Current projects

The Kiwarrak Area of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) was heavily impacted by the 2019 - 2020 bushfire season with post-fire surveys of koala activity indicating substantive losses of koalas across this area and measurable impacts to habitat (WWF funded project - Biolink 2020). MidCoast Council was successful in securing a Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Grant to support the recovery of their resident koala population and Biolink has subsequently been engaged by Council to model koala habitat connectivity in this region, including the evaluation of revegetation scenarios.

The concept of Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) was developed by the Office of Environment and Heritage (now DPIE) to meet the objective of identifying the locations and extent of important koala populations across NSW, further enabling the management of such areas by way of an objective assessment of threats to population persistence. Following collaborative discussion with DPIE, Biolink was engaged to examine the potential for alternative approaches to delineating ARKS and monitoring changes in their boundaries over time.

Liverpool City Council is considering the establishment of a koala-specific or wildlife-general hospital to serve a conservation function for the Liverpool Local Government Area and south-west Sydney more broadly, in line with recommendations stemming from the Koala Population and Habitat in NSW Parlimentary Inquiry (2019). Biolink has been engaged to prepare a business case for such a venture, both from the perspective of a need for increased veterinary support for wildlife and with regard to existing opportunities for wildlife-tourism in this region.

We have recently completed several local and landscape-scale, connectivity studies intended to better understand and predict the movement needs of koalas across fragmented landscapes.