Drone strike good news for Qld koalas

The mission, on a private nature refuge near Ipswich, is one of the first times drone technology has been used in Australia to create koala habitat.

WWF Australia hopes the trial and others to follow will prove drones are a cost-effective, quick way to regenerate degraded landscapes and reconnect isolated pockets of bush.

"We're really aiming to work in different landscapes and try different techniques with the hope we can scale up to perhaps a national scale," Tanya Pritchard, the group's landscape restoration project manager, said.

The drone was used to drop 45kg of seed over a bare paddock that separates two patches of bushland at the Turner Family Foundation's Hidden Vale refuge.

The paddock is a threat to local koalas because when they are crossing it they are at higher risk of being attacked by wild dogs.

The mixed seed contained 40 different plant species that should create a corridor rich in biodiversity, including native grasses and the trees koalas need for food and shade.

"I really hope that when I come back in two years' time, that the trees are going to be well above my head, and that we may even be able to see signs of koala activity as they start moving back into this landscape," Ms Pritchard says.

"This important wild population here in the Ipswich area really needs us to improve the connectivity of the landscape to ensure koalas have free movement and are able to maintain and even improve their genetic diversity over time."

The seeding mission at Hidden Vale will involve 11 hectares in total, resulting in an estimated 15,000 new koala food and shade trees.

To the southwest, there are plans to drone-seed another Turner Family Foundation property - the Thornton View Nature Reserve in the Lockyer Valley. That mission is expected to result in 40,000 new trees across 30 hectares.

Ben O'Hara, from the foundation, says it's critical to reconnect koala populations given the threats they face from disease, vehicle strikes, dog attacks, land clearing, heatwaves, drought and bushfires.

He's encouraged by the work being done to safeguard 45 koalas that have been individually identified at Hidden Valley over the last three years.

Twenty of those koalas have received lifesaving help including treatment for chlamydia, and 28 joeys have also been detected in the population over that time.

"We're generating what we describe as a koala fountain - a strong source population that can spread out along habitat corridors and bolster koala numbers throughout the region," Mr O'Hara said.

The drone-seeding work is a collaboration involving WWF Australia, the federal government, the Turner Family Foundation and Dendra Systems, which uses technology to aid ecosystem recovery.

Australian Associated Press