The following appeared in a recent Noosa Parks Association newsletter as a report from NPA President Tony Wellington.

Gosh knows there’s enough bad news in the world at the moment, so here is some good news. Noosa Shire looks set to become one of the most significant and enduring repositories of koalas in Queensland. 

NPA recently received a lovely congratulatory letter from the Director-General of the Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation acknowledging that: the final parcels of Yurol and Ringtail Forests are now dedicated as national park; the carbon abatement interests have occurred and appear on the land title; and that our financial investment has accrued interest that will be put towards koala conservation projects (more on that in a moment). The D-G’s letter rightly singled out Michael Gloster for special mention.

I’m sure most of you know by now, but in brief, Michael conceived the audacious plan to buy out the plantation rights to Yurol and Ringtail Forests and have the land rehabilitated as natural habitat. Michael initially took the idea to HQ Plantations and succeeded in convincing them to relinquish their long-term use rights for a very nominal fee. He then brought the concept to Noosa Council while I was mayor. Together, NPA and Noosa Council convinced the Queensland Government to join us, with each of the three parties stumping up $1.2 million in costs. Once underway, the multi-pronged project was shepherded by Noosa Council CEO Brett de Chastel. 

Seven years later, and the harvesting of pine and hardwood is complete and reafforestation well underway, with Greenfleet utilising the services of Noosa & District Landcare under carbon offset arrangements.

Aerial surveys of the land surrounding the plantation parcels demonstrated there were some 300 koalas living in the remnant forests of Yurol and Ringtail. When the plantation areas are revegetated, the 2,400 hectares will be habitat for around 500 koalas. Yurol and Ringtail Forests are now part of the enlarged Tewantin National Park. 

As Michael noted in an earlier newsletter, this magnificent project provides connectivity through the Noosa hinterland, from the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park to Noosa National Park. Eventually, with private landowner participation, the new sections of Tewantin National Park may also connect with West Cooroy Conservation Park and Mapleton National Park. Council’s environment staff have mapped potential koala corridors to inform landscape restoration and land use planning. Such linkages are essential for genetic diversity and thus the overall health of our koalas.

The money for the plantation rights provided by NPA, council and the state was held in an interest-bearing account and accrued $300,000 in interest. Under the agreement, that money will now go towards local koala conservation projects to be approved by the state in consultation with NPA and council. So the Yurol-Ringtail story just keeps getting better.

I suggested at the beginning of this message that Noosa may be a significant repository of healthy koalas in Queensland. That’s not a flippant exaggeration. At a recent Koala Connect event, koala and greater glider rescuer Rachel Lyons, now a Conservation & Environment Coordinator with Noosa Council, suggested that Noosa has at least 2,000 koalas currently living in the shire and the true figure could be even higher. Her statement reminded me that in 2015, a state-funded SEQ Koala Population Modelling Study found there to be just seven koalas in the shire. Thanks to dog detection methods and drone thermal imaging, we now know how woefully inadequate that modelling was. 

The difficulty in using citizen science sightings as a guide is that the results tell you more about where humans go than about where animals live. There are going to be more sightings of remnant koalas around densely populated urban areas, but those animals are unlikely to represent the most viable populations. The healthiest and most successful koala populations will be in places where they are least likely to be seen by casual observers. That’s why drone technology has revolutionised our appreciation of koala populations and their distribution.

Noosa is a good news story for threatened creatures because close to 45% of the shire is in some form of protected covenant, and that is very much a product of NPA’s efforts since its inception in 1962. NPA was integral to the expansion of Noosa Heads National Park, the rescue of Cooloola from mining, logging and development, and the conversion of our state forests into national parks and conservation land. But here’s the crunch. Not only have we helped to protect existing vegetation, but the Yurol Ringtail Conservation Project demonstrates our commitment to rehabilitating degraded land into native forest. 

Noosa’s koalas stand a better chance of long-term survival than many others across the state, and it’s all thanks to the wild imaginings of Michael Gloster, decades of efforts by NPA, kindly benefactors, and the wonderful work of our information hut volunteers who help raise the money for such projects. I thank you all.

Tony Wellington, NPA President.