Koalas in Adare and Vinegar Hill - under serious threat

Koalas are probably the most environmentally significant species that would be impacted by the establishment and operation of a motocross track on the Adare property.   Impacts will come from noise, vehicle strike and possibly vegetation clearing in Stage 2 of the development.

The database

For the last few weeks our group has been collecting incidental records of koala sightings in the area of bushland which is contiguous with the vegetation in the vicinity of the proposed Adare motocross track.

We now have 66 records of koala sightings for this area.  It may not look like 66 "pins" on the map, but that's because at this scale many pins are hidden behind others.

These sightings are all within 5km of the motocross track, and almost all are within less than 4km.  The nearest is only 950 metres from the track.

All of these sightings are in vegetation types that occur on the motocross property and within 20-70 metres of the track.  These vegetation types are classified as Bushland Koala Habitat or as Essential Habitat for koalas.

Remember, these are incidental sightings. They are not the result of targeted surveys for koalas.  They are sightings that people happened to make while they were doing other things, and which they have some record of.  People don't tend to look up in trees when they are working on their land.  Even if they do, koalas are pretty cryptically marked.  They have colours which tend to blend with the bark of trees and the dark shadows in thick foliage, and they even have lighter patches around their rear ends, so that their silhouette is broken up when seen against the sky from below.  Most people never see a koala when they are walking through the bush.

Our data collection is not yet complete.  The properties where there are no koala records are almost all ones where we haven't yet tried to collect information or where we don't have access.

The Road-kill Threat

Death by vehicle strike is among the three greatest threats to koala populations in Southeast Queensland.

Adare Road runs from the big dam just to the right of bottom centre in the map vertically (north) to the entrance to the motocross track. There are more than 30 records of koalas within 250 metres of Adare Road (four of these are of koalas crossing the road, and one is of a dead koala on the road).

Koalas are active at night, and that's when they will be crossing the road.  Imagine the number of road-killed koalas there will be if there is motocross traffic on Adare Road four to six nights per week!

Comparison Between Our Data and the Government Database

The WildNet database has been built up by the State government over a number of years. It contains records of wildlife sightings and listings of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, freshwater fish, sharks and rays, butterflies and other priority invertebrates in Queensland.

The wildlife lists are based on collated species lists and wildlife records from Queensland Government departments and external organisations. The data sources include:

• specimen collections
• research and monitoring programs
• inventory programs including extension activities
• literature records
• wildlife permit returns
• community wildlife recording programs.

WildNet at present has 65 records of koalas within 10km of the motocross track.  In a few weeks members of our group, with the cooperation of the local community, have gathered 66 records within 5km of the track.  That's a fantastic effort.

It's not that the koalas weren't there before - just that this is a big State and there has never been sufficient resources to carry out the necessary surveys at the scale we need for dealing with local government planning applications.

Ultimately our records will go into the WildNet database and into the privately funded Koala Tracker database.

Today's koala sighting

Before I talk about today's koala - quite a lot of people have asked me what a koala call sounds like.  Here's where you can find a typical koala call.  There's nothing that sounds like it, unless you happen to know a pig that rides a motorbike.

Just this morning (31 January 2015) the koala below was seen at Adare, less than 900m from the motocross track.  It was snoozing high in a Moreton Bay Ash, and was woken by the voices of the photographer and her friends, even though they were about 70 metres away.

Imagine the blast of sound it would have got from 40 motocross bikes charging around the track.  According to the Noise Impact Assessment contained in the application for the motocross facility, if this koala had been feeding at night on the ground at the base of the tree, it would have been subjected to 65dB of noise (louder than a suburban expressway at 90 metres).  Of course if it was feeding high in the tree where we found it, the noise would have been much greater because it would be in direct line of sight to the track, with nothing to attenuate the sound.

Today is the day of the State election in Queensland, when we are able to have a say in the kind of future we want. What say does this koala have about its future?  None.  Its future, and that of may other koalas in this part of the Lockyer, depends on whether you join us in speaking up on its behalf.

What about the koalas actually on the bush on the property where the motocross is proposed to operate? They will be exposed to much higher levels of noise.  How do we know they are there?  Well, the habitat is the same.  Have a look at the map below.

Today's koala was seen on private land, in the edge of Essential Habitat, beside a large area of Bushland Koala Habitat, (both mapped by the Queensland Government) and, as you can see from the above map, these habitats extend into and occupy most of the motocross property.

In fact, pretty much all of our koala sightings from across the Vinegar Hill / Adare area are in these two habitat zones.  Given that our sightings are only "incidental" sightings by people who were doing other things and not focussed on finding koalas, the density of koalas in these habitats can be expected to be many times greater than our observations suggest.

Koala populations in and around Brisbane are subjected to a range of pressures and threats from highly urbanised environments that make it unlikely that they will survive long term.  We have a koala population here that has a National Park as a "refuge" and, outside the National Park, shares bushland areas with relatively low densities of human population and very few busy roads.

If the motocross operation goes ahead, this koala population, on and outside the motocross property, is going to be subjected to stressfully high levels of noise which are likely to reduce their "fitness" for survival.  The nearest part of the Essential Habitat to the motocross track will be exposed to levels of noise between being exposed to an "in sink" garbage disposal one metre away and being in a very noisy restaurant.

Koalas have evolved on a specific diet of Eucalyptus leaves which have an extremely low energy content and are difficult to process and digest.  As a result, they have adapted their physiology and behaviour to minimise energy expenditure, e.g. sleeping up to 20 hours per day.

Since energy is required for basic living and koalas have limited resources of it, any unnecessary use of energy is likely to be of importance to their welfare.  The stress response is a very costly biological response in terms of energy metabolism.  It is possible that the triggering of stress responses may have a greater impact on koalas than other native species due to their reliance on a low energy diet.

In addition, there is circumstantial evidence that the level of chlamydiosis infections in koalas might increase as a result of noise stress impacts on their immune systems.

Please, let the Lockyer Valley Councillor and the general public know that this is an unacceptable impact on a koala population that does not have any way to speak for itself.

Not only is the presence of a large number of koalas an ongoing source of interest and pleasure to local people, it is a quality of the Lockyer Valley environment that we should be proud of and make widely known - not something to be destroyed for the sake of a motocross track.

Most recent Koala sighting

Time we started sharing our koala sightings with the community.  Residents in the Vinegar Hill / Adare area regularly see koalas on their properties and along the roadside.  Until now they have generally not recorded these incidental sightings, and in fact since most of us don't tend to look into the treetops when working outside, most koala presence would have gone unnoticed.

This is the most recent sighting I am aware of, seen mid-afternoon yesterday (29 January 2015) - 1.5km from the site of the motocross track.

It's a big male who brought attention to himself by calling from his perch high in an Ironbark.  Male koalas call any time, but mostly during the breeding season which lasts from September to January.  The call can be heard (by humans) for up to a kilometre.  I haven't found any information on how far away a female koala can hear a call.  The male's call advertises his presence (and location) to females in the area, and also contains information about his size.  If the female likes what she hears she will go looking for him.

Like all wildlife which uses calls as part of its relationship with others of its species, the koalas in Adare / Vinegar Hill will find their life cycles disrupted by motocross sounds.  This will be particularly the case if the track operates as planned from 4.00pm to 9.00pm Tuesday to Friday and "occasionally" to 9.00pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
 
Koalas are mainly nocturnal and tend to be most active around dawn and dusk. They spend around 18 to 20 hours of each day resting in order to conserve energy, due to the low-energy content of their main diet of Eucalyptus leaves. 

He won't be getting much of his daytime sleep on weekends if the motocross track is approved, and this will seriously affect his "energy budget", leading to health impacts.  These impacts will add to the stress impacts resulting from exposure to high noise levels six days per week.  It has been suggested that the stress experienced by koalas exposed to noise and disturbance leads to lowered immune system function, which in turn will exacerbate the impacts of chlamydia.  Many or most koalas in Southeast Queensland are already infected with chlamydia.

Koala records - Vinegar Hill and Adare

One of the things people realised when they started looking through the application for the motocross track at the end of Adare Road was how the "official" information on Koalas differed from their experience of Koalas on their land.

We've just received and plotted the first batches of historical records of Koalas from landowners in the area.

This is only the start, and in fact there are more records there than you can immediately see because at this scale some pins are hidden behind others.

These records are going to be entered in the official WildNET database, and will also be stored in a Google Earth database that lets us see how koala distribution coincides with landscape features such as watercourses or vegetation types.  This will allow us to make a more informed assessment of the likely Koala population on the motocross property than the applicant seems to have done.

It's not just the historical records we are looking for.  The Koala survey will be ongoing, so that as a community we can build up a good understanding of our Koala population.

Do you have any notes or photos of Koalas on your land?  We need dates and locations - if you have a photo of a koala, no matter how fuzzy or far away, the date will be in the metadata for the photo (we can help you to extract it if necessary).

If you are within about four kilometres of the motocross property we are interested in receiving your Koala records.  If you haven't already been contacted by one of the Koala team, you can get in touch with Hanneke at no.adare.mx@skymesh.com.au or leave a comment with your contact details on this blog post (all comments are moderated before showing up on the blog, so I'll make sure your contact details don't get posted publicly).