It’s been a worrying few days for koala researchers: first we find out that koala numbers in southern Queensland in Australia are crashing faster than anyone could have predicted, and then our conference gets washed out by major floods in northern New South Wales (NSW).

I have just returned from Lismore, a quaint country town that is home to the Friends of the Koala group. This dedicated band of koala care-givers and rescuers organized a conference focusing on the plight of the koala that attracted participants from as far away as Victoria. It also attracted Australian government representatives, keen to obtain a first-hand picture of the status of koalas throughout northern NSW and Queensland.

They found out that the status of the koala in southeast Queensland is indeed dire, with our Queensland government confirming that there has been a 51-percent decline in koala numbers in the last three years. We need urgent action, based on the best available information, if we are to save koalas in this area.

Because we have been investigating spatial dynamics, breeding, tree use, and water relations of koalas for a number of years, we can provide detailed analysis of the behavioral and physiological changes koalas make in responses to changes in their environment. My task was to explain how the research we are undertaking on St. Bees Island can provide insight into the possible impacts of climate change on koalas and how we might ensure that such climatic events don’t negate all our conservation efforts for koalas. (Read Bill’s previous post, Koalas: Floating Research Station).

Also present at the conference were koala care-givers from Victoria, who had cared for koalas caught up in the catastrophic bushfires that devastated their homes earlier this year. (See Australia Bushfire Wildlife Rescue Relief.)

I traveled down from Brisbane to Lismore (a trip that normally takes three hours by road) on Thursday, May 21, in torrential rain, finding roads closed and trees blown down along the way. Proceeding cautiously, it was some five hours on the road by the time we found our hotel, and many of the other koala researchers and volunteers, in Lismore. The pre-conference dinner allowed us to meet the other delegates, but as the rain continued to pour down and the other attendees gradually arrived with tales of swollen rivers, it became apparent that we were in a rather dicey predicament.

Sure enough, around midnight that night the evacuation of downtown Lismore began. We learned that if we wished not to spend the weekend where we were, we had but a few hours to leave. Soon, Lismore was declared a disaster area and many roads were indeed cut off, with some even suffering serious damage. Although Lismore itself was not inundated, several other towns were, and the flood crisis continues in NSW.

Sadly, this meant not presenting my talk, and for me and the other delegates who had to turn around and leave town this was rather sad. Fortunately, some delegates were able to stay (or had nowhere to go!) and the conference proceeded, albeit at a reduced level.

I hope the cleaning up in Lismore and the other NSW towns proceeds and is not interrupted by further floods. After all the years of drought and the problems that brings, it is a welcome change to have too much rain, but I dare say a little bit less would have been appreciated. I hope that next year we can repeat the conference, perhaps even with some sunshine.

Bill Ellis is a postdoctoral fellow for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.

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