DEAR News Of The Area,
RECENTLY I was bushwalking along Tuckers Rock Road in Bongil Bongil National Park, south of Coffs Harbour, with my bushwalking group when an SUV with Queensland number plates pulled up beside us with all its windows down and its four occupants looking out.
I thought, “That’s good, they are getting nice fresh air”.
Then I was expecting the young lady driver to ask me for directions.
Instead, she asked me, “Where can I find koalas?”
These tourists had already driven four or five kilometres through nice eucalypt forest and had not seen any – surprise, surprise!
I have worked in NSW forests all my working life and for the last 25 years have regularly walked forest tracks and trails in the Coffs Harbour/Nambucca/Woolgoolga area.
Only twice have I sighted koalas in the National Parks or State Forests.
But I have made quite a number of sightings in the Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie urban areas.
I am aware koalas are present in these forest areas, but you need sheer luck to see one.
The point I make is that tourists, like the ones I met, are expecting to go out into the bush and see koalas dripping from the trees.
This is the myth being spread by the call for the creation of a Great Koala National Park.
Tourists are going to be bitterly disappointed if they go out into the forests expecting to see a koala.
The name itself, the Great Koala National Park, is indeed provocative.
In the general public’s eye, it conjures up a misguided belief that it will protect koalas.
As the title infers, Dr Brad Law’s scientific paper “Regulated timber harvesting does not reduce koala density in north‑east forests of New South Wales” (Google ‘Brad Law koala’ to read this paper) shows koalas like the fresh young leaves of a healthy, regenerating eucalypt forest.
My view is that the greatest threat to koala populations is bushfire.
The catastrophic 2020 fires decimated more than 50 percent of the koala population here on the North Coast. With more National Parks, unless very large injections of funds for fire prevention and protection are made, the koala populations will eventually suffer, possibly quite dramatically.
I love koalas as much as anybody else, but I also love the beautiful timber flooring and other things made from our native eucalypts
I am well aware the Minns Government have said they will create a Great Koala National Park, but please let’s hope it is not named as the Great Koala National Park.
I hope the government sees fit to keep significant areas for sustainable timber production in this wonderful North Eastern NSW area
Perhaps they should name it the ‘Great Myth National Park’!
Regards,
Ellis NICHOLSON,
Sawtell.
Yep. Volunteered for the GKNP visitors centre back in 2020,21 Ellis and tourists would rock up with the same query. That’s got nothing to do with the importance and viability of the proposed Park but public ignorance, or in some cases because they have seen the sadly overpopulated koalas in parts of Victoria or South Australia where they are literally dripping out of defoliated trees beside the road during daylight hours and erroneously think that’s normal. If you read the full GKNP proposal it includes a visitors centre with a possible wildlife hospital where you would have a better chance of seeing one up close; similar to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie I guess.
In regard to your valid concerns over wildfire, the 2019/20
Black Summer, or for us ‘spring’ fires, which decimated forests west of the moister coastal forests, confirmed the importance of those moister, more fire resistant forests and their wildlife populations for permanent protection.
By the way, I have seen a young koala munching low on a young Tallowwood on the edge of Tuckers Rock road, but it was night time, and my turn for some Karma, maybe.
In reply to Ellis Nicholson’s letter doubting the validity of the Great Koala National Park proposal I suggest an alternative narrative. Those who volunteered for the GKNP visitors centre back in 2020,21 recall that tourists would rock up with the same query as to where they could see koalas in the wild. That’s got nothing to do with the importance and viability of the proposed Park but public ignorance about an animal that sleeps on average 20 hours a day, or in some cases because they have seen the sadly overpopulated and starving koalas in parts of Victoria or South Australia where they are literally dripping out of defoliated trees beside the road during daylight hours and erroneously think that’s normal. If you read the full GKNP proposal it includes a visitors centre with a potential wildlife hospital where you would have a better chance of seeing a koala up close.
In regard to your valid concerns over wildfire; the 2019/20 Black Summer, or for us ‘spring’ fires, which decimated forests west of the moister coastal forests, confirmed the importance of those moister, more fire resistant coastal forests and their wildlife populations for permanent protection.
I have been fortunate enough to have seen a young koala munching low in a young Tallowwood on the edge of Tuckers Rock road, but it was night time, and an experience I’ll hopefully never forget.