It recently rebranded as Koala Conservation Australia and is now spearheading the world’s first wild koala breeding program. We chatted with General Manager Maria Doherty to find out more.
About The Koala Hospital, Port Macquarie
The Hospital’s a local institution, founded 50 years ago by local residents Jean and Max Starr to care for sick and injured koalas in Port Macquarie. It started by looking after koalas hurt by dogs or car strikes, but its operations have expanded over the years. Recently the Hospital started working with the local wildlife care group, FAWNA, to treat all kinds of wildlife – kangaroos, wallabies, possums and other marsupials, as well as birds and reptiles in need.
Many of the koalas we see are infected with chlamydia. This disease is the biggest killer of our wild koalas, so our vets screen every koala and develop a treatment plan in the hope we can cure and release them back to the wild. Following several years of extreme weather and ongoing habitat loss, we are finding koalas are less healthy than in the past.
KCA manages two plantations which grow ‘koala food trees’ to ensure we have enough food for koalas in our care. Koalas that can’t be released, because they would not survive in the wild, are sometimes kept as exhibit koalas, each with their own story. These koalas help us educate visitors, school children and tour groups about the plight of wild koalas and they also help the Koala Hospital raise much needed funds.
We also organise a national Koala Conference. It’s usually biannual but Covid meant a longer break. This year, we hosted the conference in Port Macquarie for around 340 researchers, ecologists, vets, vet nurses and wildlife carers who came to share knowledge and learn from each other. A feature was hearing about trials to immunise young koalas against chlamydia.
A current, major project is the development of a new facility which will host the first program in the world to breed koalas for release to the wild. During the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 we opened a GoFundMeaccount, hoping to raise $25,000 to build wildlife water drinking stations. We raised $7.9 million from the public, both in Australia and overseas! These funds have made it possible to develop the wild koala breeding program, one of our long-term goals.
This program is essential to the survival of koalas in the wild. Chlamydia is endemic, habitat has been lost to bush fires and development, and it’s predicted that wild koalas in NSW could be extinct by 2050. There are breeding programs at some of the zoos – we work closely with Taronga Zoo – but joeys bred in captivity are not permitted by law to be released to the wild.
The New Guulabaa Site
In addition to rebranding as Koala Conservation Australia, we’re moving to a new site in the Cowarra State Forest. This location is named Guulabaa, which means ‘place of the koala’. We’ve partnered with Bunyah Land Council, the Forestry Corporation of NSW, Wildnets Adventure Park and Hello Koalas to build a tourism precinct, to bring in visitors and funds for ongoing operations.
Our part of the site will include not just the breeding areas, but also our koala clinic, koala exhibit yards and a scientific laboratory for further research. The site has been carefully planned to allow tourist access while still keeping the wild breeding area away from most human contact. There are strict biosecurity requirements too.
Like many others in Australia, we’ve been hit by rising construction costs, but development is going ahead and we’re excited to get our first wild koalas settled in soon.
The Wild Koala Breeding Plan
We know surprisingly little about how koalas breed in the wild. Some koalas seem to form pairs, but other males are keener on a harem. Our plan is to set up the koalas in both ways and see what happens. We’re working on that already, with teams from Taronga Zoo, the Australian Museum Research Institute, University of Sydney and University of Newcastle.
Our initial numbers will be quite small. We’ll be monitoring and learning, but interacting as little as possible. The breeding yards are separated from the tourism facilities by a creek to keep human contact to a minimum.
The aim is to have 55 breeding koalas in the yards by 2026, producing up to 35 joeys a year which we can release into the wild. We’ll be working with our partners to release these koalas in NSW following major research and assessment into where the most appropriate, koala friendly translocation sites are. We want to supplement affected populations, and improve genetic diversity. We’re also looking at potentially repopulating local sites impacted by the bush fires.
It’s very exciting and very new. After 2026, we will assess the program with the aim of expanding it to produce more joeys for release each year.
And What’s The Radincon Connection?
The koalas we treat have usually been injured by cars or dogs, so we need X-rays to understand the extent of those injuries and treat them properly. In the past we took injured koalas to other facilities for X-rays, but this caused stress on the animals and had a negative impact on recovery. They’re wild animals, not used to humans, and already injured. We received a grant from IFAW to purchase X-ray equipment and we reached out to various companies including Radincon.
Jon Marriott was amazing right from the start. He just said, ‘We’ve got some equipment we can give you.’ Not only that, he drove to Port Macquarie and delivered it to us. Since then he’s been back again with some additional equipment. It’s great to have Jon and Radincon supporting the Koala Hospital and to say ‘thank you’ we’ve made Jon into a Koala Ambassador.
One of the first koalas to benefit from the new equipment is Shelly Beach Road Trish. She was injured during an extreme weather event in Port Macquarie and had a bone fracture in her right elbow. The fracture has healed, but sadly she has not regained use of her right arm and will now stay on permanent exhibition at the Koala Hospital. Trish is available for adoption under KCA’s adoption program where all the funds raised are directed to caring for sick and injured koalas.
Radincon’s generosity also means we can use the grant from IFAW to purchase other, much needed equipment. Our goal in this and in everything is to ensure that wild koalas thrive in NSW long after 2050.
