Koala Diaries Project Location - Koala Sighting Census

At a time when Queensland’s koala population is under greater threat than ever from urban development and disease, a refreshing grassroots organisation has emerged to help tackle the questions no one can accurately answer:

• Just how many koalas are left?
• Where do they live?
• In what general condition?

Carolyn Beaton and Alex Harris - two neighbours in Noosa who share a concern for koala conservation - have taken a leadership position with their strategy for community awareness, education and participation in the conservation of koalas.

Using as its central platform a website, www.koaladiaries.com.au, it will introduce world leading GIS technology to plot the points of koala sightings contributed by members of the public throughout Queensland. The information gathered will be available to government agencies and other stakeholders to assist with policy making, programs and activities such as scientific research.

Koaladiaries.com.au and its Project Location - Koala Sighting Census - is a first in terms of integrating technology with community engagement to record the occurrence of a single species in Queensland.

“We are both the kind of people who can’t sit by and do nothing, knowing that the Queensland landscape is changing rapidly and there seems to be no respite from koala population declines in sight.  We mapped out where we thought we could make a difference in the bigger picture and simply applied ourselves to getting it done,” says Carolyn, who cares for orphaned koalas.

“Alex built the website and canvassed ESRI Australia to help with developing the mapping technology we wanted. As its tech people looked at the issue, they said, this is worthy and it is ultimately where we want to take our location intelligence capability, and they did. They worked through the holidays to give us exactly what Alex specified,” she says.

ESRI Australia managing director, Brett Bundock, says, "ESRI Australia is proud to partner with Koaladiaries.com.au in Project Location, and provide our location intelligence expertise to help make this important initiative come to life.  We're passionate about the difference location intelligence can make, and look forward to seeing the community get involved in this project by entering the location of their koala sightings through the easy to use Koaladiaries.com.au website."

Koaladiaries.com.au and its Project Location, may assist the community in identifying significant koala populations, "at risk" populations, and potentially even build an understanding of the home range movements of individual koalas where their location warrants special attention.  

It is free to join Koaladiaries.com.au, as is the use of the data being gathered. Other functions of the site include education, a national koala carers’ forum to share information, photo galleries and blog posts. It is intended to be a user-friendly resource for government agencies, interested individuals, schools and community groups. Go to www.koaladiaries.com.au.

Background Carolyn Beaton:

Carolyn was previously Communications Manager for Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Worldwide and then public relations consultant to the Australian Wildlife Hospital until leaving to have her first child in July 2009. For two years Carolyn hosted a weekly wildlife segment on Sunshine Coast radio station Zinc 96.1 FM and is well known in the Noosa community for her work with koalas. Carolyn maintains a public relations consultancy, Parin Green PR.

Background Alex Harris:

Author, speaker and public relations consultant Alex Harris has had 20 years experience in the media and related industries in Australia and the United States, and was previously Executive Director of Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in Queensland. Alex is editor of Reputationreport.com.au and maintains a strategic communications consultancy, including public relations and web design.

Background ESRI Australia:

ESRI Australia (www.esriaustralia.com.au) is proud to provide the location intelligence capability for the Koala Diaries website. The company comprises over 160 team members in seven offices Australia-wide, all passionate about the difference location intelligence can make.  With a 32 year history helping organisations to put location to work, ESRI Australia has worked with government, commercial and not-for-profit organisations across dozens of different industries.