A COMMUNITY-BASED SURVEY OF THE KOALA, PHASCOLARCTOS-CINEREUS, IN THEEDEN REGION OF SOUTH-EASTERN NEW-SOUTH-WALES

A community-based postal survey (questionnaire and map) was undertaken in the Eden region of southeastern New South Wales in 1991-92 to help determine the local distribution of koalas and to obtain information on which to base a regional plan of management for koalas. The 1198 re plies from the 11600 households in the region represented all parts of the area surveyed. The survey responses suggest that koalas are rare in the Eden region, and that the number of koalas has been constantly low for the last four decades. The records are scattered both chronolo gically and geographically. National Parks and Nature Reserves have ne ver been the stronghold of local koala populations, and freehold land, particularly farmland, is not a major reservoir of koalas. Most koala s reported were in, or adjacent to, State Forests, particularly Murrah -Bermagui and Tantawangalo-Glenbog-Yurammie. These areas appear to con tain the core of the surviving koala population of the region. An asse ssment of the vegetation where koalas were sighted indicated that dry forest is the preferred habitat. The once abundant and widespread loca l koala population of late last century has been reduced by habitat lo ss and fragmentation to a few small, isolated populations. This region al survey, which was undertaken by use of a carefully constructed ques tionnaire, revealed an invaluable source of records and contributed 70 % of the records in the database used for this study. This study also laid a basis for assessing koala management options in southeastern Ne w South Wales.