Dispatches from the Australian Koala War - Part Two

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 2020:

One of the NSW Nationals' most vocal opponents of the koala planning policy relayed concerns about the divisive issue to Planning Minister Rob Stokes on behalf of political donors connected to a major property venture.

Nationals MP for Myall Lakes Stephen Bromhead wrote to Mr Stokes in February, passing on an email from Raymond Stack, the chairman of Stacks Finance, concerning the state’s new koala planning policy.

The letter to Mr Bromhead from Mr Stack on February 24, released to NSW Parliament on Wednesday, included correspondence from two other engineering and land development companies raising concerns with the state’s koala planning policy.

"Is there anything that can be done to delay it 'till there is proper consultation," Mr Stack wrote to Mr Bromhead……

It follows confirmation from Mr Stokes' office that the only stakeholder correspondence he received from Nationals leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro about the policy was from developer and former Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy.

The Stack family are donors to the Liberal and Nationals parties at a state and federal level.

Mr Stack is also one of several directors of Hocana Pty Ltd, which owns land set to become part of the multimillion-dollar Taree development Figtrees on the Manning.

He made a $100,000 donation to the federal Liberal Party ahead of the 2016 election, according to electoral commission disclosure records.

"So far as I know that donation was a perfectly legitimate donation and I reported it as required," Paul Stack said.

Other members of the Stack family have made donations to the Nationals, including a $2000 donation in 2015 to the party, labelled "Stephen Bromhead election campaign".

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the Stack family…..

The other businesses featured in the email chain Mr Bromhead forwarded to the Planning Minister were Hopkins Consulting and Land Dynamics Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 2020:

The koala planning policy, which sparked the bitter civil war in the Coalition, will be debated at the next cabinet meeting on October 6, with the Nationals demanding a raft of changes.

Port Stephens Examiner, 10 September 2020:

A grassroots campaign to save the threatened Port Stephens koala population in Brandy Hill has resulted in Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley delaying her decision on the proposed expansion of a rock quarry operated by Hanson. Ms Ley was expected to hand down a decision on Tuesday, September 8 but a concerted community push led by Brandy Hill and Seaham Action Group (BHSAG) has resulted in a stay of execution and the deadline for a decision being extended to October 13. The quarry expansion, which includes 52 hectares of core koala habitat, was granted by the Independent Planning Commission in July, but required federal approval because the project had been deemed likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance.

The Koala Hospital, Port Macquarie NSW: 

Evans Head CW 
On examination CW was found to have a ruptured left eye and minor limb injuries – consistent with being hit by a car. His left eye was removed, and he was placed into care and was treated for his injuries. CW will be part of the hospital’s breeding program. 

Ballina Franklin 
This young male koala was admitted into care, responding well to treatment with his care progressing as expected. Ballina Franklin is not only now part of our permanent team of koalas, but he is now an integral part of our wild koala breeding program – something we are sure he will handle quite well!

Tyler koala this morning was about 80 metres from the proposed Toondah Harbour environmental destruction area, near the proposed new location for the ferry terminal. #toondahharbour #koalas #qldpol #Queensland pic.twitter.com/L8mZ6qInjj

— Chris Walker (@WildRedlands) September 24, 2020

Dispatches from the Australian Koala Wars

Echo NetDaily, 21 September 2020:

The Knitting Nannas standing up (and sitting down) for koalas in Casino.

The Knitting Nannas are holding regular public knit-ins in Casino in support of NEFA, to raise awareness about Forestry operations logging in koala habitat in particular in Myrtle Forest, near Casino which was severely impacted by last summers’ fires.

The Nannas say recent surveys by Dailan Pugh and NEFA volunteers found evidence of koala scats in Myrtle forest and additional roosting trees.

The Nannas say the forest needs to recover to enable koalas to recover.

SpokesNanna Rosie said that the recent government report that found koalas will be extinct by 2050 in the wild makes this imperative. ‘It is estimated Banyabba koalas which range this forest lost 83% of their population. Last week we had a long chat to an old forester who agrees that current Forestry practices are not sustainable…….

The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 September 2020:

Almost three-quarters of key habitat the Berejiklian government was planning to set aside for koala protection was burned in last summer's fires.  
The government announced in May 2018 it would begin to address the decline of koala numbers including preserving extra habitat, according to a Planning Department paper dated June 23 this year. 

It started to transfer more state land to the national parks system, including 1382 hectares from the Mount Boss State Forest to the Kindee Creek area and 2080 hectares earmarked in the Carrai State Forest to the Willi Willi National Park. 

However, last season's devastating bushfires burnt more than 5 million hectares in the state. Of the state forests transferred to national park tenure, 72 per cent "were impacted", as were about 58 per cent proposed flora reserve, the documents show...... 

ABC News, 23 September 2020: 

Agreements to change logging rules in New South Wales to better protect animals that survived last summer's bushfires have been torn up by Deputy Premier John Barilaro's department and government-owned loggers, sparking yet another inter-government stoush over koala habitat.  

An explosive letter sent earlier this month to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) from the heads of the Department of Regional NSW — Mr Barilaro's department — and Forestry Corporation of NSW states there has now been "substantial recovery post-fire in many coastal state forests". 

It declares logging in NSW can return to "standard" this month in forests not covered by new site-specific logging rules. 

The letter comes despite an agreement struck between the loggers and the EPA earlier this year to only log areas according to those new rules. 

The letter sparked a fiery response from EPA boss Tracy Mackey, which was published yesterday on the EPA's website. 

She said the move did not appear to be lawful, and the EPA was now considering action to stop Forestry Corporation..... 

Other documents released to NSW Parliament earlier this month show the EPA believed the actions were partly motivated by the direction of Mr Barilaro, the Department of Regional NSW and Forestry Corporation. 

The documents also detail allegations that Forestry Corporation made false reports about its logging operations to avoid new protections.....

"Well the number of healthy and otherwise treatable Koala who have died from being hit on our roads this year is ridiculous, irreplaceable & equates to many future generations of Koala not being born." [Maria Mathes @talkingkoala, NSW Northern Rivers region, 17 September 2020]

Where is my tree?
Photo: 

@ctownkoala

The Guardian, 22 September 2020:

The former head of the New South Wales Young Nationals and chair of its women’s council has resigned from the party joining a growing list of high-profile members to quit in the wake of the koala policy saga. 

Jess Price-Purnell, an almost decade-long member of the Nationals, has left, describing the threat by John Barilaro to blow up the Coalition government over the koala policy saga “despicable”. 

It comes as the NSW Coalition held its first joint party room meeting since Barilaro was forced to back down over his threat to pull the Nationals out of the Coalition after the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, issued an ultimatum to either support the policy or resign from the ministry....

BACKGROUND

NorthEast Forest Alliance (NEFA), excerpts from website:

* The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) travelled out to Braemar State Forest in July 2019 to survey and protect koala habitat under logging rules that meant areas significant koala use would need to be protected. 

What we discovered blew us away with an exceptional population of an estimated 60+ koalas at risk of logging. 

Scat searches indicate there are over 100ha of Koala High Use areas – unprecedented in State Forests. What we found was so compelling that we returned multiple times and completed four different audits of koala evidence in the area. 

When we submitted this data to Forestry Corporation of NSW they simply announced they would be logging Braemar State Forest under the new logging rules meaning no koala habitat will be protected. 

We have estimated that homes of over 60 koalas will be decimated if this logging were to go ahead - unthinkable while local koala populations have halved in just 20 years. (source) With logging due to commence, we are turning to the community to come together in support of Braemar's koalas. 

We can stop this devastation, but we need your help....

* NEFA are preparing a proposal for the 7,000 ha Sandy Creek Koala Park covering significant Koala habitat in Braemar, Carwong, Royal Camp and Ellangowan State Forests, as well native vegetation on land Forestry Corporation purchased for pine plantations. The values of these forests for Koalas are documented in our audits,

These encompass a regionally significant Koala population in forests that have been degraded by logging, though are capable of supporting an expanding Koala population if left alone.

We were dismayed when on the night of 8 October the Busby's Flat fire changed direction and burnt out most of the proposal overnight. It was an anxious time while we waited to get in there and see how the Koalas had fared.

The good news was that while the understorey was incinerated, the fire had rarely crowned meaning quite a few Koalas survived. The bad news is that the crowns of most trees were cooked by the intense heat and the leaves have since died, leaving large areas devoid of food and most of the surviving Koalas with little to eat. 

NEFA have been assessing core Koala colonies and found that Koalas are surviving in the areas where large scattered feed trees, or patches of trees, have retained most of their canopies. With limited fresh feed and desiccated leaves some Koalas are dehydrated, and severely so. A report on this is available at https://www.nefa.org.au/audits 

This regionally significant Koala population has been severely affected by the fire, it has set back its recovery by decades. Help is needed to stabilise the population if further decline is to be averted. The last thing they need is for forestry to log their remaining feed trees.....

Oh, the NSW National Party stupidity - it burns!

Koala in search of a tree at Iluka, Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers
PHOTO: supplied

In the NSW Northern Rivers region, even before the devastating 2019-20 bushfires ripped through hundreds of thousands of hectares destroying forests and wildlife habitat, our koala populations were in decline due to rural/regional tree clearing, timber logging, local traffic and dogs.

Now post-fires, faced with a possible 70 per cent loss of the entire state's koala population and functional extinction on the horizon, a local National Party nitwit goes to the media with this statement.

ABC News, 2 September 2020:

A North Coast National Party MP has threatened to move to the crossbench if the State Government forces farmers to search for koalas on their property.

Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis says a proposed bill that would force farmers to look for koalas before conducting any work on their land is ridiculous.

Mr Gulaptis says people in regional areas know how to care for their koala populations better than those in the city.

"We know how to manage our koalas in the regions and now we're being dictated by people in the city who decimated their koala population and [are] telling us what we need to do."

Losses in the 2019-20 NSW bushfires may exceed 70 per cent of the state's entire koala population

ABC News, 7 March 2020: 

Koala losses from recent NSW bushfires 'One of the most significant biodiversity impacts in our history' 

Authorities may have underestimated the extent of the impact of the bushfires on koalas on the North Coast, a New South Wales ecologist has said. 

Stephen Phillips, managing director and principal research scientist at Biolink ecological consultants, has been revisiting six previously-surveyed koala habitats between Forster and Ballina. 

The company was hired by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to undertake the first on-the-ground surveys in the area since the recent bushfires and is more than halfway through. 

"As part of the broader modelling that we're doing with fire, we're assuming a 70 per cent loss or — 70 per cent mortality rate," Dr Phillips said. "And current information suggests that, based on our field survey work, that the real answer is probably north of that somewhere. 

"So the losses are probably far bigger than what we've been modelling in." They are more than halfway through resurveying the sixth site and Dr Phillips said the story now seems "pretty consistent".

South of Port Macquarie this week they found little evidence of survivors. 

"Part of what we're doing here, we're looking beneath one of the most preferred koala food trees, which is called Tallowwood, and in raking around the bottom of this tree I've picked up a koala scat [faecal pellet]," Dr Phillips said. 

They are, however, still working through the 18 sites at Lake Innes, south of Port Macquarie. 

"One of the good things about this site is that the canopy scorch is mild, so that gives us some hope that there may be some survivors," Dr Phillips said. 

"I guess part of what we're doing now is trying to work out how much of this study area has been impacted and how many survivors there may be, but all evidence indicates its probably not going to be many." 

Area of special significance 

The site in Lake Innes was previously the subject of a successful translocation study. 

"So finding out what's happened to the population that we established and finding out it's future, whether it's going to survive, whether it's going to become part of a broader recovery program, is also what this is about," Dr Phillips said..... 

Read the full article here.

Are koalas on NSW North Coast now facing local extinction?

SBS News, 9 December 2019:

Paul the koala in the ICU recovering from burns at The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital on November 29, 2019. Source: Getty

NSW parliament's upper house will hold an urgent hearing on the extent of damage to the koala population from the recent bushfires, with 2,000 feared dead. 

An inquiry into koala populations and habitat in NSW is expected to hear evidence that more than 2,000 of the native Australian marsupial may have died on the state's north coast in recent bushfires. 

The state parliament's upper house inquiry will hold an urgent hearing on Monday to discuss the extent of damage to the koala population from bushfires. 

Thousands of hectares of koala habitat across northern NSW and southeast Queensland have been destroyed in the recent bushfires. 

Koalas are listed as vulnerable in Queensland, NSW and the ACT, largely a result of habitat clearing......

A dehydrated and injured Koala receives treatment at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. Source Getty

North East Forest Alliance president and ecologist Dailan Pugh is expected to give evidence on Monday that more than 2,000 koalas may have died and up to one-third of koala habitat on the state's north coast may have been lost in the fires..... 

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital's clinical director Cheyne Flanagan and Indigenous fire practitioners are also due to give evidence, as well as representatives of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment....

The Guardian, 9 December 2019:

Photograph: Supplied by Jimboomba Police

Mark Graham, an ecologist with the Nature Conservation Council, told the inquiry that koalas in most instances “really have no capacity to move fast enough to get away” from fast-moving crown fires that spread from treetop to treetop.

“The fires have burned so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies,” Graham said.

The crown fires which have torn through broad expanses of NSW north coast forest, a known biodiversity hotspot, were unprecedented.

“We’ve lost such a massive swath of known koala habitat that I think we can say without any doubt there will be ongoing declines in koala populations from this point forward,” Graham said.

Science for Wildlife executive director Dr Kellie Leigh told the hearing there was no resources or planning in place to save koala populations in the Blue Mountains from fires currently threatening the region.

“We’re getting a lot of lessons out of this and it’s just showing how unprepared we are,” Dr Leigh said on Monday.

“There’s no procedures or protocols in place ... even wildlife carers don’t have protocols for when they can go in after fire.”

The Blue Mountains fires have already hit two-thirds of the northern population the organisation has studied and one-third of the Kanangra-Boyd National Park population, Dr Leigh said......

Echo NetDaily, 9 December 2019:

Prior to the current bushfires koalas were at risk of major population decline through habitat loss and logging but with significant areas of their habitat being burnt out by bushfire many of the previously stable colonies are on the verge of collapse. Recognising the disastrous impact that the fires are having on koala populations a call is being put out to the NSW government to stop logging of koala habitat.

A number of groups appearing before today’s NSW Legislative Council inquiry into koala populations and habitat in New South Wales have requested the committee actively call on the NSW government to put in place a moratorium on logging koala habitat across public and private lands as an emergency response to the loss of thousands of koalas and their habitat due to wildfires....