A 30-year-old plan to see Wagga become a koala sanctuary may soon become a reality as the nation begins to re-assess its remaining habitats.
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Council's director of community, Janice Summerhayes told The Daily Advertiser that negotiations are now in place to see populations re-homed in Wagga.
"The recent bushfires have been devastating to the koala populations, along with the debilitating chlamydia disease," Ms Summerhayes said.
"Wagga City Council has recently contacted the NSW government regarding opportunities to re-home koalas in the Wagga area given that the State Environmental Planning Policy 44 - Koala Habitat Protection lists the Wagga local government area as having koala habitat potential."
But Ms Summerhayes admitted the delicate operation of re-homing particularly injured koalas "may take many months".
"Translocating or relocating koala populations can be difficult to complete successfully, however with the widespread habitat loss, this may become crucial," Ms Summerhayes said.
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The forethought to install koala-appropriate habitats in Wagga came from former council director of recreation and cultural services, Kerry Geale.
In the early 1990s, Mr Geale pushed for up to 30 eucalyptus trees to be planted on Willans Hill, behind the Botanical Gardens' music bowl.
"The thought was to extend the zoo to include room for koalas," Mr Geale said.
"It'd be good now if we could use that area to start rehabilitating some koalas."
While thankful that the Willans Hill plantation exists for such a time as this, wildlife health expert Dr Andrew Peters is hopeful the plan will be extended to a variety of other vulnerable species too.
With some management, the Wagga-based academic believes the city could become a viable wildlife corridor.
"If we start putting in some next boxes, working on the vegetation and control the pests species likes cats and foxes, we could encourage creatures like the squirrel glider," Dr Peters said.
"The squirrel glider is a threatened species and most residents would not know that it even exists in Wagga, but it's one of the most interesting flying mammals in existence."
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Currently, Dr Peters said there are population pockets around Wilks Park, but he believes the species could thrive in abundance across the city.
"There's potential to build a reputation as a wildlife stronghold city," Dr Peters said.
"Wagga was also one of the last places in NSW to have bilbies, now that they're being re-introduced [to the state] we could [entice] them back too."
Currently working to restore wildlife corridors in the wake of the Dunns Road fire, Dr Peters sees the potential to use Wagga's existing eucalyptus habitat on Willans Hill to re-introduce an endangered and fire-affected cousin of the Tasmanian devil.
"With the right management, a population of these small carnivorous marsupials, called 'Antechinus' could thrive," he said.
"Koalas are iconic but they need careful management to ensure they don't become inbred and diseased when they're in a tiny population.
"It's much more effective to preserve the areas where they can already be found and restore their habitats there because moving just a few of them here won't save them."