The relationship between developers and koalas is explored in this cartoon penned by Malc McGookin.
Rated PG
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9 Comments
I cannot believe that we have some pro-development individuals so biased against wildlife that they would actually lie about the history of koalas in the Redlands. During the great koala slaughter of the twenties, authorities in the Redlands in 1927 were being petitioned to stop the slaughter. Do these people think we not read our own local history?
Malc, oh so true, our dear Koalas who have been here long before the farmers came and pulled some of their trees down, the Blue Gums along the foreshore were their favourites. Koalas were in the way of the prime real estate, your crisis are words similar to the ones I heard when the Seccombe Six were drafting the planning scheme in 2006.
Dave, Redlanders used to be proud of the koalas living among us, but now it makes me sad to realise how many koalas we have lost over the past few years.
A few years ago our little grandaughter came to visit and the first thing she said was ‘Grandma can we see a koala in the wild?’
We went along Fernbourne Rd at Wellington Pt. and spotted one up in a tree! Grandaughter was so excited, a real live koala in the wild.
Unfortunately if we tried to find one now, tough luck. Our beautiful koalas have all but disappeared from this area. How sad is that?
Will this Council and State Government be proud of the fact that the Redlands urban koalas have pretty well disappeared under their watch?
Apart from a few councillors I doubt that the Mayor and her cronies, and the State Government will even care.
“By 1924 . . . the focus of the fur trade moved north to Queensland. In 1919 the Qld Government announced a six month open season on Koalas, and in that period alone, 1 million Koalas were killed. Although the season officially remained closed until 1927, when the season re-opened, over 800,000 were slaughtered in just over 1 month.”
If, as we’ve seen, people were petitioning local government in Redlands to stop the cull by 1927, we can’t avoid the conclusion that they were here decades, centuries before, and that they always were native to Redlands.
I’m not against development – in a controlled way – but the unscrupulous way the developers and their paid mouthpieces on social media have misrepresented the koala in a bid to dismiss its presence as accidental, recent or unnatural (!) is Goebbellian in its desire to manipulate for political ends.
https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/history-koalas
Ummmmm…
Koalas are an introduced species into the Redlands and while we need to respect they need a safe habitat some sound logic needs to be applied with our future Urban Planning requirements.
Love the cartoon next we will see terrorist Koala’s wearing headbands ?
Jeff
The best comedy is based upon reality.
History suggests that koalas have existed in the Redlands from at least the 1920’s as proven in a letter received from Redlands Branch of the Local Producers Assoc, Redland Bay who called “for the destruction of native bears to be stopped” at a time when millions of koala were being slaughtered for their pelts to be exported.
The letter can be viewed at http://www.koalagroup.asn.au/publications/koalas-in-the-redlands-21
Redlanders are proud of the koalas living among us. Koalas make it a special place to live…and people want to visit our home to see a koala in the wild. But koalas need a bit of help …. Every thing done to date….in the name of planning or koala management has failed.
Koala numbers have fallen under every “best practice” planning solution introduced by successive Councils and Governments. That generation of planners should “own up” and return all their awards and plaudits. If best practice has seen of 90% of koalas die off. Simply …. they got it wrong..again and again. Yet they will likely purport the new City Plan will do even more …blah blah blah.
With possibly less than a thousand koalas left in the wild….the end is nigh. Lets try a moratorium on any change to koala habitat, let’ slow our cars, let’s control our dogs, let’s plant and protect food trees ..absolutely. In five years we will know if we still live on the koala coast or we can redefine our home without those pesky marsupials….
We (and the koalas) simply can’t afford more ” best practice” koala protection through planning rhetoric.
All councillors and planners should put the pink pens aside in drafting City Plan 2015. What is needed is a line in the sand…knowing that the odds are against the koala, the damage has been done and in five years the coast will be clear….of koalas!
Deb thanks for the information, you and your group do a great job. Wondering if the community is aware that some councillors have got the Koala Management Areas removed from the Local Laws Draft document. There has been no explanation on why and what justification there has been to do this. I hear that Ms Talty is pushing the removal of all environmental protections. This will take Redlands back 25 Years.