Since the 2019/20 bushfires, it has become increasingly important to better understand the distribution and abundance of remaining koala populations. The Campbelltown koalas escaped the conflagration by little more than the width of a road and some timely backburning.
We have been working with Campbelltown City Council for many years, most recently to bring a Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management to fruition, one element of which is the establishment of a long-term koala monitoring program. Working with Council officers and landholders, we engaged in gathering important baseline data on the LGA-wide distribution of koalas and how much of the available habitat is actually being used.
The baseline data formed the basis of a presentation and public workshop in early 2021, from which we further refined the longer-term monitoring strategy, including the potential for citizen science to be integrated into the program.