Ms Sharpe is correct in stating that our local koala population is in decline and predicted to be locally extinct within 50 years.

 Since the Koala Hospital is receiving very few juvenile koalas and concludes there is already a scarcity of breeding females I believe 50 years is very optimistic.

Fifty years was the estimate given at the Koala Roundtable which came up with the recommendation that we (council) “make no bad decisions” which ironically was before the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council plan for bulldozing of the habitat adjoining the airport was approved by council in August 2016. 

The area is considered part of the engine room for local koala population. With life in the wild for koalas often less than 10 years and a scarcity of breeding females already the situation is dire.

And it is no good pointing to the state forests and private property as safe areas for the survival of the federally listed “vulnerable” koala.

In a PMHC commissioned study ecologist, Steve Phillips, concluded that the continual logging of Tallowwood and Grey Gum in local state forests “raises matters of longer term sustainability, not just in terms of timber yield but also in terms of the ability of these forests to support free-ranging koala populations.”

Meanwhile there are so many Private Native Forest PVPs allowing logging on private land they rival those of Coffs Harbour that provoked so much angst with that council. 

It is my contention that our koala population is in collapse.

Thank you, Penny Sharpe, for appealing to the Environment Minister to stop this further attack on our koalas proposed by our Council.

Perhaps in this situation Minister Gabrielle Upton might well consider sending this issue to the NSW Scientific Committee for consideration of our koalas as constituting an Endangered Population. 

I mean if our koalas are lacking breeding females and juveniles and predicted by a respected koala expert to be extinct in 50 years what more would that Committee need?

Something has to be done to stop this madness or our grandkids will be asking us, “What did you do to try to save our koalas?”

John Jeayes, 

Port Macquarie