Project: Moorabool Manna Gums for Koalas

Overview:

“Restoring a Manna Gum forest koala habitat on the fertile lower reaches of the Moorabool River, close to a resident koala population, far from roads, and managed by sympathetic landowners with a proven track-record for biodiversity management.”

Janine Duffy, President Koala Clancy Foundation

Location: Moorabool River, Lethbridge

Status: 2024 planting complete: 7,756 koala trees planted from 2 June to 23 June. 2023 planting complete, 3618 trees planted on 3 & 4 June 2023.

Project supported by: This project has been fully funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). IFAW have been supportive partners of our koala tree planting projects for several years. We are thrilled to have nearly completed this large and important project.

Number of trees/shrubs: total 11,374. Target was 3,500 in year 1. We exceeded that by 118 trees. Target in year 2 was 2,500 trees, we increased the project area for a new target of 8,000 trees.

Contact: president@koalaclancyfoundation.org.au

Vision:

The clear Moorabool River runs along the west side of the Brisbane Ranges, through historically some of the best ‘koala country’ in Victoria. Giant River Red Gums line the river, with Manna Gums and endangered Melbourne Yellow Gums on the slopes. But sadly much of the best koala country on the lower reaches of the Moorabool was cleared for farming many years ago. Koalas still persist in the Brisbane Ranges but their numbers have been in decline for decades – likely due to climate change effects on their eucalyptus foliage.

This project will restore highly-preferred Manna Gums on a slope so fertile that it was cleared and grazed by livestock for many years. Every other slope of similar aspect has been completely cleared along the lower reaches of the Moorabool River. Koalas urgently need forests on fertile agricultural soils, they need them adjacent to existing koala populations, and they need them near rivers and far from roads. This site qualifies on all these conditions.

What & who will benefit?

The property is large – 459 hectares – and already managed for biodiversity by the sympathetic owners. Nearly half of the property is forested in ancient remnant Melbourne Yellow Gum Eucalyptus leucoxylon connata woodland. The owners have taken to decision to never let their livestock graze the Yellow Gum forest area to preserve the old trees and encourage natural grassy understory.

The following 12 threatened species could benefit from this planting. These include birds, mammals, reptiles and insects that are…
Critically Endangered:
Swift Parrot and possibly Barking Owl & Black Falcon (both seen nearby)
Endangered:
Tussock Skink and possibly Speckled Warbler (seen nearby)
Vulnerable:
Koala*, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Diamond Firetail, Brown Treecreeper, Jacky Winter and likely Powerful Owl and Little Eagle.

We plant a wide diversity of species, genera and families of native trees, shrubs and wildflowers, to create a flourishing ecosystem. We don’t plant only quick-growing trees for carbon capture – as these are rarely useful to koalas in the long term – and we don’t plant masses of overused, widespread species, like Kangaroo Thorn/Hedge Wattle Acacia paradoxa as these can be harmful to Diamond Firetails. Our plantings typically include 30 to 40+ species, carefully chosen to suit the site. We also plant an endangered tree species: Melbourne Yellow Gum Eucalyptus leucoxylon connata. We plant many of these, and are very careful to only plant this subspecies from local provenance seed in the area it naturally occurs.

What’s exciting about this:

Rarely do we have the opportunity to restore a large block of Manna Gum woodland on fertile soils, close to a resident koala population, near a flowing river, and far from roads. This project could see koalas colonising within 4 years.

In fact, we began audio and visual monitoring on the site in November 2023 and found a koala in December 2023, then found another two koalas in 2024. Read about our audio monitoring project here: https://www.koalaclancyfoundation.org.au/a-step-by-step-guide-to-audio-recorders-for-koalas/

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Thankyou to our generous funding partner IFAW who is the exclusive donor for this whole project. https://www.ifaw.org/au

Opportunities are available to become involved with this project as a volunteer. Contact president@koalaclancyfoundation.org.au