Across the Tamworth region in NSW, koalas were once a common sight but the impact of a changing climate with years of drought, heatwaves and bushfires have taken a toll.
The Northern Inland Region of NSW spans from the Moree Plains to Tenterfield, and south to the Hunter covering a vast area where koalas could still be present, yet their true numbers remain unclear. While coastal forests remain relatively connected along the Great Dividing Range, the inland area west of the ranges breaks into smaller, isolated patches of vegetation.
The many small landholders in the region have planted trees, shrubs and grasses across their properties but the landscape remains fragmented, making it difficult for koalas and other native species to move across paddocks to reach suitable habitat.
Landholders are restoring, protecting and maintaining the bushland areas to help create wildlife corridors for koalas and other native species to travel safely across the landscape. These linkages are helping to reduce the risks posed by isolation, such as inbreeding and vulnerability to threats like bushfire, drought and urban development.
Protecting these patches of remnant vegetation provides healthy woodland habitat for bats, microbats, insects, and woodland birds. The presence of a koala often shows that the ecosystem is healthy and home to other species. Microbats help control moth populations that can damage crops, reducing reliance on pesticides. Where clearing was once considered a practical approach to land management, there is now increasing awareness that keeping trees and maintaining healthy riparian zones can bring real benefits to soil health and water quality, while still supporting productive farming landscapes.
Landcare Australia created the WildSeek Project, which was in collaboration with Queensland University Technology (QUT) and received funding from WIRES to support conservation and rescue of native species, including the koala and their precious habitats with the formation of WildSeek Community Hubs on the east coast of Australia.
WildSeek brings together leading environmental organisations and university researchers to create an innovative drone solution for surveying koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations. Local partners, landcare volunteers and Landcare Australia staff are working together as part of the WildSeek Community Hubs to capture data that was analysed by QUT. The data is helping the community and Landcare Australia to make informed decisions regarding advocacy, protection, and management of koalas, other wildlife, and their habitats.
Tamworth Regional Landcare Association became a WildSeek Community Hub in 2022. The project received three years of funding to help identify koala populations within the Namoi Valley Region. In its first year, Landcare Australia with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) assisted the WildSeek Community Hub in obtaining equipment, survey methodology training, guidance in CASA approval for obtaining their RePL (Remote Pilot Licence) and ReOC (Remote Operator Certification).
Flying the drones began in the second year, where landholders granted access to survey their properties, and the data was sent back to QUT, where specialised software identified koalas living in the region. The results were surprising. Koalas were detected in areas where other methods, such as acoustic recorders and ground surveys had shown no presence.
Audio recording devices, while useful for identifying koala calls, can sometimes miss detections depending on where they are placed or the timing of their deployment. If the devices are positioned too far from active koala areas, or if recording doesn’t coincide with peak calling periods, individuals may go undetected. This means that audio methods alone may underestimate koala presence in fragmented landscapes.
Ground surveys provide detailed insights into population dynamics and habitat use, but they are highly labour-intensive and cover only small areas at a time. Surveying large properties or multiple sites requires significant time and resources, making this approach less practical for broad-scale monitoring.
In contrast, drone surveys offer the ability to cover much larger areas efficiently, with a single flight capable of surveying up to 80 hectares. While drones allow for rapid assessment across the landscape, combining all these methodologies remains important for a comprehensive understanding of koala populations, despite the added costs when scaling up to survey bigger regions.
Thermal drone surveys rely on strong temperature contrast, meaning flights could only occur from late March to early October, mostly at night once the canopy cooled. This placed natural limits on the project and made it clear that far more time would be needed to cover such an extensive landscape.
The data gathered so far is extremely valuable but has only covered a fraction of the area within the region. What is needed is to build a full map of where koalas are, to identify where they’re thriving, and where they’re struggling.
One of the most exciting discoveries came from Currabubula, where koalas had not been recorded previously. Several detections occurred on a landholder’s property containing around 1000 acres of woodland untouched for more than a century. The team was also surprised to discover that koalas previously recorded in certain areas in the Tamworth region have not been found again. Places where they were once commonly seen now show no evidence of current populations. So far, the surveys have identified 63 koalas within 1020ha, and there is a lot more area to survey within the region.
WildSeek has already uncovered surprising insights about koalas in the Namoi Valley Region, but there’s still so much more to learn. To build a clearer picture of where populations are thriving and where they’re under pressure, the project is seeking further funding. With this support, WildSeek can keep flying thermal drones to survey larger areas and work closely with landholders to maintain access and share results. Providing the community and landholders with vital data to make informed landscape management decisions. We hope these efforts will help protect koalas and the ecosystems they represent, while supporting sustainable land management across the region.
If you are interested in partnering with WildSeek or making a donation, please contact us at [email protected].
