Koala conservation
[1] Australian policy makers declined a 2009 proposal to include the koala in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
A common technique used to capture the animals was to attach a loop of ropey bark to the end of a long, thin pole, so as to form a noose.
[5]: 80–81 The koala was heavily hunted by European settlers in the early 20th century,[5]: 121–128 largely for its thick, soft fur.
Novelist and social critic Vance Palmer, writing in a letter to The Courier-Mail, expressed the popular sentiment: The shooting of our harmless and lovable native bear is nothing less than barbarous ... No one has ever accused him of spoiling the farmer's wheat, eating the squatter's grass, or even the spreading of the prickly pear.
[5]: 127 Despite the growing movement to protect native species, the poverty brought about by the drought of 1926–1928 led to the killing of another 600,000 koalas during a one-month open season in August 1927.
[6] In 1934, Frederick Lewis, the Chief Inspector of Game in Victoria, said that the once-abundant animal had been brought to near extinction in that state, suggesting that only 500–1000 remained.
The owner of the latter park, Noel Burnet, became the first to successfully breed koalas and earned a reputation as the foremost contemporary authority on the marsupial.
[10] The koala's "vulnerable" status in Queensland and New South Wales means that developers in these states must consider the impacts on this species when making building applications.
[1] While urbanisation can pose a threat to koala populations, the animals can survive in urban areas provided enough trees are present.
[12] To reduce road deaths, government agencies have been exploring various wildlife crossing options,[13][14] such as the use of fencing to channel animals toward an underpass, in some cases adding a ledge as walkway to an existing culvert.
[11] In a 30-year retrospective study performed at a New South Wales koala rehabilitation centre, trauma (usually resulting from a motor vehicle accident or dog attack) was found to be the most frequent cause of admission, followed by symptoms of Chlamydia infection.
In 1929 the koala population on Phillip Island collapsed with the death of their manna gums, officially attributed to insect pests and fire.
The koalas on French Island also prospered and multiplied until in 1954, faced with dying trees, the population of 700 was moved to the mainland, in the vicinity of Camperdown and Ararat.
In 1923 six "native bears", as the koala was then popularly known, were donated by the National Park of Victoria, Wilson's Promontory,[37] and taken across to KI on the Karatta in November 1923 by three members of the Fauna and Flora Board: J. C. Marshall, professors T. G. Osborn and Wood Jones, and Edgar R. Waite, director of the Adelaide Museum.
In 1996 (Liberal) conservation minister David Wotton appointed a panel of experts led by Hugh Possingham to examine the problems and recommend solutions.
They chose instead a program of trapping and sterilization (tubal ligation under general anaesthetic) of selected females, who were then released on the mainland, a process which may be distressing to the animal, and very expensive given the number which had to be treated, but kinder, they said, than killing.
