[Jan Fisher]

Australia is to set aside at least 30 per cent of its land mass to protect endangered species.
Which sounds noble, but a lot of the places where endangered species live, humans also like to live.
Koalas spring to mind, with its habitat spanning much of the east coast where a great deal of Australians also make their home.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a thriving, healthy population of koalas in Australia, but I’m mystified how they are going to go about this.
Environment minister Tania Plibersek says they have identified 20 ‘priority’ places including Bruny Island, French Island, Christmas Island, Norfolk Island and Raine Island to act as ‘Noah’s Arks’ until they can get feral animals and plants under control on the mainland.
Will tiny islands be the saviour of our unique fauna and flora? I hope it works, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.

[Sue Ridge]

Tiny islands may well be the saviour of koalas just as Devil Ark in the Hunter has a thriving population of cancer free Tasmanian Devils. One word of caution, koalas cannot be easily transferred to areas where there are other koala populations. Koalas are very territorial and will kill other koalas that encroach into their area. This was the reason that an overpopulation of koalas on Kangaroo Island that was unsustainable because of insufficient trees could not be relocated but had to be culled. I’m always wary of politicians who take up causes to increase their profile.

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