Koala road deaths have nearly doubled in a development hotspot in south-western Sydney, according to conservationists who are demanding the Minns government improve protection for the endangered species in new housing areas.
In a letter – signed by more than 20 community and national environment groups – to the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, and senior ministers, the Sydney Basin Koala Network accused the government of a “development first, koalas later” mindset that was accelerating the species’ decline.
The network said koala deaths from vehicle strikes on Appin Road, which links Campbelltown and Sydney’s western suburbs with Wollongong, had increased from 11 in 2022 to 19 so far in 2024, based on data from the government database BioNet. The rise follows the start of clearing for major housing developments in Gilead and Appin.
About 70,000 houses are planned for construction in south-western Sydney in coming decades as the state government works to increase housing supply and ease affordability pressures.
But the area is also home to some of Sydney’s healthiest koala populations and advocates want the government to ensure the most important habitat is protected.
At least 207 koalas have been struck by vehicles across south-western Sydney since 2021, according to the groups’ analysis.
They want protection and restoration of koala habitat corridors, construction of five underpasses on Appin Road and changes to the state’s planning system that would require councils to protect koala habitat from clearing and development.
Stephanie Carrick, a project manager at the Sydney Basin Koala Network, said: “We’re not opposed to housing. Koalas are also facing a housing crisis and we need their homes protected too by protecting their important migratory corridors and allowing them to safely travel through the landscape.”
Jeff Angel, the director of the Total Environment Centre, said developers were knocking down habitat, resulting in koalas running away and “being run over and killed on the roads”.
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“People are having to rescue koalas or are finding them dead on the road,” he said.
The letter to the government notes an “alarming” increase in female and joey deaths and said the road deaths were “having a significant impact on this important chlamydia free population”. “They cannot, over time, sustain this level of population decline,” the letter says.
Carrick said the Minns government had been in power long enough to start acting on its commitments to improve koala protections.
A parliamentary inquiry in 2020 found the species was on track for extinction in the state by 2050.
Carrick said that while development of housing had begun along Appin Road, the single underpass that was planned for koalas moving between habitat on either side of the road near Gilead had not been built yet. Two further underpasses are proposed in other areas of Appin Road.
The network wants five underpasses for koalas, including one at Mallaty Creek, an area the government has proposed fencing out koalas.
Environment groups want the Mallaty Creek habitat corridor preserved as it provides one of the most direct corridors from the Georges River to the Nepean River.
Saul Deane from Save Sydney’s Koalas said the plan to fence koalas out of the area was “inexplicable”.
A Transport for NSW spokesperson acknowledged koala deaths on Appin Road were a “growing issue”.
“[The agency] is looking at options to change driver behaviour and increase awareness including improved static and visual messaging signs, and road markings indicating koalas in the area,” the spokesperson said.
The issue is being addressed by three projects, they said, which will deliver continuous koala exclusion fencing between Rosemeadow and Appin township.
“This work will also include three koala underpasses at Noorumba Reserve, Beulah biobank site and Ousedale Creek.”
The remaining two safety projects around Mount Gilead are in the planning stage and construction is expected to start next year.
This article by Lisa Cox was first published by The Guardian on 13 November 2024. Lead Image: A koala clings to a tree that has since been cleared for a housing development in Appin. Photograph: Jade Peace.
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