Koala habitat protected at Wallamara near Armidale

Bay Post-Moruya Examiner

Peter Lloyd, Gary Swanson and Richard Bird discuss their property Wallamara which will serve as protected habitat for koalas

Transcript

00:00In an overview, Richard, southeast of Armidale.

00:05So we'll probably resurrect that, run with that.

00:08And put roughly in place in about 1870 to here.

00:12So we're now all in Armidale Jamaica.

00:30Tessellated bark, box trees.

00:44There's no offshoots of timber used.

00:47It's quite an impressive species.

00:51So Peter just said this is a grey.

00:53Yeah.

00:55Yeah.

00:56Yeah.

00:57Yeah.

00:59Yeah.

01:02Yeah.

01:05Yeah.

01:08Yeah.

01:23Yeah, yeah, we'll see most of it, most all of it's up here, it's all up here, it's where you go on your journeys and it sort of comes down.

01:30It's where Dummy Creek, Dummy Creek comes down through.

01:39Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see most of it, most all of it's up here, it's all up here, it's where you go on your journeys and it sort of comes down.

01:53Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see most of it, most all of it's up here, it's where you go on your journeys and it sort of comes down.

02:12Yeah, yeah, I saw that before, the little red bits on the ground.

02:23I mean, those burnt trees, the new younger growth coming through, so this is all koala

02:50habitat.

02:51So, you know, we've got a lot of work to do to actually get all this up to speed.

03:11And this is looking so healthy.

03:24Yes.

03:25It's never looked this healthy.

03:26So, before the fire, you didn't have the same amount of regrowth?

03:30No.

03:31And I think, you know, because of the fire, the trees obviously dropped their seeds.

03:37And it's such a, it's like pretty difficult country to get a complete pig control program.

03:41You know, like it's so hard to get all of it done at once, you know.

03:46And then the CRC for Invasive Species, I think it's called.

03:51Yep.

03:52A couple of those guys at UNE as well as part of the CRC.

03:56So, not always, you know, it would be great to get some research done.

04:07What the tender does allow us to do is providing the funds from the state government.

04:16We can put that towards active conservation management for the property.

04:20This was an agreement in perpetuity, meant that not only were we preserving that land

04:25for our own time, this was in perpetuity for our successional plans for families and anybody

04:31who might come in.

04:32So, plus the fact that there's a funding arrangement that comes in each year.

04:37So, it means that we can control feral animals and feral plants and really manage the property

04:45as best because from an agricultural point of view, we can't generate income from this land.

04:50So, we're generating income through conservation.

04:53What better way is there to go?

04:55We knew from a lot of, again, records from people telling us that this was koala habitat.

05:02And the koalas were probably, unfortunately, wiped out probably by bushfire.

05:06There's certainly scratch marks on the trees and from the old graziers and previous owners,

05:12they've said things like they couldn't sleep at night for the koala noises.

05:16The fact that there is no fence between here and three or four hundred thousand hectares

05:21of National Park Estate means that if we can be the initiator of bringing koalas back

05:27where they're in a population that they will survive, that can only be a good thing.

05:32Basically, it comes down to a feeling good about conserving something,

05:37but it means that we can actually do something now that's meaningful.

05:41It's basically what a small group of people can do privately for the benefit.

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