A KOALA corridor will be re-established on a Cow Flat property thanks to a Bathurst Regional Council grant announced recently.
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Together, Peter and Katrina McKinnon were one of three successful grant recipients who will share $28,000 to undertake land improvements.
Mr McKinnon said the area is a known koala habitat, and he and his wife hope to encourage more to come through their property when the works are completed.
“Part of the plan is to re-establish corridors of habitat,” he said.
“We’re increasing the amount of trees and also we’ll do some erosion control ... you lose the dirt, you lose the trees and then you lose the koalas.”
Grants of up to $10,000 were available to landholders who commit to undertaking activities on their property. There were six applicants in this year’s round.
Successful recipients can then use the funds to maintain or enhance the land’s ecological value, or improve the sustainability of their agricultural enterprises.
The McKinnons’ proposal included stabilising eroded banks and strategically planting up to 300 native trees and groundcover to re-establish vegetation links to encourage koala movements.
Mr McKinnon said the couple’s 50.5-hectare (125-acre) property has some cleared areas, while other sections have native forest.
“Behind our block is a conservation area; it’s on the top of Rockley Mount,” he said.
“The works will allow them [koalas] to freely move and they won’t have to cross through paddocks.
“They’ve been separated by pastoral areas and if we can create new corridors it will allow them to move.”
Other successful grant recipients were Scott Valentine, who will create a wildlife corridor through his 15-hectare (37.1-acre) Braeside Springs property, and Gina and David Sykes for a vegetation management and wildlife corridor project.
Mr McKinnon said he and his wife will work with Bathurst council’s environment department and the Aboriginal Local Land Council during the works.
“They’ve got the technical expertise and we’ll do the hands-on work,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to it ... it’s the sort of work we wanted to do, but it would have taken us 10 years to do it ourselves.”
Major earthworks will be the first step and Mr McKinnon said planning for this will be undertaken in the near future.
