Hanging out at East Coraki: desperate koalas looking for trees

By Maria Matthes & Ina EgermannFriends of the Koala

Friends of the Koala is excited to have received a grant from the Australian Government to support its “Hanging out at East Coraki: koalas thriving in an agricultural landscape” project.

The area is being overpopulated with so many koalas living in the East Coraki area, and not enough koala food trees to sustain the local sub-population. It is an area where Friends of the Koala rescued several koalas with extremely poor body condition, often as a result of not enough quality leaf available.

The project includes weed control in koala habitat along the river and tree planting koala habitat on several properties, as well as koala habitat assessment and monitoring of the koalas. Many of the favourite food trees suffered during the drought, and then many of the smaller trees were hammered by the flood.

These riparian areas are critically important to the koalas during dry times, with more koalas moving for water. FOK will be doing all it can to create an environment where the koalas will be able to not just survive but thrive.

FOK has been doing the habitat assessments and has been quite shocked at seeing trees regenerating after being affected by the food, and the koalas are eating all the reshooting leaves they can reach, over and over.

We can’t get more trees in the ground quick enough. We are so appreciative of the great support from the landholders to having more koala trees and koalas on their properties.

If anyone in East Coraki or elsewhere would like to help our koalas by supporting our project, including planting some trees, controlling weeds, or assisting with health checks, habitat assessment and monitoring, we would love to hear from you. Keep an eye out on our social media for our future community planting days.

For more information contact Maria (0467 855 990) or Ina (0413 710 917) at Friends of the Koala or email ina@friendsofthekoala. org