By CHRIS MEIBUSCH | TOOWOOMBA REGION KOALA COUNT
I had lived in the Toowoomba suburb of Mt Lofty for just on 30 years before I saw my first koala ‘in the wild’ when friends called to our front door saying “come and see what we’ve found just down your track”.
Now, four years on from that sighting, most Toowoomba city friends still tell me they’ve never seen a koala in the wild in Queensland.
Some friends tell me they’ve seen koalas but usually “back when I was a kid” or “when we camped at Straddie” or “at Lone Pine”. Few friends can tell me of recent local wild koala encounters.
But, do we have Koalas in the Toowoomba Region? Really?
Yes, we do! In fact, during November 2023, our Toowoomba Region Koala Count volunteers photographed and reported over 215 koalas in the Toowoomba region. This number has increased steadily over the last three years of our local Koala Counts.
Sandra McKay lives with in the township of Crows Nest approximately 45kms north of Toowoomba. Sandra helped co-ordinate about 30 local residents conduct a koala count around Crows Nest on the last Saturday morning in November.
“Aside from the number of koalas we found, it was really interesting to see how many locals turned out as they are interested in learning more about koalas in our district,” Sandra said.
These volunteers photographed more than 38 koalas in one November morning around Crows Nest, then logged these reports onto the iNaturalist database.
So what do these figures tell us about the state of local koalas and our role in protecting our national icon in our immediate community? Most people know that koalas in South East Queensland have recently been upgraded from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’, but how are our koalas faring around Toowoomba?
“Generally speaking, the koalas we found were healthy often with little joeys on mum’s back. We did find a couple of mums with symptoms of chlamydia that we managed to get off for treatment,” Sandra reported.
“We worry about finding koalas too close to our roads but generally they seem to be surviving despite some recent local bull dozer clearing for residential developments.”
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Redland City Council, based in Cleveland on Moreton Bay, boasts ‘a significant urban koala population’. Redland City even has the koala as their logo.
But is Redland City’s koala population any more significant to that of the Toowoomba region, without a koala logo?
In fact, we have no real idea of how many koalas live in our region. In itself, this is not surprising, as sighting koalas is a difficult and sometimes neck-breaking experience. Working from existing sightings to establish meaningful estimated totals is probably even harder.
The CSIRO’s National Koala Monitoring Program estimated Australia had between 287,830 – 628,010 koalas as at March 2023.
Toowoomba’s koala population probably has a similarly vast range of estimates. The Toowoomba Region Koala Count does not claim to be scientific – more volunteers are likely to report more sightings.
To help achieve more koala sightings, a thermal drone has been purchased with Australian Government funding. This drone provides images showing the hot body of the koala as white against the dark of the cooler surrounding tree cover.
“After our Crows Nest count, we now have a better idea of the range of our local koalas. We are really looking forward to using the new drone to confirm our koala sightings. From there, we hope to identify and extend existing koala corridors with strategic koala tree plantings” Sandra McKay said.
Local residents wishing to participate in the Toowoomba Region Koala Habitat Project with koala sightings or feed tree plantings should register their interest through the project website www.toowoombakoalaproject.org.
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