The Koala Count

A young koala, scats at the base of the tree. Photo by Rowena Whiting

From The Murrumbidgee Naturalist, June 2014 - Issue #216

One of our excursion for May was to the Narrandera Koala Count to perform a census of the koalas in the Narrandera Nature Reserve, to check on their numbers and general health. The count is held annually, weather permitting, but this is the first full count in three years. 112 volunteers came from surrounding towns to participate and ‘to see a koala’, which they did. Thirty six koalas were sighted in total. The census is organised by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Narrandera Koala Regeneration Centre Supervisory Committee and  the Rotary Club puts on a sausage sizzle so it was a real family day out.

The volunteers were divided into eleven groups, each with a leader and a roll of coloured tape to mark trees with a koala. I joined the MFN group with Max as leader and we joked about getting lost. I assured them that I wouldn’t get lost as we walk the dogs there a couple of times a week. Our group was allotted the area from the front gate to first beach. I soon realised that the trees there were generally too small for koalas and the trees would be better  near the beach. I was right and after sighting a koala, I set out along the road to the place where we signed on. As it was a fair way I was pleased to see a car coming, and the driver offered me a lift. It was Lorna Quilter of the Koala Committee and she was on her way to  report me lost. I knew exactly where I was! Next time I’ll take my mobile and keep with my group.

MFNers enjoying lunch after the count. Photo by Rowena Whiting

Koalas were released in the early seventies into the Nature Reserve at the back of the area called ‘the common’, but the whole area has since been renamed “The Flora and Fauna Reserve”. An area of 479 hectares, the common was once an open space with a few huge old River Red Gums, which still remain. During the Depression some very poor families lived on the common in tents and humpies, probably kept a cow, grew vegetables and planted the fruit trees which were removed a couple of years ago. It was sad to see part of our history disappear but the arrival of the fruit-fly menace made it necessary.

According to an old friend with whom I talked recently, (he was a boy here in the forties and lived in Robert Street, the nearest street to the common in those days) the old burnt out shells of red gums which we see on the common were burnt to produce charcoal for ‘gas  producers’, an ugly contraption attached to cars’ bumper bars during the second world war when petrol was very scarce and strictly rationed. He also mentioned the lagoon near the gates of the canal and common where he spent a considerable amount of time watching for  the platypuses which lived there!

The floods of the fifties, along with the eradication of rabbits brought up a huge crop of red gum seedlings – now the middle sized trees favoured by koalas. The floods of the seventies brought up the smaller trees which now make the forest so dense.

The new ranger (Allan McLean - Ed) with NPWS was very impressed with the number of  volunteers who turned out for the count and suggested that we start at 9.30am in future years to make travelling easier for people from more distant towns. See you next year at 9.30!

Betty Bradney