From the Friends of the Koalas Newsletter no. 89, Summer 2013

Coming Events

• Annual General Meeting: 2PM, Koala Conservation Centre, Chisholm Room, Saturday January 12th. Guest speaker Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter at Rawson.
  
• Habitat Days: 1^st Saturday of the month, 10am. ph 59 522 407 for details. 5^th January 2013: Ragwort pull Oswin Roberts (meet in northern car park on Cowes-Rhyll Road)  2^nd February 2013: (to be confirmed) 2^nd March 2013: Clean Up Aust. Day (meet Oswin Roberts southern carpark Harbison Rd)
                                         

• Koala Counts: 2^nd Tuesday of the month at the Koala Conservation Centre at 10.00 am – meet in the car park. Dates: 8th January, 12th February, 12th March

• Phillip Island Conservation Society Dates:Saturday 12^th January 2013 AGM Parish Hall Cowes. Details from Christine Grayden 5956 8501.                                                        
  
• BirdLife Bass Coast:  (formerly WESBOC) Outings and Meetings: Friday 25^th January, Saturday 9^th February, Friday 22^nd February,  9^th March,  29^th March.
• Volunteers wanted for Wader Count Saturday 9th February, Bessie 5956 9401  
• Barb Martin Bush Bank Community indigenous plant nursery. Open 1^st Saturday of the month 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, and each Wednesday 9:30am-3:30pm. Also by appointment. Drought tolerant, bird and wildlife attracting, habitat creating plants available. New volunteers and purchasers welcome. For details, phone 0407 348 807
• Phillip Island Nature Park Quarterly Hooded Plover and Gull Count:  Friday 8th February, 8:45am at the Nature Park Environment Pod at the Penguin Parade. Contact Jon Fallaw ( PINP Ranger) 59 512 813 or  jfallaw@penguins.org.au
• Biosphere - Bass Coast Round Table: Meets at San Remo on the third Friday of every month at 8pm. Contact Jane Jobe, convenor 0409 530 898.
• Note: Memberships due 1/1/2013. Please renew – we value your support

President's Report

Another year draws to a close and koalas continue to battle the usual problems – loss of habitat, road kills, disease and dog attacks. Koalas were declared a threatened species in some parts of Australia, which is great, but failure to list the Strzelecki koalas, which are so genetically important, was a great disappointment.

FOK continued to lobby on various issues affecting koalas with the usual mixed success, but we will persevere.

Locally the free ranging koala population outside the Koala Conservation Centre remained low as housing development continued on Phillip Island further reducing habitat. Sadly houses being built now are, for the most part, extremely large on small blocks which means no room for wildlife habitat and less and less trees so koalas can no longer coexist with humans as they once did.

Thankfully the koalas at the KCC continue to do well and they, and the other wildlife thriving there, provide an oasis of enjoyment.

FOK continued with Habitat Days and koala counts, A big thank you to our regular participants, and to the 2012 Committee. Our AGM will be held on Saturday 12^th of January 2013 commencing at 2pm at the KCC and we are privileged to have Colleen Wood as our guest speaker. Colleen does wonderful work treating many koalas at her wildlife shelter and is always an inspiration to listen to.

Best wishes to all our members for Christmas and the New Year and we look forward to seeing you at the AGM and/or our regular activities.

                       
Patsy Hunt, President

Rangers Report

The end of the year is always a busy time with preparations for the holiday season coinciding with the time of year we do most of our ‘hands on’ koala work and the time when koalas are most active both inside the Koala Conservation Centre and across Phillip Island.

The annual koala catches took place at the end of October. Twenty eight koalas were caught (including three back young) and two koalas had pouch young. One of the pouch young was around 6 months old, so born very late last season. Four of these young koalas are now readily visible from the boardwalks at the KCC.

Generally all koalas were in good health.

A search of the Oswin Roberts reserve will be conducted on the 17^th of December. As the largest tract of woodland on the island this reserve gives a good indication of how the island population is going. Hopefully numbers will be up on last year.

The KCC has a male ‘boarding’ with us at the moment. He has come from the Southern Ash wildlife shelter and is completing his rehabilitation in our larger pens. While he is here DSE have granted approval for him to share his ‘digs’ with some of our females in the hope that we get some new genes into our small population.

Habitat Days

Habitat Day Program

5th January 2013: Ragwort pull. Meet Oswin Roberts northern car park, Cowes Rhyll Road.
2nd February 2013: to be confirmed.
2nd March 2013: Clean up Australia Day.

Summer Habitat Days

In October, on a cold grey drizzly day four hardy FOK volunteers worked with PINP ranger Nick and PINP revegetation officer Mark Merryful planting 55 manna gums near the chicory kiln in Harbison Road behind the KCC plantation and opposite the Oswin Roberts reserve. This is a lovely peaceful area with a picturesque dam surrounded by scattered aged remnant manna gums with birdlife in abundance. The trees were planted with plastic guards and tall wire guards held in place by star pickets so, hopefully, should survive the wallabies and rabbits.

The rain gradually increased in intensity just as we completed the job - perfect timing to water in the trees. The only sour note was finding a dumped TV set in the Oswin Roberts carpark. Such dumping is a continual costly problem for the Nature Parks.

In November we returned to Oswin Roberts with Nick and Mark and walked through the reserve in groups cutting and painting sweet pittosporum.This is not easy work but it was made enjoyable by mild sunny weather, abundant birdlife and wallabies and the discovery of an unexpected ephemeral wetland.

  
Monthly Counts at the KCC

FOK’s regular monthly counts continue on the second Tuesday of the month at the Koala Conservation Centre.

An exception was made when the KCC held its annual koala check-up at the end of October. It is always incredibly interesting to see koalas being weighed, measured and given thorough health checks before being released back to the tree they had been removed from. These examinations are the only time that koalas are examined, unless of course a problem is noticed. For the rest of the year the koalas, especially those in the woodland area, are left to enjoy an independent life.

The monthly koala counts assist the rangers as a check on the koalas health and well being. These mornings are also an enjoyable experience because of the wonderful fauna and flora that can be viewed in this special piece of bush.

Why not come and join us on the 2nd Tues. of the month?

General Meeting, 13th October 2012

A small group of FOK members attended this meeting at the Chisholm room at the KCC. After the meeting a small group enjoyed a short walk to the close viewing boardwalk and were rewarded with a magic experience of watching this season’s joeys performing acrobatic stunts as they tested their growing independence from their mothers. The wetlands viewed from the boardwalk were full to the brim after the wet winter and spring and the bird viewing was a wonderful bonus. These afternoon meetings are proving to be popular.

World Environment Day School Expo, San Remo 21st and 22nd Nov. 

This event was organized by the Phillip Island Nature Parks and the Bass Coast Shire. Hundreds of primary school children from the district’s schools attended and took part in many activities and viewed displays to help them learn about their environment. FOK had a static display and our large toy koala mascot Urimbirra was as popular as always with the children.

AGM 12 – 1 – 2013

Guest speaker Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash wildlife shelter at Rawson works all hours for koalas.

The shelter takes all types of wildlife but is known as a specialist shelter for koalas.

The shelter’s newsletter for November 2012 states that they are averaging a koala a day arriving for attention.

Sadly many have to be put down due to their injuries from road trauma and dog attack.

On a happier note the newsletter also shows the many koalas released back to the bush – the ultimate reward for the wildlife carers.

Put the date of our AGM in your diary and come to the Chisholm room at the KCC at 2pm to hear Colleen speak, and then enjoy a viewing of the KCC’s koalas and other wildlife.

Koala Signage

When local residents expressed concern to the Bass Coast Shire about koalas seen crossing Coghlan Road near Harbison Road at the rear of the KCC Diana Whittington from the Shire had these signs erected. Great to see such a quick response and also wonderful to hear of several koalas seen regularly in the area.

Australian Koala Populations

In 2011, the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) combined available date for Koala populations across their natural range and generated estimates of the decline experienced over the period 1990-2010 by the national Koala population and, separately, the combined Queensland, NSW and ACT population (TSSC 2011bi). The parameters of greatest uncertainty are the size of the Queensland population in 1990 and rate of subsequent decline, particularly in inland regions, and the size of the Victorian population. Regions with estimated percent decline between 1990 through 2010 are: Queensland: 43%; NSW: 33%; Victoria: 7%; South Australia: 39%; National Total: 29%; Combined Queensland and NSW total: 43%. Source: www.environment.gov.au

Myrtle Rust

A media release by the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security John Cobb MP, ‘Government Myrtle Rust Disaster Threatens Koalas and Native Species’ says that this disease threatens the major food source for koalas.

The media release refers to Queensland habitat but it has now been disclosed that the disease has now been found in Victoria.

From the Koala Action Group newsletter March 2012

The Koala Action Group of Queensland reports in their latest newsletter that the Department of Environment and Resource Management in their state has released the Koala Coast Population Report 2010 which concludes that no significant change in the koala population was found between 2008 and 2010, suggesting that the decline may have stabilised. However the report highlighted the alarming fact that since 1996 the koala population in the Koala Coast has had an overall decline of 68% with more than a 50% decline between 2006 and 2008.

FOK Christmas Function 2012

As usual we will get together at the Barb Martin Bush Bank on the last Habitat Day for 2012, Saturday Dec. 1st for the annual Christmas function. Some work at the Bush Bank will be followed by a barbecue.

Friends of the Koalas Committee 2012

President:- Patsy Hunt
Vice President & Membership Secretary:- Pauline Taylor
Vice President:- Jan Fleming
Treasurer (& Bush Bank Rep.):- Max McConchie
plus
Committee Members:- Margaret Hancock, Irene McKell (FOCIS Rep), Maurice Schinkel and Ann Stocker (web manager)
Associate Member (KCC):- Ashley Reed

Letters & Submissions

FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR NATIVE VEGETATION IN VICTORIA: A Review of Victoria’s Native Vegetation Permitted Clearing Regulations

FOK made a submission to this document expressing our concerns that present regulations were not preserving habitat for wildlife as the three phases of the regulations for removing vegetation were not correctly adhered to.

The first two steps – avoiding vegetation removal or minimizing it were frequently bypassed and vegetation clearance occurred with offsets proving totally inadequate in achieving habitat retention and so called net gain.

FOK further stated that it would be a retrograde step if the review resulted in less rigorous consideration of habitat preservation when clearance applications are received.

Unlocking Victorian Tourism

A letter was written to the state Environment Minister Ryan Smith reiterating our concern about proposals to allow tourism development in National Parks.

Bass Coast Shire – Directions Paper for Rural Land Use Strategy

FOK made a few brief comments on this directions paper.

We emphasized that the protection of the rural amenity and the protection of environmental assets in rural areas was of great importance for both tourism and the preservation of biodiversity.

The proposed strategy may of course be overtaken by reforms to the Rural Zones by the state Minister for Planning.

New Nature Parks Board

A congratulatory letter was written to both the new and reappointed Board members and expressed FOK's desire to continue to support and work with the PINP to preserve our precious environment.

Phillip Island Nature Parks Environment Plan 2012 – 2017
This plan has now been approved by the Minister and should be available for viewing on the Nature Parks website www.penguins.org.au then go to ‘About’ then ‘Community'

Meeting with new PINP Chair

A pleasant informal meeting was held at the Koala Conservation Centre on 23^rd November for representatives of stakeholder groups to get to know the new Board chair Jeff Floyd.

Many issues were discussed over a tasty morning tea.

Memberships due

Friends of the Koalas memberships became due 1/1/2013.

Please renew as we need your support.

Our membership numbers remain healthy but we do need more members to take part in our Habitat Days and koala counts so please consider joining us in 2013.

We would also welcome new members on the FOK committee.

Site last updated Summer 2013. © Friends of the Koalas