Our 28th annual survey at Kennett River within the Great Otway National Park took place on Saturday June 15.
Nine people met at Aireys Inlet Hall and travelled to Kennett River for a morning tea break where we met up with Kelly from Geelong who had joined the survey via Park Connect.
Crimson rosellas were demanding to be fed, but we resisted the temptation and suggested they went and found their own food in the trees nearby. Obviously they are used to being fed by tourists.
We then drove along Grey River Road to the start of the Great Otway National Park in this location and posed for a photograph before beginning the survey.
As we started to walk along Grey River Road some Singaporean tourists who had been told that there were koalas in the area were interested in our project and were happy to walk along with us. They were very pleased to have the opportunity to catch sight of koalas in the wild. The visitors persisted for a while and then went about their travels.
We continued with our survey, walking very slowly, and stopping whenever a koala was sighted, sharing each find with the survey team.
Paul was our designated koala photographer and he was kept busy as we walked along. It was soon clear we would exceed our 2023 total of six individuals.
He seemed to capture the character of each of the koalas he managed to photograph. As the majority were very high up in the trees his results were outstanding – just awesome!
Thanks so much Paul.
Due to some very good spotting by some of our group we counted 16 koalas by the time we reached the ridge, and then another 8 before we arrived back at the carpark. The last one we saw was very close to the base of a tree and people had a great view.
The conditions were fair, the forest fairly quiet with few bird calls. Grey Shrike-Thrush, Crimson Rosellas, Black-faced Cuckoo Shrikes, Crescent Honeyeaters and female and juvenile Satin Bowerbirds were observed. Along the ridge we came close to a Bassian Thrush which adopted a camouflage position.
We were very satisfied with the results of the koala count and everyone enjoyed the experience. We felt that a count of 24 koalas observed in the survey area is ecologically sustainable for the health and well-being of the koalas and their habitat.
Report by Kaye Traynor
Photographs Paul Wright & Marg MacDonald