KOALAS FACE EXTINCTION. 19 Aug 1940. Bushfire Horror. “Residents of Trunkey say the cries of koala victims of the 1939 bushfires are a never-to-be-forgotten horror.” What will they say in 80 years when they look back at the nonsense written about the current bushfire horror?
KOALAS FACE EXTINCTION (1940, August 19). Yass Tribune-Courier (NSW : 1929 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved January 16, 2020, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/249824272?searchTerm=koalas%20face%20extinction&searchLimits=#
Of the three families of koalas the New South Wales, the Victorian and the Queensland the N.S.W. family is nearest extinction, according to the report of the Koala Club, which was presented to the annual meeting.
The promise of the N.S.W. Government to nationalist koala conservation came to nothing, and the war has made further approach to the Government out of the question for the time, state the president, Mr. O. D. Oberg, and the secretary, Mr. Frank Edwards, in their report.
Some thousands of koalas are still at large in Queensland, but their numbers are dwindling, because of disease, bushfires, illegal shotting, dogs, foxes, and dingoes.
There are 600 of the Victorian race of koalas left.
Bushfire Horror
The number of New South Wales, koalas is believed to be fewer than Victoria’s 600.
“Their plight in the open bush may be guessed by the fact that Pittwater residents say that koalas ther
eare almost extinct,” adds the report.
“Residents of Trunkey say the cries of koala’ victims of the 1939 bushfires are a never-to-be-forgotten horror,”
the report goes on. “We are urging the Government to adopt a more comprehensive scheme than bushland protection by proclamation.
An adequately protected, koala breeding reserve is essential.”
The club draws attention to the need for sanctuary care for other types of Australian fauna, including the kangaroo rat, the handed marsupial anteater, the rabbit bandicoot, and the small marsupial mice, which are rapidly nearing extinction.