Ecological Assessment

                                                  steep mountain ranges, unsuitable habitats or
                                                  treeless areas more than 1 kilometre wide. Artificial
                                                  barriers may include infrastructure (such as roads,
                                                  rail, mines etc.) that have ineffective mitigation to
                                                  facilitate movement or high traffic volumes or other
                                                  developments that create treeless areas more than
                                                  1 km wide”. While barriers exist to the north and
                                                  immediate east and west, Eenie Creek is unlikely
                                                  to represent an insurmountable barrier (i.e. koalas
                                                  are capable of swimming the creek). Given this,
                                                  and given Walter Hay Drive includes koala
                                                  mitigation structures further to the south (i.e.
                                                  bridges and underpasses), the extent of
                                                  contiguous habitat is >500ha.
               +1          Area is part of a      -
                           contiguous
               (medium)
                           landscape < 500
                           ha, but ≥ 300 ha.
               0 (low)     None of the above      -
Key Existing   +2 (high)   Little or no           -
                           evidence of koala
Threats
                           mortality from
                           vehicle strike or
                           dog attack at
                           present in areas
                           that score 1 or 2
                           for koala
                           occurrence
               +1          Evidence of            The Koala Tracker website (Harris, 2013) shows          +1
                           infrequent or          evidence of Koala mortality from car strike (as
               (medium)
                           irregular Koala        reported by the general public) from 2009 – 2013
                           mortality from         along Walter Hay Drive and Eenie Creek Road.
                           vehicle strike or
                           dog attack at
                           present in areas
                           that score 1 or 2
                           for Koala
                           occurrence
               0 (low)     Evidence of            -
                           frequent or regular
                           koala mortality
                           from vehicle strike
                           or dog attack in
                           the study area at
                           present, or Areas
                           which score 0 for
                           koala occurrence
                           and have a
                           significant dog or
                           vehicle threat
                           present
Recovery       +2 (high)   Habitat is likely to   -
                           be important for
Value
                           achieving the
                           interim recovery
                           objectives for the
                           relevant context,
                           as outlined in
                           Table 1.
               +1          Uncertainty exists     -
                           as to whether the
               (medium)    habitat is
                           important for
                           achieving the
                           interim recovery
                           objectives for the
                           relevant context,
                           as outlined in
                           Table 1.
               0 (low)     Habitat is unlikely    Table 1 identifies the interim recovery objectives as   0 (low)
                           to be important for    “Protect and conserve large, connected areas of
                           achieving the          koala habitat, particularly large, connected areas
                           interim recovery       that support koalas that are:
                           objectives for the     -genetically diverse/distinct; or