Concerns for koalas after 'horrific' bushfire
A TWEED Coast koala expert fears the bushfire that ripped through the Cudgen Nature Reserve last weekend could sound the death knell for the area's koala population.
Team Koala president Jenny Hayes said the reserve is home to one of only three remaining koala colonies on the Tweed Coast.
"This is the worst actual place a fire could have occurred,” Ms Hayes said.
"We haven't been allowed in there yet but I'm expecting the worst. This is a horrific event.”
The Tweed Coast koala population has been officially listed as endangered and Ms Hayes said a 2015 study suggested that there were only about 100 koalas remaining in the region with small colonies at Cudgen Nature Reserve, Pottsville and Kings Forest.
Ms Hayes said the fire is likely to further reduce numbers.
"Not having been in there yet I can't say what the toll will be but it will have an impact,” she said. "I can't see them surviving this.”
Ms Hayes said the fire was a bitter pill to swallow for koala conservationists.
"There have been so many positives lately and then this,” she said.
"It's absolutely devastating.”
