016 p. 95

» President’s Message ............................. 2

» Care Co-ordinator’s Report .................. 3

» Koala Care Statistics ............................. 3

»Lauren’s Blog ....................................... 4

»My Experience as a German Volunteer .............................................. 4

» Care Centre Co-ordinator’s Report....... 5

» Vaccine Against Koala Retrovirus

—Update ............................................... 5

» Blossom and Tarzan ............................. 6

»Friends of the Koala Awards 2017 – Call for Nominations ............................ 7

»Introducing the Membership Support & Outreach Officer ............................... 7

» Our New Building Takes Shape ........... 8

» Friends of the Koala’s Change Management Progress........................... 9

» New Rescue Van on its Way! ............... 9

» Gum Leaves and Hazelnuts ................ 10

» Working for Ballina’s Koalas – Pacific Highway Update ................................. 11

» NSW Wildlife Council Report ........... 12

» Bulletin Board .................................... 13

» Restoring Urban Bushland for our Koalas ................................................. 14

» Member Profile – Meg Cottee ............ 14

» Plantations Update .............................. 14

» Application/Renewal Form ................ 15

» Contact Details ................................... 15

North Lismore Plateau estimated lot yield 1,500 lots

Trinity Drive estimated yield 400 dwellings Pineapple Road estimated

yield 300 dwellings

Waterford Park estimated yield 40 dwellings

Crawford Road estimated yield 270 dwellings

Chilcott Grass estimated yield 160 dwellings

Invercauld Road estimated yield 400 dwellings

Sanctuary Hill estimated yield 70 dwellings

Friends of the Koala 1989 - 2017- 28 years of licensed koala rehabilitation

Treetops … the Newsletter of Friends of the Koala Inc. March 2017

T here was a time, ages and ages ago, when we’d only now be getting

ourselves organised for facing the year ahead. These days there’s no such thing as a long break over summer, even when it’s been a scorcher like the one we’ve

all endured.

Workplaces may close down entirely over Christmas-New Year and even into the first week of January, but FOK never closes for koala rescue and rehab indeed, koala admis-sions continued pretty

full-on well into January although they calmed down during February. While we slow down with the rest of what we do over the holidays, we’d had such a frantic year, with so much to catch up on, that most of us barely managed to close down our devices for the main days.

But that’s well behind us and change is in the air. The new building is well un-derway (p.8) and on p. 9 there’s more about our management of the change processes that will be necessary for us to maximise the opportunities it will pro-vide. Tucked in with all this is also a bit of succession planning. An interesting ex-ercise for me has been unpacking the activities I’ve taken on in Friends of the Koala over the past 17 years. No wonder I have so little time in my life for any-thing other than FOK. The challenge is letting go and finding new owners for many of them.

Vice President Ros has been chairing Management Committee meetings and managing the agenda since the November meeting but a better case in point is Treetops. The June issue will have a new editor, new content and a new look. It may be comple-mented by an e-newsletter. Robin Dadswell and I (he formatting; me writing and editing) have been doing Treetops since the September issue of 2007. While we’ve built up a broad readership beyond FOK’s membership over that time, delivering four issues annually has been a big undertaking. Just on 10 years is quite long enough; it’s time to change. Involvement with the newsletter was one of my very early jobs in FOK. In 2000

President’s Message Isa Weiss, editor of the day moved to Canada. Isa was a very switched-on young woman (she also managed our website at the time) and was more than happy to continue as editor from far-off Ontario. However, out of sight amount-ed to out of mind for most contributors and with nothing to edit there was no newsletter for well over six months.

In June 2001 I took on the job of co-

ordinating content which meant I started writing and nagged others to do like-wise. Offerings were emailed to Isa for editing and formatting. The newsletter came back to us for printing. That went on for just over a year, until September 2002 when Barb Dobner took over as editor/nagger, followed by Susie War-rick from March 2004, Eve Sinton from June 2005 and Patti Munro from March 2007.

Enough reminiscing and on with the message. Change is also afoot in govern-ment’s approach to koala conservation and management; at least that’s our hope. Over the summer we’ve all had opportunity to comment on the plethora of material that was on public exhibi-tion: the Chief Scientist & Engineer’s Report, the Saving Our Species Iconic Koala Project, the Priorities Action Statement and the Intended Effect of the proposed review of State Environmental Planning Policy No 44 – Koala Habitat Protection (SEPP 44) - a staggering amount of reading and writing. On top of that the wildlife rehabilitation sector is being surveyed into an inch of its life in preparation for changes to be intro-duced under the new Biodiversity Con-servation Act.

The OEH-sponsored workshop held for Koala Carers on 1 February represented, in my view, a new understanding by government of the contribution that vol-unteer koala rehabbers make in provid-ing insight into the processes threatening local and even regional koala popula-tions. The tentative data analyses pre-sented on the day and the estimate that

Lorraine Vass

more than 11,800 sick, injured or or-phaned koalas had been admitted into care since 2000, NPWS demonstrated that the records we have been submit-ting for years are finally being used.

The workshop came up with a number of actions to support carers and to im-prove service delivery quality (including reporting) which will be incorporated into NSW’s proposed whole-of-government koala strategy. They were:

• reducing volunteer burn-out

• reviewing koala triage and treat-ment

• formulating training standards (emphasis on early detection of koalas with symptoms of dis-ease)

• providing linkages with scientific and veterinary professionals

• developing a genetic sampling protocol

• improving data collection and reporting standards

• undertaking post-release moni-toring (particularly disease af-fected animals)

If they aren’t already, consideration of the Saving Our Species Iconic Koala Project proposals to be funded in 2017-

18 must be coming up soon. Release of the strategy is expected mid-year.

And what about the Recovery Plan re-quired under the Federal listing of the Koala in 2012? The advice we received in February was ‘… the Queensland and New South Wales governments announced commitments in 2016 to

prepare and implement new state koala strategies to pro-tect the koala.

The Department of Environ-ment and Energy is collabo-rating with state government partners to ensure that the recovery plan complements those strategies so that con-servation actions align, providing a national ap-proach to the recovery of the listed koala.

There will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the draft recovery plan in 2017 following its release.’

So, here’s to another year of koala pro-tection. While change can be a tad un-comfortable for a while, it is essential if we are to position ourselves for future excellence.

—Lorraine Vass

NSW Koala rehabbers and supporting stakeholders workshop the sector’s future in Port Macquarie



J ust seems like last week I was writing my last Treetops

report - time is flying by and we are in March already!

Thankfully February was a much quieter month than the crazy 8 months prior, but

March is shaping up to be another busy one. So far this month, we’ve had 4 joeys come into care – everything from a pouch-bound pinky to back young (nearly) ready to face the world on her own. At the moment, we have 20 joeys of various ages in care. A big challenge has been finding suitable release sites for them all. It’s not as easy as finding a nice tree near where they were found – with all the long hours invested in these babies, we want nothing but the best chance for their best future. I’m happy to report we have secured a few new soft release sites where the joeys will have large areas to find a new home.

We said goodbye to a long term care koala, Diego early in the year. For those of you who did not know Diego, he had quite a history and quite a personali-ty. He came into care as a tiny pouch young in 2011, only weighing 280g. He had many health problems during his early days and as a result stayed in care for nearly 2 years but thanks to his car-ers (Diedre, Michelle and Anika) he was

finally released into the wild in April 2013.

Regrettably his koala instincts weren’t strong at all and his love of humans kept him close to the home of his soft release site (Joy & Rick Wagner’s property in Homeleigh). He came in for a visit eve-ry now and then as Joy explains – He used to like travelling in cars. A couple of times drivers have stopped on our roads to shoo him off the road only to have him approach them instead and happily climb aboard. One lady took him to the local vet terrified as he had jumped on board and was hap-pily tearing into her leather seats.

On his last adven-ture, he stopped a passing motorist with an arms up, pick me up please, motion. Once we had him at the Care Centre we found he was thin and had a few health prob-lems. While we were able to fix most of the health prob-lems, it became clear that Diego was not going to return to the wild.

We made a plan to get him healthy and strong so he could have a life in perma-nent care but after months of trying, we

realised he was never going to get there. It was a very hard decision and many tears were shed saying fare-well. He will long be remembered as a beautiful and curious soul that loved a cuddle (especially from his Mummys and Aunty Lola) and had a lot to say, pretty much all the time.

With the number of adult koalas in care finally leaving the double digits, the Care Centre is slightly less frantic which is a relief to us all. I wish to thank all

the amazing volun-teers at the Care Centre for working every day, even through that awful heat wave. You guys are incredi-ble. Ray at Keen Street Vets and all the amazing staff there have contin-ued to welcome us every visit, making us laugh when they know we want to cry. Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, in particular, Fumie Tokonami and Robyn Stenner, have been a massive support to me with my joeys as well as our other home car-

ers, but all the vets, vet nurses and vol-unteers are so warm and compassionate – I am so grateful we have access to both incredible facilities.

—Susannah Keogh

Koala Care Statistics: 1 December 2016 – 28 February 2017

Friends of the Koala attended to or provided advice on a total of 186 koalas

In care Released Died Dead on Arrival

Euth. Unable to find/

capture

Other Advice

Injured (3) 3

Unsuitable location (4) 1 2 1

Road strike (15) 2 2 7 3 1

Dog attack (4) 1 2 1

Diseased/sick (73) 6 2 1 39 20 5

Health status unknown (39)

1 1 1 4 5 27

Healthy/assumed healthy (38)

38

Geriatric (2) 2

Orphan/abandoned (8) 4 1 2 1

Totals (186) 15 2 5 13 52 27 1 71

Diego in his prime



these wonderful creatures is worth all the effort in the world.

I had some very special moments, which I’ll never forget. To see my first koala in the wild was one of them. I was working in the plant nursery and – not knowing that there were wild ones around - didn´t expect to see one. When I finally spotted it, I had tears in my eyes. I also had a wonderful time with Diego and his spe-cial behaviour, loved the noises Kevin made and enjoyed all the cuteness from the other ones.

Thank you all for such a wonderful time, which I’ll never forget. It was a pleasure for me to meet such a dedicated and passionate group of people. This job changed me and my attitude and I do know a bit more about the important things in live. See you soon!

—Angy Rommeiss

I n January 2017 my big dream came true, being able to work as a volunteer

with my favourite animal. So I came all the way from Germany, to make this unique experience with FOK.

A lot of people asked me why the koala is my favourite animal. I can’t remember for sure. My mum went to Australia 21 years ago and came back with a koala soft toy. I was 13 at the time.

I think this was the mo-ment that I started to take interest in them. I didn’t want to expect too much when I came over, not really knowing what it would be like. In the end my experience was beyond everything I ever expected or dreamed about.

All the people working at FOK are very

friendly and nice. You all gave me a warm welcome and treated me as a team member from day one. During my time I did various things. I worked in the plant nursery, did the laundry, went out for leafing, took part in koala rescues/releases and -of course- lots of

koala care.

At the end of every work-ing day, I was a very hap-py and satisfied human being. To work with the koalas and all the devoted friends of the koalas was good for my heart and my soul.

I learned a lot from all of you about koalas in general and how to specifi-cally work with them. I know that the situation is very difficult and that it is a hard fight to keep this species on our planet. But I know that the survival of

My Experience as a German Volunteer

Lauren’s Blog For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Lauren and I am a candidate for permanent resi-dency at the Koa-la Care Centre in Lismore.

I’ve been around here a while now and am definitely top dog (or koala rather) at the Centre – even though I do say so myself! I watch all the comings and goings of both koalas and volunteers closely - around this place you can’t afford to miss a trick – so, I thought I’d share with you some of the recent goings-on from where I perch.

What better place to start than the weather. This Summer was sooooo hot! Even though we’re shaded by some nice tall eucs and their leaves layered on the wire rooves of our enclosures, the tre-mendous heat, day after day, was hard to bear for us as well as the sweaty folk who invade our space so inconveniently.

Mind you, we were very grateful for the sprinkler system which was installed to help keep us cool, and to keep our leaf fresh, just as the sweaty lot were grateful for the shade-cloth that popped up over the leaf preparation area. Thankfully it cooled down, only to be followed by a flood!

Life can be pretty boring here, but not at present. From the chatter that cuts through my zzzz-time, I understand that

we are to have a new building. Seems to have got the vollies quite excited: more space, a reception area, education facilities, garaging, a proper kitchen for them – they do go on. All very well, but what about the noise while the area for the build was cleared? Being a sticky-beak I tried hard to get a good view of what was going on. No luck I’m afraid, even from the highest perch possible. The noise was annoying and kept distracting me from all sorts of important things, like eating. Thankful-ly it has finished for now.

Speaking of noise, I realise it is really quiet here at present. Kevin, one of my neighbours, was recently released. He was always a noisy devil, grunting and bellowing every day which drove me crazy, but now he’s gone I actually miss it – that’s not to say that I want another noisy male upsetting my peace and quiet.

And what’s this new koala “kindy” that’s been established directly next door? Why they had to put it next to me I don’t know. Actually, the young-sters aren’t too noisy but they do run around a bit. I try to ignore them and perch on my high spot looking aloof, as a superior koala like myself should, but I can’t help sneaking an occasional peek when the four and now three of them are clearly having so much fun together.

Not only that, but Phoebe has been moved into the run I share with Sweet-ie. I mean, really, I wasn’t even asked! How rude! To make things worse, Phoebe is small and pretty, although

I’d never admit it to her of course, so I now have competition for the volun-teers’ admiration. I can handle it though – I know how to make them sit up and take notice of me.

A prime example is when it’s time for the weekly weigh-in. As soon as I see the cage being brought in I scarper up to my eyrie and watch the vollies milling around below, unable to reach me. It’s a really good laugh to wind them up, alt-hough I do allow them to catch me in the end - after all a girl has got to keep an eye on her weight.

One of the perks of being here is that I get medication/supplements twice a day which gives me another opportunity for some fun. Depending on who it is ap-proaching me with their little blue bas-ket of goodies, I may make it easy or hard, but I love to hear them pleading with me, and listen to their cajoling and how much they love me, to try and per-suade me to come down from my high fork.

Of course, I absolutely love the meds, so I need to time it carefully to make sure I don’t keep them waiting too long, other-wise they may leave and I’ll miss out altogether. Although I play hard to get, I’m rather fond of the people here and their attention of course, but I have to maintain my superior air if I want to remain top koala.

Well, I think that’s it for this issue. We’ll see what excitement the next few months brings. Bye for now.

– Lauren



Care Centre Co-ordinator’s Report

T he past months have

been extremely busy with large numbers of koa-las continuing to come into care. We needed as many volunteers as possible to care for them over the summer holiday break which is always a

difficult time for us. This year’s ex-tremely hot weather made it even worse, but thanks to some very hard working people we managed well.

Since the new academic year, as the international students settle in our volun-teer intake is on the rise again. Twenty-

one volunteers have started since the beginning of February. We are still re-cruiting some great people through the Work for The Dole programme.

The headline news is that our caring activities are now being conducted adja-cent to a building site. Preparation com-menced in mid-January with the removal of some of the trees, followed by earth-

moving equipment which came in to form the road and the building pad. While we watched with great interest, the noise was disturbing. There were other repercussions as well including the necessity for removing debris from the koala enclosures and the Care Centre rooves as a result of the large amount of leaf matter that had come down with some of the trees.

Moving nineteen koalas into the Care Centre building while this was in pro-gress and putting them all back out again was a big job but well worth doing, as it kept the koalas reasonably calm.

Rain has delayed pouring the slab and all has been quiet on the site. Let’s hope the worst is past.

Lola Whitney

Kevin Maggs has been busy making up twelve new leaf pots and repairing some of the old ones. He has also built us a new koala perch for one of the rooms. It is ‘state of the art’ - on wheels with brakes - very easy to move around, which is a blessing for those of us who are not very strong.

Julie Hayden approached Bunnings and asked them to donate some retractable hoses. They gave us two and five large spray bottles for the F10 disinfectant. A big thank you to Bunnings for their gen-erosity

Another volunteer, Ueli Keller has made the entrances to the enclosures safer to negotiate by making hazard steps for each of them. They are painted in black and yellow stripes, making them easy to see and they also stop gravel from the walking areas slipping into the enclo-sures.

In January Angy Rommeiss, a lovely young woman from Germany worked with us for a month - five days a week and doing everything - leafing, cleaning koala enclosures, working in the plant nursery, helping with rescues and releas-ing koalas. Angy worked very hard for that month and it was much appreciated. I hope she enjoyed her time with us. She also raised $1,000 for our work through her friends in Germany. Thank you Angy!

On 15th February our beautiful boy Die-go was euthanased. He had been very ill for quite some time. He was a koala with a difference and was very special to all of us. He liked people and sought out our company. I always said he was like a little boy in a fur coat. While it was a very sad day for all of us we can all take

comfort from the fact that his suffering is over and that we all have wonderful memories of him. Care Coordinator Susannah has written some of his story in her report.

Our first training day for the year was well attended. Susannah and Training Officer, Yasmin did great jobs presenting and organ-ising respectively.

Finally I would like to say a great big thank you to all of our volunteers for all of your hard

work especially in the extreme heat at Christmas time. Your hard work and diligence is very much appreciated.

—Lola Whitney

T he long term survival of the koala is under serious threat. Apart from the

human-induced factors of habitat de-struction, road accidents and domestic dogs, two infectious diseases pose major threats to koala survival. While Chla-mydia is the “most visible” of these in-fectious threats, koala retrovirus (KoRV) is equally important.

KoRV infects the majority (over 95%) of Australia’s koalas, with only some Victorian and South Australian koalas being KoRV negative. KoRV has been strongly linked to life threatening diseas-es such as lymphoma and leukemia. In addition to losses in wild koalas, some zoos have very high koala losses (50%) due to these diseases. While quarantine and antiretroviral drug treatment are possible control measures, they are im-practical, leaving vaccination as the only realistic option. Our two main aims to-wards the overall goal to develop an effective KoRV vaccine for koalas are:

• Molecular epidemiological study of key KoRV parameters across several wild and captive koala populations

• Development and trialing of a novel KoRV/adjuvant vaccine in groups of KoRV negative and positive koalas

In conjunction with the University of Adelaide (team led by Dr Natasha Speight) we have commenced a KoRV vaccine trial. We chose South Australia to conduct this trial as we want to com-pare the vaccine in KoRV-positive and importantly, KoRV-negative koalas. UoA prepared the vaccine antigen (KoRV envelope protein) and we have vaccinated 3 koalas initially, two doses, with the KoRV antigen and our tri-adjuvant. The koalas are being held at Adelaide Koala & Wildlife Hospital (Phil Hutt, lead veterinarian), our other major collaborator in this part of the project. We hope to have the first re-sponses to the vaccine by March 2017.

We are also screening koalas in SE Queensland (Moreton Bay Region) for KoRV. There is more than one type of KoRV (designated A, B, C, D, etc) and we have developed an assay to differen-tiate these types. We have screened the MBR population and found that while all animals are infected with KoRV-A, only around 10-20% are infected with KoRV-B. We are analysing this popula-tion to determine the role of KoRV-B and if it might impact koalas with chla-mydial infections.

—Professor Peter Timms University of the Sunshine Coast

Vaccine Against Koala Retrovirus—Update



worried about weight; but not with Blos-som. Every time we weighed her, she was gaining 100gms at a time. Blossom was proving to be the perfect koala for hand raising.

About a month later Blossom was joined by Missy a different kettle of fish alto-gether. Missy’s mum Kyrstie was an old koala. She was aged at 13 which is very old for a wild koala; what’s more she was not a well koala. It was evident that Missy was an encumbrance too much, so the difficult decision was made to separate them .We collected Missy from the Care Centre knowing that she wasn’t well either - pneumonia and a few other issues.

It took a while for Blos-som and Missy to get used to each other but once they did it appeared that Missy really drew comfort from Blossom’s exuberance and Blossom certainly looked out for Missy. I remember bring-ing Missy home from a check-up at Currumbin and sat her on the floor in her basket, Blossom im-mediately climbed down her tree and walked straight across to her and checked her out from top to toe. Apparently satis-fied that Missy was set-tled and okay she scamp-

ered straight back to her branch and went back to sleep.

In mid-August Blossom and Missy were joined by Tarzan, a very stressed little fellow. Tarzan was a 640gm pouch-

young orphaned by a dog attack (not the first for this dog). He had suffered su-perficial wounds and bruising and he also had pneumonia. He had been with Care Co-ordinator Susannah during his first week which was a great start for the long process ahead. I guess my offering to take him on lessened Susannah’s load a little; I hope so anyway, she works way too hard.

Blossom and Tarzan

W e don’t often hear from our home-carers, probably because they’re

usually rushed off their feet and/or sleep deprived. Anyone who has been privi-leged to observe young koalas knows how playful and entertaining they are, but caring for them 24/7 is hard work and not always the fun it looks.

Successful home-caring depends on a lot of support, from within the family as well as from other carers. Jenny Gra-ham has both. She has been home-

caring since 2009, lavishing the littlies she takes on with the love and compas-sion that is fundamental to the job. Here’s Jenny’s story about her recent charges …

Back in July last year, Care Co-ordinator Su-sannah called me about a koala that had been hit on the road and left for dead. Fortunately resi-dents in the vicinity of the incident noticed a tiny furry bundle of cuteness climbing into a flower pot in their front garden and had rung the Hotline. Susannah want-ed to know whether I would look after it.

The people had agreed to take the joey directly to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital so that’s where we went to pick her up. My husband Terry drove, and on arrival our daugh-ter, Natasha, one of the Hospital’s Vet Nurses handed me a gorgeous bundle weighing around 500/600gms. Amazingly the joey had escaped injury. I held her close and we drove home.

Settling a joey always takes time but with a little persuasion she was tak-ing milk from a teat within a few days. We had named her Blossom and very soon she was the boss of our lounge-room.

When they’re not sleeping and eating joeys are like little dynamos. Blossom spent a lot of her waking hours scamp-ering between me and Terry, up the lamp stands and across the lounge. Who needed to watch TV when there was this beautiful creature sharing her little world with us, eating, drinking, sleep-ing, working out and most of all, gain-ing weight?

Aaaah weight, we carers are always so

Clearly Tarzan had been terrorised by his ordeal and needed lots and lots of cuddles and reassurance. Slowly though his confidence grew and he finally ven-tured in to the play-gym and forks where he found a soulmate in Missy – clinging to (back-riding) her to the point she was unable to move. Poor Missy, she was so much smaller then him – we were constantly keeping an eye out that she was okay. It even got to the point where some nights when they both needed to be eating I would sepa-rate them with some coreflute; just enough for them to feel that they were still together yet stopping them reaching each other.

A week or so before Christmas a sturdy 1.5 kgm back-young, Prince Harry (who I think I named appropriately in many ways), joined us and we were a full house. For whatever reason, Harry had been abandoned by his mum. She was searched for several times but nev-er found. Harry was quite stand-offish; very much his own koala and a bit of a renegade - uncooperative with taking supplements – that sort of thing. To cut a long story short last month Blossom and Tarzan were released onto our property where they’ll live high in

the canopy enjoying all that yummy gum leaf. Missy and Prince Harry are coming along nicely, secure in each other and getting on fine.

Four little koalas thrown together through circumstance - different prob-lems and very different in temperament – the role of surrogate mum isn’t easy but the reward in giving these young-sters a second chance is immense. Why else would we do it?

—Jenny Graham

Tarzan & Missy

Prince Harry

Blossom



Nominations for Certificates of Appre-ciation can be made verbally to the President either by telephone or at a Management Committee Meeting throughout the year and should include the reasons why the nomination is being proposed. All nominations will be as-sessed by the full Management Commit-tee and a decision made on a simple majority vote. Certificates will then be forwarded or presented to recipients as appropriate.

The Management Committee will re-ceive nominations for the awards of Honorary Life Membership and the FOK Tree of Fame until Thursday 30 June 2017.

Nominations may be emailed to: [email protected] Posted to: The Secretary, Friends of the Koala Inc., PO Box 5034, East Lismore NSW 2480 or left at the Koala Care Centre, Rifle Range Road, East Lismore.

Award Recipients Honorary Life Members: Effie Ablett, Ruth Barratt, OAM, Richard Barratt (dec.), Barbara Dobner, Audrey Hyde, John Hyde, Alister Janetzki, Patricia (Patty) O’Brien (dec.), Angela Owers, Wendy Reynolds, Margaret Russell, Dr. Geoff Tomkins, Lorraine Vass, Rick Vass, Magda Verbeek, Isa Webb, Lola Whitney, Mark Wilson.

Tree of Fame: Ruth Barratt, AOM, Prof. Peter Baverstock, Bert Berriman (dec.), Audrey Hyde, John Hyde, Dr Stephen Phillips, Sue Phillips, Dr. Geoff Tomkins, Lorraine Vass, Mark Wilson.

Certificates of Appreciation: Australi-an Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, Fran Horstmann, Keen Street Veterinary Clinic, David Keep

T he Management Committee is call-ing for nominations for the awards

of Honorary Life Membership, Tree of Fame and Certificates of Appreciation to formally acknowledge the contribution made by Friends of the Koala members and supporters.

As in previous years, the award ceremo-ny will take place during the Annual General Meeting. The award categories and nomination procedure are set out below:

Honorary Life Membership

Purpose: To acknowledge the contribu-tion made by a member to the Friends of the Koala Inc. over a long period of time. Eligibility: Members of Friends of the Koala, Inc. Criteria: A minimum of 10 years pro-ductive membership, including some but not necessarily all the following compo-nents:

• Service on a range of FOK com-mittees and or sub-committees

• Making a significant impact on FOK operations

• Promoting FOK through public presentations to community groups or professional forums

• Peer respect

Friends of the Koala Tree of Fame

Purpose: To acknowledge outstanding (i.e. above and beyond the call of duty) and sustained work which has been in-strumental in ensuring the organizational success of Friends of the Koala, Inc. Eligibility: Members of Friends of the Koala, Inc and others

Criteria: Outstanding and sustained work should include some but not neces-sarily all of the following:

• Leadership in identifying and applying initiatives which have strengthened FOK

• Applying new knowledge which

has resulted in successful opera-tional outcomes

• Championing FOK and its work in the wider community

• Community recognition

Certificate of Appreciation

Purpose: To acknowledge actions which support the Friends of the Koala Inc’s objectives

Eligibility: Any individual or corpora-tion, institution, etc. Criteria: Broad range of koala-friendly activities which could include

• Assistance in a rescue

• Koala spotting

• Responsible koala management around the home

• Services in kind

• Sponsorship

• Fundraising

Nomination Procedure The purpose and selection criteria for each award will be published in Treetops from time to time as decided by the Management Committee. Financial members of Friends of the Koala may make nominations for all three catego-ries.

Nominations for Honorary Life Mem-bership and the FOK Tree of Fame gallery must be made in writing and ad-dress the selection criteria. Nominations can be forwarded to the Management Committee throughout the year but awards will be made, if possible, at a special event.

All nominations received will be as-sessed by the full Management Commit-tee and a decision made on a simple ma-jority vote. The nomination will form the basis for preparing a citation. This, together with a certificate and memento will be presented ceremonially.

Friends of the Koala Awards 2017 – Call for Nominations

I took up the posi-tion of Member-

ship Officer in May 2016. I became in-volved with FOK because I wanted to be involved in a posi-tive way in my com-munity.

I am very fortunate to live with my fami-

ly in one of the koala corridors in our local area and to be able to see (and more often hear) these beautiful crea-tures as they move through the corridor, so helping our vulnerable koala popula-

tion here on the Northern Rivers is a good way for me to contribute. It is a privilege to be one of the team of amaz-ing volunteers here at FOK.

Since I have been in the role, and with the guidance of members of the Man-agement Committee, I have been streamlining and reviewing the member-ship process for FOK. All memberships are now valid for 12 months from the date of payment. You will be sent a re-minder when your membership is due.

I would like to welcome all our new members along with renewing members who continue to support Friends of the

Koala and the work we do here on the Northern Rivers to help rescue and re-habilitate sick and injured koalas and to preserve koala habitats. We thank you for your engagement.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge one of our longer-standing members who recently passed away. Mrs Valerie Kwong had been a member since No-vember 2005 and frequently gave dona-tions along with her annual membership payment.

We send our sincere condolences to Valerie’s family and friends.

—Sharon Pratten

Introducing the Membership Support & Outreach Officer



The CKPoM is constrained by the short-comings of State Envi-

ronmental Planning Policy No. 44 – Koala Habitat Protection (SEPP 44) with which it must comply. The SEPP has been in place for over 20 years and still NSW’s koala populations continue to decline. Clearly the SEPP needs to pro-vide stronger protection for koalas and their habitat, so where does that leave the CKPoM’s effectiveness ?

Urban Lismore’s human population is around 28,500. Maybe by 2031 it will have increased to around 33,000. Cer-tainly there is a lot of residential build-ing in progress across the city right now. We know there is a lot more to come.

A development application for a residen-tial subdivision of 133 dwellings at Chil-cotts Grass, on Lismore’s south-eastern outskirts was approved by the Council at its March meeting. Oh sure, the propo-nent’s ecological assessment was re-quired to comply with the CKPoM’s requirements for large impact develop-ment but will the compensatory plant-ings and other tweakings offset for the impact of 300+ additional humans with their cars and dogs? I don’t think so.

From p1 Chilcotts Grass north of Rous Road will look like more of Goonellabah in a few years.

Based on proposed residential land re-leases, there could be at least 940 addi-tional dwellings built south of Ballina Road (Bruxner Highway), which is the area of most concern to us, over the next 25 years.

Residential subdivisions usually have a lengthy gestation and they are usually staged. Undoubtedly it will take quite a long time to realise 400 new dwellings in the vicinity of Invercauld Road but along the way remnant habitat patches will have disappeared, koala movement impeded, and the risks of disease, vehi-cle strike and dog attack significantly increased. It’s more than likely that the last people to move into their new hous-es will have no idea that koalas once roamed through their neighbourhood.

At present Lismore City Council is con-sidering a re-zoning application for a sizeable parcel of land (161 ha) at Monaltrie, some 5kms south of the CBD. This land, which extends from Durheim Road in the north up and over Monaltrie

Lane to the south, is smack bang in the middle of the Koala Critical Precinct which is the home of the source popula-tion for the south-east including urban Lismore. The existing zoning is RU1 primary production. The proposal is to rezone a large part of the subject land to R5 (large lot residential) altering the minimum lot size to 2000m2 to enable subdivision into 150 allotments. The ecologist’s report prepared for the landowners acknowledges that ‘the ma-jor constraint to development is the ex-isting Koala population in the Study area’. Everyone knows the area is full of koalas. But instead of red-lighting the application, the CKPoM is invoked and early indications are that the application is near enough to a done deal. If Lismore Council really does value its urban koalas then it cannot approve this re-zoning.

—Lorraine Vass

W e’re excited! Work commenced in earnest after receiving approval of

the Construction Certificate from Lis-more Council on 25 January, and to date the earthworks including the driveway and the building site have been complet-ed, with additional strengthening of one of the banks with rocks.

The formwork for the concrete slab was completed on 9 March and the concrete piers for the slab were poured on 10 March. The slab was to be poured on Tuesday 14 March but was postponed to 21 March due to rain.

Our New Building Takes Shape About two weeks after the slab has been poured B&T Sheds will erect the main building and garage for our Rescue Van. We’ve been most fortunate over the years to have a reserved space for our Van directly opposite the SCU Guardhouse, but it will be much more secure and convenient to have it next to our Education & Information Building.

We have agreed in principle that we’d like the building to be named the Burri-bi Education & Information Centre (dedicated to Pat Barnidge who in many ways made this possible with her be-

quest), but we are still in the process of negotiating with Bundjalung Elders Council for approval to use their word for koala and a positive step forward in working with the local Aboriginal com-munity.

The building is progressing on time, and generally within budget, and we hope to see it open its doors in June.

—Ros Irwin



G etting the green light on the new education and information build-

ing last July gave us a gentle nudge to get going on what we’d been discussing amongst ourselves for some time – the need for succession and renewal plan-ning.

Apart from providing desperately need-ed space for our education and admin-istration functions and better facilities for volunteers the new building is giving us the opportunity to improve the facili-ties in the current Care Centre progres-sively, enabling better health outcomes for our koalas.

We will also be em-ploying a paid, part-time Facilities Coordi-nator once the new building is operational. This will have many benefits for us and our koalas, and will bring with it the added re-sponsibilities of having a paid employee, rene-gotiating the roles of our current coordina-tors, and ensuring there’s a cooperative, respectful, safe and satisfying environment for all working for FOK and our koalas.

We realised that taking our change management process for-ward meant initially involving Commit-tee members and other volunteers in a series of workshops facilitated by some-one outside the organisation. We were fortunate to engage Jane Oliver of Rose-bank as our organisational development facilitator, and so far have had two very productive full-day workshops with her.

The first, immediately after our Annual General Meeting in late October, fo-cused on: the opportunities and risks for our people and for FOK with the new

dinate Facilities, Koala Care, Volun-teers, Rescues, Leafing, Plantations, Training, Risk Management and Nurse-ry, with our Membership Outreach and Support Officer working with our mem-bers. The positions that will change signifi-cantly are those of Care Centre Coordi-nator, which currently has some of the responsibilities of the future Facilities Coordinator, and the Care Coordinator, which will have responsibility for rescu-ing koalas separated under a new Res-cue Coordinator.

In addition we have created Coordinator positions for our Plantations on public

and private land, for Training & Development, and for Risk to ensure that – progressively – all our volunteer roles identi-fy and address potential risks for the volunteers and our organisation. Af-ter agreeing on the struc-ture, which should ad-dress some of the issues in regard to overload, we spent the remainder of the workshop identifying the responsibilities of the Volunteer and Rescue Coordinators, and left feeling that we had come a long way. It’s now up to the Committee to flesh out the bones of the new structure and this will

require significant extra input.

Our third workshop with Jane is to be in April when we’re much closer to com-pletion of the new building. This will involve a much larger group of active volunteers as well as the Committee, and will focus on building/maintaining strong volunteer relationships and con-structive communication within the new, flat organisational structure and the two main buildings.

—Ros Irwin

building; managing the transition to the new building; the impact of a greater public focus on our activities; the re-quirement for a paid Facilities Coordina-tor to ensure both the new and current buildings, our Rescue Van and all other plant and equipment are well-maintained and attractive to tourists; and finally, plan the next steps in our process.

One of the major outcomes of this work-shop was identifying some key positions in the current organisational structure that exceed substantially the recom-mended weekly maximum number of

hours volunteers should work and that would change as a consequence. Follow-ing that workshop our incredibly busy Committee members worked hard pre-paring for the second workshop sched-uled for late January.

This workshop agreed unanimously on a flatter organisational structure with a group of coordinators that would meet regularly and report to the Management Committee on agreed performance indi-cators. The agreed positions would coor-

Friends of the Koala’s Change Management Progress

A decade ago WildLife Link, the To-ny & Lisette Lewis Foundation,

generously funded our ageing and well-used Rescue Van and trailer as well as covering the maintenance costs each year.

The Foundation advised us late last year that they would fund the upgrade of our Rescue Van to an All-Wheel Drive (AWD) VW Transporter van from Frizelles in Lismore.

As we were seeking the basic model without many of the add-ons that cost substantially more, the vehicle had to be ‘built’ in their factory in Poland.

We’ve received news that it left Europe on 7 February and is due in Lismore at the end of March or early April, which is great news for our leafers and rescu-ers.

We’re already planning the fit-out and

signage, and as it’s an AWD it will give us much greater capacity on grass and dirt roads than the current van, which has been bogged on a number of occa-sions.

We’re incredibly fortunate to have the Foundation as a partner and it has con-tributed significantly to our fight to save the koalas in the Northern Rivers. I’m sure Tony and Lisette would be glad to see their fund achieving such positive outcomes.

—Ros Irwin

New Rescue Van on its Way!



Linda and Mark Ambrose joined Friends of the Koala in mid-August 2016. They seemed to hit the ground running, eager to take on just about anything, including in Mark’s case, management committee responsibilities. Mark tells us how it happened.

R ecently, Lorraine asked how Linda and I came to arrive in the Northern

Rivers and, more importantly, how we ended up at FOK! As far as my rusty memory serves, it went something like this…..

Linda and I first met in September 2002 in a Youth Hostel in Glencoe (site of the infamous massacre, as my uncle gleeful-ly pointed out during his speech at our wedding!), little did I realise that 14 and a bit years later on, we would both be working as ecologists in Australia and, best of all, volunteering with the good people of FOK!

When we met, Linda had just finished several years of study and volunteering. She had put herself through undergradu-ate and Master’s degrees, as well as do-ing field work in Chile, Spain and the US. Yours truly had arrived in the UK the year before and was managing an accommodation service for young peo-ple leaving state care in inner-city Man-chester.

To cut a very long story short, Linda rea-wakened my latent interest in wildlife, especially when she arranged for us to volunteer with Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT), monitoring a reintroduced popu-lation of hazel dormice Muscardinus avellanarius

As you can see from the photo, dormice are right up there in the cuteness stakes and they are probably the main rea-son I got hooked on ecology, despite Linda’s (valid) warnings about the scarcity of jobs, aw-ful pay and very long hours! As usual, I did-n’t listen and, for once, was glad I didn’t! I went back to university to do an MSc and soon after got a job with CWT as a conservation officer and, later, dormouse researcher. During this time Linda was forging a successful career in ecological consultancy and still volunteering with the dormouse monitoring.

After leaving CWT (having been fortu-nate enough to have co-authored a couple of published papers on dormice), I went into consultancy and eventually we both ended up at the same company, still chas-ing dormice in our spare time, although by now I was actually chasing some in work time as well. I should also mention at this point (because if I don’t, Linda will) that Linda was a Principal Ecol-ogist, whilst I was but a lowly senior!

In 2016 we finally made the move to Australia, near Naughton’s Gap, where my parents have lived for a number of years. We arrived at the end of June, complete with limited belongings and our old dog, Indy (who unfortunately passed away at the end of 2016).

During previous visits, we had often been to FOK for tours (I remember go-ing on at least one of Rick Stewart’s), to see wild koalas in the trees and, it seems from checking the cupboards, buying FOK branded caps! A few years ago I also put a Koala Rescue sticker on my Ute in England, which caused some con-sternation in the locals and started a few

conversations with expat and travelling Aussies!

Once we knew we were mov-ing to the Northern Rivers, Linda was keen to enquire about volunteering at FOK, so soon after we arrived, she con-tacted Lola and the rest is his-tory.

I think we both agree that vol-unteering at FOK is one of the

best things we’ve ever done. Lola made (and continues to make) us feel really welcome and her love of, and enthusi-asm for, koalas has hopefully rubbed off on us, at least to a small extent.

Meeting other incredibly hardworking people, giving up their time and energy has been an inspiration (not a word I use lightly) and it’s a real privilege to work alongside you all.

So there you have it, boy meets girl and the next thing he knows, thanks to her, he’s had the opportunity to work with two of the most charismatic animals on the planet, as well as goodness knows how many others!

Thank you Linda and thank you FOK! —Mark Ambrose

PS from Linda: - seeing Lauren’s bot-tom condescendingly swinging down towards me from her perch on high to take her medication is one of the greatest privileges!

Gum Leaves and Hazelnuts

2

nd National Koala Conference

Port Macquarie 2-4 June 2017

Following its very successful inaugural National Koala Conference in 2013, the Koala Preservation Society Australia is holding a 2nd 3-day Conference, Their future is in our hands, covering as-pects of koala conservation and rehabilitation including current research into diseases, drugs, trans-location, regional koala projects, future and legislation.

The Conference will be held at Rydges, Port Macquarie. Available details, including the speakers’ schedule are at www.koalahospital.com.au

Friends of the Koala is encouraging active members to attend the National Koala Conference (one-day regis-trations are also being offered) by allocating a budget to assist with costs.

The Management Committee will accept written expressions of interest for financial assistance until Friday 28

April 2017.



Koala Zero Harm The Koala Zero Harm program contin-ues to be rolled out for all staff, contrac-tors and sub-contractors, with 930 in-ducted at the time of the KIG meeting. Some of the items in the Zero Harm toolbox are:

• a wallet pledge card has been printed and distributed for koala sightings;

• a Zero Harm badge on comple-tion of the induction training;

• Zero Harm stickers for hard hats;

• a Zero Harm clearing poster to accompany the other posters;

• special work safety risk assess-ment for protecting koalas; and

• a monthly Koala Spotters Award, to encourage koala spotting and recognition for positive efforts.

There are a couple of logistical issues (for both RMS-Pacific Complete and Friends of the Koala) identified with the implementation of the pledge card. We will continue to work to improving this

process at and between meetings.

Phased Resource Reduction

Phased resource reduction (trees collar-ing and ringbarking prior to clearing) commenced in March, starting with the preliminary monitoring. Sandpiper Eco-logical have been contracted for this work. Sean Fitzgibbons of the UQ Koa-la Ecology Group will oversee the pro-ject. Being one of our major concerns with the approval of Section 10 we will be looking forward to regular updates. The possibility that one or more koalas could freeze in trees during this process is acknowledged. Should it occur Sean will be called in to make an assessment of whether to trap the koala or leave it to move of its own accord. There needs to be more discussions between FOK and RMS about this process.

RMS will be undertaking a scat stress study during the phased resource reduc-tion in an effort to detect any adverse

F ollowing on from the December meeting of the Koala Working

Group, a second meeting of what is now officially the Koala Interest Group (KIG) was held on 15 February. The following topics were discussed.

Speed reductions and signage

The RMS has come good on its commit-ment to reducing speed zones in key areas. A meeting has been held with Ballina Shire Council to discuss the ap-proved permanent speed reductions on Bagotville and Old Bagotville Roads, and parts of Wardell Road from 100km/hr down to 80km/hr. There will also be further temporary speed reductions in some areas during construction.

Six permanent vehicle activated koala speed signs with flashing lights to sup-port speed reduction in these areas have been approved. The KIG identified the most appropriate locations for these signs. I can’t wait to see them up.

In early February it became apparent, the RMS commitment to mini-mal to no use of an important koala area of Old Bagotville Road and Bagotville Road by construction vehicles needed more work. During the heat-wave and dry conditions, while I was out checking on koalas and putting out water for them, three contractor vehicles drove past, putting up large amounts of dust that hung around for about 25-90 seconds before settling. Eight koalas were very low in trees (1.5-3m), forced to breath in dust and were coated in dust, even in their eyes. I immediately called the RMS and dis-cussed the issue seeking resolution.

RMS is taking this issue seriously. Dur-ing the meeting we were amazed at the technology available to support the best for our koalas. Matt Wilkinson, the Pa-cific Complete Project Manager for Sec-tion 10, showed us their GPS vehicle tracking system, which also records speeds. A 50km speed zone was applied to the area of concern for all RMS, Pa-cific Complete ad their contractors vehi-cles. A weekly report will be sent to Matt and any breaches over the 50km/hr limit will have to be explained and justi-fied by the driver. In addition, Pacific Complete will encourage changes to driver behaviour to ensure that if dust is still being raised over 1 m that drivers slow down further.

reactions of koalas to the collaring, ring-barking and clearing of trees, on and adjacent to the alignment. The lab work will be headed up by Dr Caroline Hogg, Director of Research, Aust. Genomic Group, The University of Sydney Uni-versity. Jet, Lismore’s local koala detec-tion dog will be used in all facets of the phased resource reduction to detect fresh scats and assist in the location of koalas in trees, as well as scats for the stress study.

Revegetation of Koala Habitat GMC Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd from Mullengandra, near Albury was the successful tenderer and Mullum Creek Native Nursery will supply plants for the 130 ha of koala habitat revegetation. The revegetation areas have been slashed and marked out. Planting was expected to commence in March.

Wild Dog Control Program

This program has begun, with remote cameras set up and dog tracking to mon-itor feral animal movements and deter-

mine the best place to locate traps. Traps have been set where there is evidence of recent activity. So far, one female dog and a fox have been trapped. The trapping will ramp up over the coming months. We look forward to hearing the results at the next meeting.

Wardell Road-Lumley’s Hill site

It has been confirmed that one of the concrete batch plants will not be going ahead at the Wardell Road-Lumley’s Hill site (compound, borrow site, concrete batching plant) in and adjacent to a koala

hotspot. At a greater expense, concrete will now be transported to the alignment from Ballina. Thanks to everyone who made a submissions and contributed to efforts to have the impacts to this area minimised. It seems to have paid off for both residents and koalas. There will still be the borrow site, and it is likely the 1-year concrete batch plant for the pavement of the Highway will also re-main, although Bob Higgins gave a commitment to Meerschaum Vale resi-dents that he will relook at its location. We will need to make sure that if they can’t be relocated that the impacts to koalas can be avoided or minimised.

We will continue to work for Ballina’s koalas. If you would like to know more, contact Maria on 0467 855 990.

—Maria Matthes

W2B (Section 10) Liaison

Working for Ballina’s Koalas – Pacific Highway Update



L ate last year I agreed to take on the role of FOK’s representative on the

NSW Wildlife Council. I have now at-tended two meetings, in November and February.

The NSW Wildlife Council (NWC) was formed during 2005 to be the peak rep-resentative organisation for wildlife rehabilitation groups and individuals licenced by the NSW Office of Environ-ment and Heritage (OEH). Three of the 27 licenced groups have never joined NWC and the State’s largest group, WIRES, dropped out in 2013-2014. Individual licence holders have not been represented in recent years.

The NWC mission statement is “achieving optimal outcomes for Aus-tralian wildlife”. Objectives include sharing resources on all aspects of wild-life care, rescue, rehabilitation and re-lease among rehabilitators, acting as an independent advisory council to all lev-els of government, business and the community and developing standards and codes of practice for captive wild-life management and the training of rehabilitators. For example, a Code of Practice for the Rehabilitation of Birds of Prey has recently been completed and a Macropod Code of Practice is a work in progress.

NWC provides a convenient forum for the NSW Government to communicate with the voluntary wildlife rehabilitation sector. It is funded by annual grants of $25,000 each from OEH and NSW Roads & Maritime Services. In a similar manner to FOK, NWC maintains a Pub-lic Fund to receive gifts of money and property.

The November meeting featured a num-ber of guest speakers. The first, Greg Saunders was from the John Morony Wildlife Care Centre. The Centre is part of the John Morony Correctional Com-plex, a maximum and mini-mum security prison near Windsor, NSW. The Wild-life Care Centre gives in-mates the chance to work with injured, orphaned and sick animals, including animals seized by the po-lice – apparently snakes make effective drug guards. Interestingly their licence is being amended to care for koalas dur-ing 2017. According to Greg these wild-life interactions can have a profoundly positive impact on many inmates.

Robert Oliver (Manager, Biodiversity Reform Implementation), Blake Shuttle-

NSW Wildlife Council Report worth (Project Officer, Biodiversity Re-forms and Ron Haering (Project Officer, Biodiversity and Wildlife Team) were on hand to address questions on the wildlife section of the current state bio-diversity legislation reforms. The reform combines the wildlife protection provi-sions previously covered in the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the Threat-ened Species Conservation Act includ-ing streamlining the licence system which currently numbers 35,000 in NSW, mostly members of the public keeping reptiles and birds. High risk activities will continue to be licensed but Codes of Practice will replace licences for medium to low risks – an example given was an expanded bird species list able to be kept without a licence.

Of relevance are plans to develop an accreditation scheme for wildlife reha-bilitation services for implementation in 2018. The initial consultation with stakeholders included the recent fauna rehab survey and the visits to wildlife groups undertaken in mid-2016 by Peter Stathis, Senior Team Leader Biodiversi-ty and Wildlife and Ron (see Treetops Sept. 2016, p.14). Ron reiterated the important role of rehab groups. He re-ported that there was evidence of good practice, some of poor practice and vari-ation between groups. How do we share resources and ensure that minimum standards and consistency apply across the sector? Accreditation will require applicants to demonstrate an ability to meet certain standards. NWC is devel-oping a code-based induction training checklist aimed primarily at multi-terrestrial-species groups to ensure that member groups’ training has similar coverage. Ron also commented on the importance of an Executive group to drive the organisation and that succes-sion planning was an area of concern.

Something of a surprise was the presentation by the Chair, Audrey Koos-men to Lorraine Vass who has given hours of her time to NWC over the years and was involved from the start as Secre-tary, Public Officer and Chair for one year. Alt-

hough Lorraine has stepped down as the FOK rep she remains the alternate.

The February meeting followed the ex-treme heat and bush fires in NSW which impacted heavily on the wildlife and workload of many members. The Chair’s Report noted the attendance of Lorraine and Audrey at the OEH NSW Koala Strategy Stakeholder Koala

Workshop in Port Macquarie. NWC also attended the OEH Animal Keeper and Dealers Licences for Reptiles and Birds Stakeholder briefing. They have a vested interest in any legislation changes as many ill-treated reptiles and birds kept under licence end up with wildlife rehab groups.

Sadness for the loss of Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers’ Robyn Gough, a cham-pion for flying foxes, was also ex-pressed.

Guest speaker Evan Quartermain of Hu-mane Society Australia, informed us about their Wildlife Land Trust pro-gram, a global network of wildlife-

friendly properties ranging in size from backyard to over 2,000ha. With 440 Australian members and 58,000ha to date, their goal is “to protect one million acres of wildlife habitat across Austral-ia”. It differs from other conservancy programs in that it is less formal with no legal obligations or costs. 150 members are also wildlife carers. Their interesting website is worth checking out and in-cludes a new eco-tourism program -

Sanctuaries You Can Stay! for members with eco-tourism properties - there are some lovely spots for holidays.

A request was made by Kelly Simpson, a PhD candidate from the University of Sydney who is investigating Salmonella in wildlife, for scats from a range of wildlife species for which I am happy to assist on behalf of FOK.

Josey Sharrad from IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) then updated us with the progress of “Wildlife Res-cue”, a new mobile phone app which will give users information on who to call and what to do if you find an injured animal in NSW (including FOK of course). The app, which replaces an ear-lier initiative by IFAW and NWC, is at the testing stage. I have offered to test the app on behalf of FOK.

The OEH visited again to update us with the initial results (confidential at this stage but report to follow), of the fauna rehab survey. In total 959 responses were received including 33 from FOK.

Don Eagleton of Australian Seabird Res-cue (ASR) reported on the North Coast Shark Net trial. Apparently, the an-nouncement of the trial by the DPI was originally planned for the main wharf in Ballina despite it being dedicated to the founder of ASR, the late Lance Ferris. Don’s comment what that “Lance would have turned in his grave if

Continued p13



New Members

A very warm welcome to the following members who have been accepted into Friends of the Koala over recent months: Margaret Turner and Lynette Smee of Ballina, Leigh Chris-tie of Wollongbar, Lisa Flynn, Nial Jewson, Iracema Brasey and Nadja Zapletal of Lismore Heights, Caitlin Gwyn of Casino, Coe Uechtritz and Manuela Matheson of East Lismore, Bonnie Kelso of Naughtons Gap, Nina Haslam of Mullumbimby, Hayley Ev-ans of Clunes, Erika Yoshikawa, Inui Momo, Mackenzie Wise, Kana Yuki, Tsumino Inaba, Iroha Honda, Yu Sasaki, Mutsumi Funabashi, and Ni-cole Huber of Lismore, Christine Wcislo of Brooklet, Jo Boucher of Broadwater, Madeline O'Brien of Wyrallah, Lynne Shands of Alston-ville, Josephine North & Antolin Her-mida of Croydon, Neville Plumb of Bradbury, Angy Rommeiss of Dussel-dorf and Eva Weinreich of Berlin, Ger-many, Sara Pedrero of Genova, Italy.

Citizen Science for Koalas

Friends of the Koala has signed up to a national collaboration between universi-ties, governments NGOs and communi-ty groups to address knowledge gaps that will support the conservation and welfare of koalas. The initiative is known as the Koala Citizen Science Community of Practice. To further sup-port the collaboration funding is being sought from the Federal Citizen Science Grants program.

Strzelecki Study

Federation University’s Dr Wendy Wright Dr Fiona Hogan and Assoc. Prof. Jenny Mosse are working with PhD candidate Fay Wedroicz on a study of the Strzelecki koalas, using genetic analysis of DNA sourced from koala scats to assess the population’s health and conservation importance. Prelimi-nary results suggest the Strzelecki popu-lation is distinct from other Victorian koalas and that there may be deeper genetic structure within the koalas of the Strzelecki bioregion. The study will also

the announcement had been made at his wharf after the

work that he had done to protect marine life”. Because Byron Shire Council vot-ed against the Shark Net Trail in favour of the Shark Watch program, ASR turtle releases previously carried out at Ballina beaches will only occur at Byron Bay in the future. For the period 8/12/16 to 7/2/17, 115 animals (12 species) were entangled with only 5 of those being the target species (White, Tiger and Bull Sharks). 71 animals were released alive

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in specific sub groups if required.

• Cultivate community and stake-holder awareness, linkages and improvement in land manage-ment practices in accordance with the aims of the KPOM.

• Contribute to review of the KPOM in accord-ance with relevant provi-sions.

Lismore Car Boot Mar-ket Our first Car Boot Mar-ket stall for the year took $922.50 in plant sales and $29.90 in donations. Thanks to Mark, Wendy and Susannah who gave up a very wet Sunday. Our next stall will be on Sunday 16 April.

SCU VC Drops by

Recently we were visited by Southern Cross University’s newish Vice Chan-cellor, Prof. Adam Shoemaker. Being a close neighbour of the University we’ve welcomed a few vice chancellors over the years. While they’ve all been charming and interested in our work, the couple of partnership proposals flagged at various times have come to nothing. Among other things Prof. Shoemaker is keen to increase student numbers on-

campus; innovative promotion a priority so our moment may have arrived. Re-gardless of outcome, we enjoyed show-ing him around the Care Centre and talking about FOK’s work.

but 44 were deceased including dol-phins, turtles and manta rays. Member for Ballina, Tamara Smith has a petition at: www.tamarasmith.com.au/stop_shark_nets

As the new Hotline & Rescue Coordina-tor, I took the opportunity of some re-search into how other groups organise rescues/rosters/technology etc. with vari-ous responses and a couple to follow up.

It is a very interesting experience to meet

the other reps and gain a state-wide view of wildlife rehabilitation. The groups of some reps I spoke to look after areas as large as 22,0002 and even 250,000 km2 and drive 8 hours for a rescue! ORRCA looks after 90 marine species down the east coast of Australia. Many groups euthanase with firearms. Our strong and dedicated FOK can be very proud with relatively little to complain about in comparison.

—Fiona Dawson

NWC Rep.

assess disease prevalence, population range, and investigate population con-nectivity and landscape factors that may influence koala movements. There is a strong citizen science component (the Citizen Ecologist Program).

Koala Communication Plan Launched

The Regional Plan was successfully launched in Ballina on 3 February. Three members of the FOK Manage-ment Committee attended the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Coun-cils (NOROC) meeting and Pres. Lor-raine explained the Plan to the Mayors and General Managers. Many thanks to Annie Lewis, Exec Officer for NOROC, who organised the event and media.

Tweed Coast Koala Management Committee

Tweed Council appointed the communi-ty members of their koala committee on 2 February. They are Lorraine Vass, Jenny Hayes, Rhonda James, Bill Hoskins and Dave Norris. The life of the Committee will extend to Septem-ber 2020. Its role is to:

• Reflect and consider communi-ty interests within the context of the aims of the KPOM, legisla-tive and financial constraints.

• ·Provide strategic advice to Council in relation to imple-mentation of the annual KPOM works program.

• Contribute through participation

Northern Rivers Mayors (l-r) Cr. Katie Milne (Tweed) Cr. Simon Richard-son (Byron), Cr. Danielle Mulholland (Kyogle), Cr. David Wright (Ballina), Cr. Robert Mustow (Richmond Valley), Cr. Isaac Smith (Lismore) with Burrubi (aka Aliison Kelly)

Prof. Adam Shoemaker with Vice President Ros Irwin (l) and President Lorraine Vass (r)



M eg’s been a carer at

the Care Centre since August 2012. She had started her new direction in life after teaching and volunteering with Friends of the Koala was one project on

her ‘to do’ list.

What's the best thing about where you live? I live in a quiet and peaceful area with lots of birds and wildlife around me. It’s a great place to live with good neighbours and good friends who are supportive and helpful.

What are you reading? I’ve started The Good People by Hannah Kent of Burial Rites fame. Being a ‘Vikings’ fan and having studied Viking history at Uni, I’m reading some of my text books again.

What is your favourite movie? Any Monty Python film. Two beautiful mov-ies I’ve seen are Miss Potter and Snow Falling on Cedars. I also enjoy animat-ed films.

What's your favourite hobby/pastime? Craft – embroidery, beading; reading; gardening in the right weather; history research/family history; Tai Chi/Qi Kung.

Your idea of a perfect Sunday? After years of doing schoolwork preparation on Sunday I now rest, garden, visit fam-ily, go to markets, read – I just chill out!

Your most memorable travel experi-ence? Flying over Antarctica; walking along the Great Wall in China; gazing over the Swiss Alps from the top of Mt Rigi; travelling through the Outback; lots more! Who is the person you'd most like to meet? If I could I’d love to meet some of the strong, good people who are my ancestors. I’d also like to sit down and chat with Albert Einstein. What has been your favourite koala moment? All moments with koalas are special – nose rubs from Bosley were priceless.

Member Profile – Meg Cottee

F riends of the Koala have taken on the daunting task of restoring East Lis-

more’s urban bushland known to be koala habitat.

Work is being funded over three years by the NSW Environmental Trust with the aim of enhancing habitat and increasing connectivity of these remnants to create safe passage for our vulnerable koala population.

Urban bushland has far greater threats to its viability then rural bushland for many reasons the most obvious being their proximity to suburban gardens and the continued migration of weed species from garden to bush.

Urban bushland remnants are a living reminder of an urban locality's original, undeveloped state. Although some of the East Lismore pockets of bush have been so altered that in places it is a challenge

Restoring Urban Bushland for our Koalas

F ollowing my approach to the Coun-cils in our area advising them of the

shortage of harvestable trees for the koa-las in care I’ve been really impressed with the response.

Rous County Council, who are the hosts for our plantation on the Bruxner High-way at Howard’s Grass, have offered us land of theirs at Knockrow for a planta-tion, and Lismore Council have offered a further four potential plantation sites in North Lismore, South Lismore and Goo-nellabah which, if approved, will give us eight plantations close to the Care Cen-tre. The one at Knockrow will be ideal as a source of leaf for the two koalas at The Macadamia Castle, with whom we have shared leafing arrangements.

Full development of these sites won’t

Plantations Update

to locate a native species. Bushland rem-nants can function as environmental indicators. If the ecosystems of bushland remnants can be maintained in healthy condition it is a significant indication that the health of the local environment and the wildlife that depends on it, is similarly sound. It is with this in mind that FOK are en-deavouring to restore the sclerophyll forest remnants, known to support koa-las.

Weed invasion is one of the most relent-less and insidious of the many threats to urban bushland. Many of Lismore’s council reserves, such as City View Drive are in a seriously degraded state

due to the incursion of weeds from surrounding backyards, garden waste dumping and the dispersal of weed seeds by native fauna such as flying foxes and fruit eating birds.

Weed management in bush-land is concerned with much more than simply the control of weeds. The underlying objective is always the pro-tection and restoration of diverse natural ecosystems. With the continued efforts of Friends of the Koala, Lis-more City Council and other partner organisations we aim

to create safe corridors for urban Koalas, strategically weaving a path through current and future urban developments.

—Julie Reid

Project Manager

happen overnight, but looking forward we’re feeling optimistic. Residents have been generous in providing their trees for harvesting, and accessing trees on public land and road reserves has seen us through some worrying times, which will no doubt reoccur in future years.

But we can now envisage a future where, with careful management, our wonderful leafers will be able to source all the leaf for our koalas from these plantations. Perhaps the major benefit for our leafers and us is that our planta-tions on public land generally have a variety of koala food trees, which means virtually a one-stop shop each day. The huge benefits will be the reduced time and travel involved, and even more im-portant, safer and easier access for our leafers.

—Ros Irwin



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Contact Information: 24 hr Rescue Hotline: 6622 1233 Koala Care Centre: 6621 4664

email:[email protected] web:www.friendsofthekoala.org Follow us on Facebook

Volunteers Working For: Koala Rescue and Rehabilitation . Advocacy . Education . Environmental Repair

President Lorraine Vass 6629 8388 [email protected]

Vice President Ros Irwin 6621 5906 [email protected]

Secretary Aliison Kelly 0428 216 079 [email protected]

Treasurer Katrina Jeffery 0402 009 884 [email protected]

Care Coordinator Susannah Keogh 0431 707 883 [email protected]

Care Centre Coordinator Lola Whitney 0412 753 739 [email protected]

Training Officer Yasmin Cabôt 6688 8072 [email protected]

Trees Officer Mark Wilson 6624 5032 [email protected]

Leaf Harvesting Coordinator Marley Christian 0487 620 406 [email protected]

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