Environmental groups continue to assert that native forestry kills koalas by removing native habitat. They do this by using terms like deforestation, which they know is incorrect, to facilitate donations for running costs and public support.
However, the fact remains that urbanisation is a big factor in the removal of koala habitat.
Keep reading as there has been no whimper for the NSW State Minister for the Environment, the WWF-Australia, The Wilderness Society, The Conservation Foundation of NSW or the Australia Koala Foundation.
Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens on the northern shores of Port Stephens in NSW have been the focus of koalas for some time. In 1999, the Scientific Committee, established by the Threatened Species Conservation Act, made a Final Determination to list the Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens population of koalas as an ENDANGERED POPULATION.
This followed much public lobbying by the now Minister for the Environment, the Hon. Penny Sharpe – who is determined to get a Great Koala National Park, as, she claims, koalas could be extinct by 2050.
The Myall Koala Environment Group even have a website:
The website has a map of a Hawk’s Nest Nature Walk. It shows Myall St, from the bridge over the Myall River to the first T-intersection at Mungo Brush Rd. The first cross street in this section of the road is Ibis Street. Between the end of the bridge and Ibis Street, the route travels through a small area of local bushland.
Here are three photos of the vegetation on the northern side of Myall Rd where road signs indicated koalas crossed:
Here are three photos taken on 2 November 2024 of what has occurred to vegetation on the southern side of this section of the road, which was like that on the north of Myall Road:
Koala activity in Hawks Nest has been maintained by connectivity between “koala trees.”
What has occurred here is the further removal of bushland connectivity because of land clearing for urban development.
The local government authority is the MidCoast Council. Before the Coalition Government’s Council amalgamations, the Council was known as the Great Lakes Council. The locals jokingly referred to it as the “Great Mistake Council”.
A mistake has been made on this land adjacent to Myall Rd.
Local advice is that the land’s history is that the previous owner wanted to clear the understory, which was mostly invasive weeds, to establish a caravan park beneath the tree canopy. Such a canopy would have retained some koala connectivity. The Council said “No”! The land was then sold, and the photos above show the outcome. Housing will undoubtedly follow after the landfill has been shipped to lift any dwellings above a low-lying area. Any plantings in suburban gardens will unlikely be that of koala tree species as they are big trees.
As already stated, there has been no murmur from the NSW ALP State Government, no murmur from the environmental groups where urban deforestation or land clearing has impacted recognised koala habitats, and no murmur from those now Ministers in the State Government who fought so hard to get the 1999 Scientific Committee Declaration.
