Koala crusade

WILDLIFE carers who fear a koala will be hit by a car and killed at The Pass are calling on Byron Shire Council to introduce traffic calming measures there.

Friends of the Koala area coordinator Dale Viola and WIRES volunteer Mark Badgery, who also operates Surfside Snake Catcher, have started a petition asking Council to urgently install speed bumps at the top of Brooke Dr on Lighthouse Rd.

Badgery said at least eight koalas live at The Pass, including three joeys. But he believes their safety is being increasingly jeopardised by speeding vehicles.

“I’ve witnessed koalas cross the busy Lighthouse Rd near The Pass entrance on Brooke Dr,” he wrote in the online petition. “I have also witnessed how fast cars come around the blind corner from Wategos. It’s only a matter of time before a precious koala is killed there.

“Local authorities have proven capable of implementing such safety measures for residential areas, school zones and towns. Our koalas should be given the same consideration.”

Badgery said he emailed Byron Shire Council raising the issue in early 2024.

“Their response was they would hopefully have some money in the budget in the next few years and that was just for some signs which isn’t sufficient to slow speeding drivers down anyway,” he said. “Speed bumps are the only thing that will work.”

While there were millions of koalas in Australia prior to European settlement, the Australian Koala Foundation warns there are less than 80,000 left in the wild, qualifying them to be a ‘functionally extinct’ species.

“Each koala we lose is a tragedy, so we need to do all we can to protect them,” Badgery said.

To sign the petition, visit change.org/p/install-speed-bumps-to-protect-our-local-koala-population