General Manager,
Eurobodalla Shire Council,
PO Box 99
Moruya 2537.

Dear Doctor Dale,

Regarding the Eurobodalla Shire Council’s response to the NSW State Government’s New Koala Habitat Regulations. We would like to bring to your attention the following:

KOALA HABITAT PROTECTION

Between 2011 and 2013, the Coastwatchers Association sponsored quite intensive research into the history, science and issues surrounding koala presence in the Eurobodalla. The work is well documented and publicly available on our website. www.coastwatchers.org.au/The publications were provided to Council.
Koalas still do appear in the Eurobodalla every so often, with our most recent evidence centring on Nerrigundah and Wamban Creek.
Without a follow-up funded scientific survey, we don't know whether these animals indicate resident groups or transient males moving through breeding corridors. We seem to have moved from viable small resident groups to possible functional extinction in our own lifetime.
One of our documents is the Eurobodalla Koala Recovery Strategy which challenges Council, other land managers and the general community to decide whether survival and recovery of the koala and its habitat is important, and provides the actions and performance indicators if the answer is yes.
In responding to the NSW Government, Council needs to be transparent about its priorities and motives, and be prepared to justify them scientifically. Politics and mythology suffuse the koala issue.
Council's draft response so far leans too much towards the assumption that landholders should be free of restrictions on what they may do with their properties.
This is a continuation of the Eurobodalla's recent history where such things as biodiversity overlays came under political attack.
From the point of view of the Coastwatchers Association, Council's response should lean more heavily towards the assumption that potential koala home ranges and breeding corridors should be protected and rehabilitated, for a variety of reasons including economic ones.
This priority is not inconsistent with properly planned, regulated development, farming or even subdivision.
Specifically, we recommend:
endorsement of the revision of identified eucalypt species, because our research indicates low density koalas in the south east adapt to browse species not previously listed in NSW management plans;
caution about streamlining clearing approvals processes, because of the need to retain and replant home ranges and connect them through breeding corridors;
a commitment from Council (and an associated request for NSW Government help) to closely examine the Eurobodalla Koala Recovery Strategy and begin implementation especially of survey work around Nerrigundah and Wamban, and of the community education process.

Yours faithfully

The Undersigned
International Koala Intervention