Mainland quokka population to be studied

23/8/95

The mainland quokka population will be the subject of a new study by the Department of Conservation and Land Management.

Environment Minister Peter Foss today said the six to nine-month study would involve visiting sites where quokkas were known to exist 20 to 30 years ago but which had not been surveyed since.

"CALM researchers believe that the populations have declined and the aim of the survey is to determine the current extent of these colonies," Mr Foss said.

"Quokkas on the mainland used to occur from Moore River, 100km north of Perth, along the Darling Scarp, Swan coastal plain and around the southern coastal heathlands to Cheyne Beach east of Albany.

"They were known to be abundant in the Albany district in the 1850s and in the Busselton and Margaret River areas until the late 1920s. Foresters in the 1930s reported quokkas were a problem for pine seedlings in the new plantations around Mundaring.

"CALM staff working in the forest around Dwellingup and Manjimup in the 1970s reported they were still reasonably common in many swamps although they are now believed to have disappeared from several of these sites.

"The known mainland populations today are at 14 sites, including Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Torndirrup National Park, Stirling Range National Park, and in the State forest around Dwellingup and Manjimup.

"Recently, new populations have been discovered in thickets in State forest near a rehabilitated Alcoa bauxite minesite at Jarrahdale and near farmland at Harvey."

Mr Foss said much of the decline in the mainland quokka populations coincided with the introduction of the European fox in the late 1920s.

"Quokkas once had a wide array of habitat but because of predation by foxes, they now only occur in those extremely dense, swampy thickets which foxes cannot easily penetrate," the Minister said.

"Predator control programs such as Operation Foxglove, which covers 50,000 hectares in the northern jarrah forest, help conserve existing populations and build up numbers. CALM's prescribed burning program is also creating safer areas, less susceptible to wildfires while regenerating thickets."

Mr Foss said the survey would be carried out under the supervision of CALM scientist Keith Morris and technical officer Mike Dillon. The project would be funded through the Nature Conservation and National Parks Trust Account.

Media contacts: Stacey Molloy 222 9595/321 2222 or Keith Morris CALM 405 5100.