2016-04-19 P&E Committee - Item 4, Attachment 1 - Draft Koala Conservation Management Plan

      Hospital and Wildlife Rescue organisations: Moggill Koala Hospital, Australia
       Zoo, Koala Rescue and Wildlife Rescue keep their own records of ‘in-patients’
      Noosa Council: Records are kept from public consultation processes,
       consultant reports on development applications and engagement of koala
       survey services such as the USC Koala Detection Dogs for Conservation

There are also some local residents who are ‘champions’ in monitoring local koalas
and who record their sightings and photos on Facebook.

Whilst each organisation will continue to keep their own records, from Council’s
perspective, WildNet is considered the official database for record keeping as it
informs the State Essential Habitat Mapping.

Koala Tracker is a ‘citizen science’ web based facility and is a very useful database.
Some verifiable data from this resource has been used to inform the Noosa koala
habitat maps.

Koala Habitat Mapping

To help guide Council and community koala conservation actions it is important to
accurately identify koala habitat areas. There are currently several mapping resources
available to Council. Statutory maps are used for development assessment purposes.
Local mapping can provide more detail to State mapping and can be used as extrinsic
material to inform development assessment decisions.

Statutory koala habitat maps include the Queensland State Planning Policy (SPP)
Wildlife Habitat Mapping, State Planning Regulatory Planning Provisions (SPRP)
mapping (see map 1, page 6) and Essential Habitat mapping for threatened species
(including koalas)

Non-statutory koala habitat maps include the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF)
Noosa Koala Habitat Atlas and the South-east Queensland Catchments (SEQC)
Noosa Koala Habitat and Threat Mapping Project. These are discussed below.

In October 2000 the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) provided Council with the
Noosa Koala Habitat Atlas. Suitable feed and shelter trees were identified that had
koala ‘scats’ underneath. Vegetation types were attributed to the location data and
shire-wide maps developed. The maps identify primary, secondary and tertiary
habitats based on the likely density of koalas utilising that particular habitat type.

In 2016, Noosa Council engaged SEQ Catchments to develop local koala maps for
Noosa Shire. Similar to the AKF Koala Habitat Atlas, the SEQC Noosa Koala Habitat
Mapping Project has taken an evidence based approach to identifying habitat. This
means that land can only be mapped as koala habitat if there has been evidence of
koalas using that particular vegetation in Noosa Shire. Map 3 shows the SEQC koala
habitat mapping. The SEQC koala habitat mapping is a verifiable mapping resource
because it is based on local evidence and also includes regrowth, which koalas often


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