Southern Highlands Koala Conservation Project

• Expansion of the Land for Wildlife network with over 200 active properties and over 5,500 ha being managed for conservation.
• Over 12, 400 koala habitat trees (local provenance) given away to Land for Wildlife properties from 2021 to 2025 to create new habitat (approximately 80 ha of habitat reconstruction).
• Over 2,579 ha over 7 privately-owned properties in permanent conservation agreements in Wingecarribee Shire with over $28m invested (NSW BCT – Conservation Tender 11).
• 85 hectares restored in 2023 and 2024 as part of the Koala Strategy funded Koala Habitat Restoration Program.
• 10,000+ koala habitat trees planted to create new habitat (85 ha) at Guula Ngurra National Park.
• Chemical training (ChemCert) offered to local First Nations people to assist with restoring koala habitat on Country at Guula Ngurra National Park.
• Collaborating with other agencies on koala habitat restoration projects to improve outcomes for Southern Highlands koalas.
• Over 300 vegetation surveys completed to contribute to vegetation mapping for the Southern Highlands.

• Providing citizen science opportunities for the community to record koala sightings online.
• Launched the Koala Club for community members to pledge their support for koala conservation and learn more.
• Creation and involvement of a public land management inter-agency working group to exchange ideas and collaborate on conservation programs and projects. Member organisations include DPE, NPWS, WaterNSW, ForestryCorp, NSW BCT, South East Local Land Services, Wingecarribee Shire Council and Wollondilly Shire Council.
• Supporting landholders with ecological assessments and land management advice through Land for Wildlife.
• Promoting the use of the Koala Smart program in primary and secondary schools across the Southern Highlands.
• Supporting the Flora Reserve Working Group to achieve better conservation outcomes in the new Jellore, Belanglo and Meryla Flora Reserves.
• Working with indigenous stakeholders to deliver on-ground outcomes including weed control and revegetation.
• Delivery of multiple workshops, celebratory events, education resources and newsletters e.g., Koalarama workshop series.
• Partnering with other providers (Rivers of Carbon, South East Local Land Services, and Greening Australia) to deliver better conservation outcomes for koalas including facilitating private land conservation working group meetings.

• Support wildlife carers to provide the best possible care to injured or sick koalas.
• Facilitate workshops across all care organisations to improve care standards and outcomes.
• Supporte improved fire management to better protect koalas and their habitat.
• Developed a Koala-Vehicle Strike plan for priority roads to guide the installation and use of dynamic signage.
• Deployment of roadside variable message signs during koala breeding season to improve driver awareness on roads that intersect core koala habitat.
• Installed Koala Zone banners at local schools to raise driver awareness.

• Facilitate community-led sightings of koalas.
• Established a methodology for long-term koala monitoring.
• Support state-wide baseline monitoring of koalas.
• Contribute to collection of genetic samples.
• Delivery of Koala Karaoke bioacoustics monitoring programs in 2020, 2021 and 2022 where naive occupancy was estimated to be 23 per cent, 30 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. This involved the deployment and retrieval of 125 (2020), 135 (2021) and 141 (2022) AudioMoths in accessible and remote bushland across the Shire.
• A third year of monitoring took place in 2023, adopting new state-wide methodology involving 119 sites across the shire. Koalas were detected at 56 of 119 sites. We also launched Koala Karaoke: Citizen Science Edition targeting habitat on private land in the west of the Shire.
• Acoustic monitoring is planned to take place every second year from 2025 onwards.

Council is developing a series of Koala Habitat Maps (Potential, Highly Suitable and Core Koala Habitat) to be used in a Koala Plan of Management (KPOM). This involves an extensive update of the draft fine-scale Plant Community Type Map (PCT) for Wingecarribee Shire (2016) focusing on on-ground validation and manual editing in identified priority areas for koala habitat conservation. The fine-scale PCT map will be used as the basis of the koala habitat maps along with an occupancy map developed using four years of acoustic data (2020-2023).

We’re currently working on the fine-scale vegetation map update and the occupancy analysis. For the PCT map update, we first conducted a gap analysis to identify undersampled PCTs and geographical gaps in survey effort across the shire. Over 300 vegetation surveys have been undertaken by botanists in 2023 and 2024 in the identified gaps and priority areas for on-ground validation. These surveys help inform the translation of the old decommissioned PCTs to the new PCTs in our draft fine-scale map.

Once the PCT map updates are complete, we will create our Koala Habitat Maps and commence development of a KPOM in 2025-2026. This project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water with funding from the NSW Koala Strategy.