{"id":499948,"date":"2026-02-24T01:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499948\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:19:16","slug":"hope-south-east-queensland-koala-population-can-recover-but-advocates-remain-wary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499948\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope south-east Queensland koala population can recover but advocates remain wary"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Australia’s most endangered koala populations appears to be stabilising, but experts warn numbers are still too low to survive a major bushfire or drought.<\/p>\n

The Redlands Coast, east of Brisbane, was once a stronghold for koalas, but since the early-2000s its population has reduced by around 80 per cent.<\/p>\n

Estimates vary but Redlands Council believes the region’s koala population is now sitting between 350 and 500.<\/p>\n

Experts attribute the decline to habitat loss from urbanisation and deaths from road accidents and dog attacks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Koala conservationist Debbie Pointing said it would be a travesty to lose the Redlands Koala population. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

The thought of losing the iconic marsupials is distressing for those who have dedicated their life to protecting them.<\/p>\n

“I think it would be a travesty for future generations,” Koala Action Group President Debbie Pointing said.<\/p>\n

“For them to be let slip away in the name of progress … I think it would be an absolute tragic situation.”<\/p>\n

But there are now signs the remaining population is holding firm.<\/p>\n

Salvage mission<\/p>\n

Since the late 2010s, the Redlands City Council has been working with university researchers to try and halt the population decline.<\/p>\n

A mobile app was launched in 2020 allowing locals to log sightings of koalas and report sickness or injuries to wildlife carers.<\/p>\n

Some koalas have now been fitted with bluetooth ear tags, which can communicate with the app and tell users about koalas in the area.<\/p>\n

\"Bluetooth<\/p>\n

Some Redlands Coast koalas have been fitted with bluetooth ear tags allowing locals to find out their name through a smartphone app. (Supplied: Una Sandeman)<\/p>\n

“The idea is to try and get the community to become guardians of their local koalas … so they will go out and regularly survey,” Griffith University researcher Dr Douglas Kerlin said.<\/p>\n

Reducing road deaths has been another priority.<\/p>\n

Dr Kerlin is part of a team trying to improve road signs, experimenting with artificial intelligence to alert drivers to nearby koalas in real time.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

This camera is being used to train artificial intelligence to recognise koalas in real time, paving the way for smarter road signs. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“We’ve got cameras that look at the roads and when they detect a koala … they can flash up a warning sign to drivers to say ‘please slow down,'” Dr Kerlin said.<\/p>\n

Early last year, Redlands City Council asked the Griffith University team and researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast to test whether its conservation projects were working.<\/p>\n

Population stable but vulnerable<\/p>\n

Neither university found evidence of significant declines in koala abundance in the Redlands City local government area since 2019.<\/p>\n

“It is good news; it’s basically the only city-wide population in parts of Australia where the koala is listed as endangered … that has been showing signs of stability,” Dr Kerlin said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Griffith University researcher Dr Douglas Kerlin said while the koala population stabilising was good news, they remained at serious risk. (ABC News: Charlie Mclean)<\/p>\n

“[But] the population is still at extremely low numbers and is still at extreme risk.”<\/p>\n

“Floods, fires, something like that could come along and wipe this population out.”<\/p>\n

Redlands City Council Environment and Regulation manager Graham Simpson said the findings could pave the way for further action.<\/p>\n

“There are things which are now being proven to work to help local koala populations, particularly that are under pressure due to urbanisation.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Road signs have been installed at popular koala crossings encouraging drivers to slow down. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely essential that other levels of government and even private industry buy-in to some of the things we’re doing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Koala advocate not celebrating yet<\/p>\n

One of Australia’s most renowned koala advocates said she was concerned news of the population stabilising could distract from the threat of urban development.<\/p>\n

“I have spent my whole career counting dead bodies basically,” Australian Koala Foundation Chair Deborah Tabart OAM said.<\/p>\n

Ms Tabart said her organisation had been tracking koala numbers in the Redlands, Brisbane and Logan City local government areas since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

“At that time there was probably 50,000 koalas in there and I have documented the decline of 46,000 of those animals.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Australian Koala Foundation Chair Deborah Tabart says more habitat must be protected to prevent the population becoming extinct. (ABC News: Charlie Mclean)<\/p>\n

She argued state and federal environment laws were failing to stop important koala habitat being cleared.<\/p>\n

The latest flashpoint is Ormiston College, which is planning an expansion of its campus that would see around 600 koala-habitat trees knocked down.<\/p>\n

The Redlands City Council is opposed to the development, and the private school has now asked the state government for permission to proceed.<\/p>\n

The school said the development would be a “net-ecological gain”, because more eucalypt trees \u2014 which koalas use for food \u2014 would be planted through the middle of the school’s grounds.<\/p>\n

“[Currently] there are about 50 koala-food trees amongst other trees,” Ormiston College headmaster Michael Hornby said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Local koala advocates say Ormiston College’s proposed campus expansion would wipe out hundreds of trees used by koalas. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“And [we want] to take it over the 500 mark.”<\/p>\n

There is also disagreement about whether the Ormiston College trees are permanent or temporary koala habitat.<\/p>\n

Last year the school commissioned environmental consultants to assess its development plans who found the level of use by koalas was likely to be ‘transitory’.<\/p>\n

Ms Tabart and local advocates disputed that finding and argued it would take around a decade for the new trees to reach maturity.<\/p>\n

“Are they going to ask the koalas to pack their bags and move to some offset site [in the meantime]?” Ms Tabart said.<\/p>\n

The Australian Koala Foundation has long advocated for a national koala protection act that would ban the clearing of any trees within koalas’ geographic range.<\/p>\n

“Redlands has virtually no habitats [left] that are further away than two kilometres [from major development].”<\/p>\n

“Those koalas are [already] functionally extinct and will not be here in 50 years,”<\/p>\n

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie will have the final say on the Ormiston College development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Australia’s most endangered koala populations appears to be stabilising, but experts warn numbers are still too…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1313,64,63,32972,2929,20558,251497,251499,44946,128,251498,338],"class_list":["post-499948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-animals","tag-conservation","tag-endangered-species","tag-endangered-species-recovery","tag-koala-conservation","tag-koalas","tag-science","tag-the-koala-coast","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}