On Stirling Downs Jenny Skelton gave us an orientation property tour and then guided us to a well preserved koala skeleton. We quickly found fresh signs of koalas but walked a lot of creek lines before finding one elusive and somewhat ginger koala (Carmen did the spotting above Mary’s head!). Managers Matt and Jenny Peters kindly allowed us a flying visit to Bayrick Station. This was a short but productive trip and within an hour Mary spotting a well camouflaged koala in the forest canopy.

At Iona Station Bill Rogers directed us to areas where he had most recently seen koalas. After many kilometres of creek-walking we found three koalas (two males, one female).

In summary we found five koalas, collected one skeleton, measured almost 1,500 trees and collected three dozen bags of koala pellets. We also became experts in distinguishing koala pellets from possum pellets and aging the koala pellets by colour, texture and smell. The koalas used mainly river red gum and coolabah but also gidgee, boree, napunyah (less frequently), and rarely narrow leafed ironbark.

Alistair Melzer
18 September 2008

We went first to Tambo via Springsure - it’s a very scenic road running along the edge of the Salvator Rosa range with its wonderful escarpments rising up like jewels in the afternoon light. At Tambo we met up with John and Barbara who were to be part of our team and this is their first venture into koala spotting. They are both avid bird watchers as is Alistair so a list of birds was soon being compiled and the constant exchange via radio was ‘did you see that wren, that woodswallow’ etc. I managed to see the emus and bustards and the odd wedgetail but anything smaller flittered past in a blur.
We camped overnight in Tambo going on to Stirling Downs in the morning, where we were welcomed by Jim and Jenny. We were given the shearers' quarters to bunk in. We unpacked and made ready to look for koalas. Koalas had been on this property for many years but with the prolonged drought they have not been seen for some time. The country is lovely open plains, the grass a soft creamy ochre. The homestead yard was surrounded by the most wonderful large bottle trees, quite a sight.

We looked out on grassy paddocks where an occasional sheep grazed and mobs of kangaroos hopped past, our delight in this sight was not shared by Jim or Jenny.

On our first inspection of the creek we found koala droppings, recent enough to know the animals were still in the area - this was good news to all.
Next morning we searched another creek-line and found more evidence of koalas but again no sighting. We then set about doing our vegetation survey work of nearest neighbouring trees up and down the creek. This took all day and some of the neighbours, (large coolabahs mostly) were a long way from one another. We were dragging our legs by late afternoon. Again we are amazed by the mobs of kangaroos hopping across the landscape.

Morning brought the promise of rain so we headed off to another property where koalas were frequently found and within half an hour Mary had spotted one. Rain began falling so we hastily returned to Stirling Downs before the rain made the black soil difficult to traverse.

Afternoon was spent doing vegetation survey along another creek. This area had a lot of gidgee and some red gum so the trees were closer. Barbara and I almost walked on a large snake, no one else saw it and said we imagined it. The rain started in earnest just as we finished. We were all thankful that we were in the shearers' quarters and not in our tents as rain fell through the night. With the vegetation work done we decided to spend the next day Monday searching for the koala we knew must be close by. We set out in teams and scoured the area where the most recent evidence was found (freshest droppings). We found it heavy going at first as the wet clay soil built up so much on our boots. It was mid afternoon before we finally spotted the koala just gazing down at us from a red-gum tree. We trudged back to the homestead glad that we could report that koalas are still living along the creek lines. A freshly baked fruit cake was on the table for us. Jenny had baked it for us. We all enjoyed our afternoon tea.
In the morning we packed the vehicle and farewelled Stirling Downs and headed north west through Blackall, Barcaldine, ( where I was able to say hello to my son Bob) and Aramac arriving in Muttaburra in time to make camp. A small storm blew up just as we finished our meal and we all took shelter in the amenities block until it was over.

Carmen

The Flower Essence Centre says that the use of natural medicines for treating wildlife is a new field in Australia and not much research has been on koalas. Apparently some remedies can be applied topically so would not interfere with a koala's digestion.

Alistair Melzer is not aware of any such research or treatment in Queensland but a Google quick web search revealed 155,000 entries related to veterinary homeopathy globally.

We found this to be very true, when, in late August and early September this year, we were invited to join a group of koala researchers to see if we could find any trace of these elusive mammals near Tambo in the south and Hughenden to the north. Our endeavours were indeed successful for there were five koalas located in total – four males and one female.

Our learning experiences included deciphering koala scratch marks on trees, recognising the difference between koala scat and possum poo, sensing the freshness of this very excrement, pinpointing the location of this waste product and becoming aware of the tree preferences of this unique creature. Another new challenge for us was the koala habitat survey (nearest neighbours) where our knowledge of tree genera was extended and we became “real” greenies by hugging multiple trees.

On the whole, the weather was kind to us – not too cold and with two nights of welcome rain.

We were very impressed with the professionalism and dedication of the team with which we worked, the hospitality and generosity of the property owners and the co-operation of the five koalas for revealing themselves for our scrutiny.

We wish all researchers the very best and hope their results are most rewarding.

Barbara and John