FRENCH Island’s worst drought in 80 years and insufficient koala population control measures have led to a crisis situation with gum trees dying and koalas starving, locals desperate to see action from the Victorian Government.
That needs to come through Parks Victoria and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), those organisations responsible for managing the island’s koalas.
“There has to be humane intervention with the koala population on French Island,” Scott Coutts said, having been a long-term ranger on the island who was heavily involved in the koala management program there for over 35 years.
While he finished up as a ranger about four years ago, Scott now works for a private company as a tour guide, taking mostly overseas visitors, many of whom come specifically to see French Island’s koalas.
“It’s been evolving over the last two years,” he said of the current dire situation, having noticed the worsening state of affairs while leading tours.
That prompted him to write to various State Government ministers calling for action, but he remains frustrated that not enough is being done.
“There’s just not the will by the government agencies involved to do what they should be doing,” Scott argues.
While around 200 koalas a year used to be translocated to suitable habitat on the mainland, Scott explained that stopped around 2015.
“Then they went down the path of implanting the females with birth control hormones to control their breeding, but not enough of that has been done,” he said, explaining that with French Island koalas being disease-free, their population doubles every four years.
“While I was still working there (as a ranger), we achieved the 80 per cent mark of implanting females in the areas we caught from, which would have been 80 per cent private land, but they let that go,” Scott said.
“Not enough has been done to remove them from the island or monitor the habitat destruction or koala health,” he argued, having noted gum trees are now dying every day.
While acknowledging that not all translocated koalas survive, he points out the risk is preferable to starvation, translocation at least offering a chance.
“There are thousands of hectares around Western Port Bay that are suitable, exactly the same sort of habitat as what they’re destroying on French Island,” Scott said of the availability of sites for translocation from the island.
He said the government agencies involved need to assess the situation, finding suitable locations to take large numbers of koalas, conceding that starving animals will unfortunately have to be euthanised.
Being an unincorporated territory, French Island has no local government, with everything managed by the State Government.
French Island Community Association resolved at its recent AGM to write to the State Government calling for action on the koala situation.
With many French Island koalas located on private land, property owners are devastated by the current situation and are lobbying for the government to manage the crisis.
A change.org petition from resident Kathryn Shain, headed ‘Save koalas and their habitat on French Island’ has so far attracted over 1500 signatures.
“Without decisive action from the Victorian Government, both the koala population and their fragile habitat face irreversible decline,” she states.
She encourages people to sign the petition calling on DEECA to fund immediate humane solutions to avoid the starvation of French Island koalas and prevent the destruction of the island’s fragile environment.