Lismore volunteers fight uphill battle to save koalas from extinction

Our iconic native marsupials are getting stuck in pools, crawling through doggy doors and seeking refuge in homes as their habitat inexorably shrinks. Meet the volunteers fighting koala extinction.

April Lacono lives among the trees the Northern Rivers koalas call home – the last sanctuary on the north coast for the endangered species.

A member of the stolen generation, Ms Lacono feels a strong connection to the land and native wildlife, volunteering lots of her time with Friends of the Koala.

The only licensed koala rescue, rehabilitation and release sanctuary in the Northern Rivers, Friends of the Koala volunteers are on the front line of holding back koala extinction in the region.

Ms Lacono is one of 150 volunteers dedicating a collective 1000 hours every week to their mission.

April Lacono, volunteer with friends of the Koala.

Volunteers man a 24-hour rescue hotline, and will go out and rescue a sick or injured koala any time of the day or night.

“The moment our hotline rings we answer it and find out where the koala is and send out our nearest rescuer,” Ms Lacono said.

When a sick koala has been reported, volunteers set up a trap and wait patiently for them to come down – usually in the small hours of the morning.

“The favourite time for a koala to be on the move is at night, particularly dawn and dusk,” she said.

“A motion camera will let us know straight away when the koala goes into the trap. And then we send out a rescuer to go and get them … back to the hospital as soon as possible.”

Sometimes the koalas come in for silly reasons.

“We have girls come in because they‘ve got stuck in pools … koalas through doggy doors, and on screen doors,” Ms Lacono said.

“One koala got stuck in somebody's bedroom, and the person who called us was just sitting there with a koala on their bed.”

Ms Lacono said there were some “repeat offenders” who regularly returned for a visit.

“Goma, another koala that was released, he’s always finding himself in silly spots – he’s been rescued three times now,” she said.

“He was sent back out to another safe spot. Fingers crossed he doesn’t come back.”

But most of the time it’s a race against time to treat a koala suffering from chlamydia, or injured from a car hit or animal attack.

Nearly all rescues are because of habitat destruction.

Friends of the Koala veterinarian Jodie Wakeman said property development, fires and floods had left the Northern Rivers koalas with nowhere to go – forcing them into suburban areas where it was more likely cars would hit them or dogs could attack.

Koala veterinarian Jodie Wakeman and koala veterinarian nurse Marley Christian in a rehabilitation enclosure at Friends of the Koala in Lismore.

The disruption to koala colonies because of a lack of habitat has also aggravated the diseases koalas in the region are suffering.

“Chlamydial pneumonia, Chlamydial conjunctivitis, Chlamydial cystitis … it just destroys them,” Ms Lacono said.

And while the vets and the rescuers do all they can to rehabilitate the marsupials, the rescue service is also working to address the root cause.

The organisation is not just rehabilitating koalas, it is rehabilitating koala habitat in the Northern Rivers.

“That is probably one of our biggest goals – the conservation of koala habitat,” Ms Lacono said.

“You can’t conserve wildlife, if they have no habitat to live in.

“Koalas don‘t actually have many places to go. They’ve got little pockets here and there.

“What we‘re actually trying to do is link all those pockets together.”

Friends of the Koala operates a nursery where volunteers cultivate eucalyptus trees for koala habitat and food.

“Since the nursery started in 1990, we have distributed 336,500 koala food trees and approximately 600,000 various trees, shrubs, ground covers and grasses,” nursery manager Mark Wilson said.

“The nursery now produces approximately 75,000 plants per year.

“This has increased over the past 18 months due to the construction of the new Bushfire Recovery Nursery in Lismore.”

The NSW Government is aiming to double koala numbers in New South Wales by 2050 through the NSW Koala Strategy.

Venus and Cupid at Friend of the Koala Hospital in Lismore, Photo credit Photos: Brad Mustow/Friends of the Koala.

Under the NSW Koala Strategy, $107.1 million is being invested over five years to fund the protection and restoration of about 47,000 hectares of koala habitat and $3.5m will go towards training about 500 vets to support wildlife rehabilitation.

Friends of the Koala president Aliison Kelly said the NSW Koala strategy was “an amazing step forward” for koalas across the state, particularly in the Northern Rivers, “but it’s not the only answer”.

“We need to strengthen our laws around habitat removal. We need to seriously look at the native forest logging,” she said.

Koala in a rehabilitation enclosure at Friends of the Koala in Lismore.

“What concerns me is the legislation around habitat removal. Green corridors need to be strengthened so that when developers come in, they can’t just remove habitat for houses.

“We need to work with the NSW Government, the Department of Planning and Environment, farmers and environmental groups to have a real conversation about habitat removal and make it clear and simple for everyone to understand.”

Koalas get in trouble when they are trying to move from one habitat area to another as green corridors for migration are severed through property development.

“In all the rescues that we’ve had this week – about eight, but probably more – most of them are just no habitat,” Ms Lacono said.

“Misadventure because the koalas are on the move looking for either habitat or looking for a mate.

“We actually got a female here that is perfectly fine. She’s beautiful and healthy, but she’s got no habitat.

“She was on the move and got lost and she needs a home.”

The volunteers and vet nurses drive around and find a patch of habitat that’s unoccupied for release, but it’s an uphill battle for the volunteers to keep the iconic native animal out of trouble as their habitat inexorably shrinks.

“We try our best, we really do,” Ms Lacono said.

Originally published as Lismore volunteers fight uphill battle to save koalas from extinction