The Googong koala happily ensconced in a eucalypt. Photo: David Larcombe.
A rare sighting of a koala at a Googong property outside of Canberra has conservationists excited, reinforcing the need to protect the habitat of the endangered marsupial and national icon.
Sandy Hume and Carolyn Larcombe, part of the family that owns Wandiyali~Environa Wildlife Sanctuary, were scanning through photos taken on a motion-sensor camera last October when they came across the unmistakable image of a small koala walking along the ground near the boundary.
Carolyn, who grew up with her siblings on the family property, was surprised by the furry visitor.
“It’s such a thrill — this is the first visual record of a koala at Wandiyali in our lifetimes,” she said. “There was a single audio recording from three years ago which we suspect was a koala, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen one.”
Wandiyali protects a 300-hectare area of critically endangered box gum grassy woodland habitat, home to threatened species including the Speckled Warbler, Pink-tailed Worm Lizard and Gang-gang Cockatoo.
While it’s the first koala seen there so far, Wandiyali has some of the species’ preferred food trees, such as broad-leaved peppermint gums and scribbly gums.
The motion-sensor cameras show that the young koala of unknown gender spent two nights along the southern edge of the fenced sanctuary.
David Larcombe, also one of the sanctuary’s owners, later photographed the koala in a tree.
“One of our rangers spotted the koala again while he was doing a regular maintenance walk. I walked over in the afternoon and was able to capture some drone footage, from a distance,” David said.
“It seemed to be in good condition and was just chilling out among the gum leaves. In my wildest dreams, I never thought they would be here.”
In December 2024, the owners announced an agreement to work with the private Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to help reintroduce locally extinct species to the property.
AWC senior ecologist Dr Jennifer Pierson said the koala sighting demonstrated the importance of preserving patches of habitat, even in areas that have been extensively modified for agriculture.
“So much of this type of grassy woodland has been lost,” Dr Pierson said. “We’re lucky that some patches remain at places like Wandiyali, and it’s critically important that these are looked after and protected.”
She said Wandiyali bordered a range of properties, including the Larcombes’ pastoral holdings as well as those with urban interfaces.
It was not known where the koala came from, but they usually didn’t move around a great deal, so it was possible there were more in the area.
Dr Pierson said they were a cryptic animal and notoriously hard to spot.
“It’s possible koalas have been in the area for a little while or passed through every now and then using the property,” she said.
“It’s a really nice patch of critically endangered box gum woodland that’s in the midst of these pastoral properties and some urban sites, and so it would be a really important corridor and patch of habitat in this area for the species coming through.”
Sandy Hume and Carolyn Larcombe walk through Wandiyali: “It’s such a thrill.” Photo: Brad Leue.
Dr Pierson said the owners had never seen a koala on the property, and in the Canberra region they were uncommonly seen, apart from the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve population.
In 2024, one was found in the Gungahlin suburb of Jacka, putting a residential development stage on hold.
“So it’s incredibly exciting to get something like this on camera,” Dr Pierson said.
As part of gearing up to reintroduce species, Wandiyali would be doing more monitoring, so it was hoped more koalas would be found.
“We hope that the site continues to attract more and more wildlife like this,” Dr Pierson said.
While dedicated koala sanctuaries that could be strongholds for the species and fantastic source populations for other areas were welcome, Dr Pierson said the species also needed corridors to be able to move about.
“We don’t want koalas to be limited to just the sanctuaries,” she said.
“We want to provide corridors for movement and the ability to get to these sanctuaries in between.
“So, I think having a really holistic strategy that includes both new sanctuaries and protected habitat, as well as practical regulations for outside the sanctuaries to make sure koalas can survive across the landscape, is really important.”
If people wanted to see more of them in the wild, saving their food trees and habitat was crucial, Dr Pierson said.
