Keith Joliffe began the volunteer Eurobodalla Koalas Project in 2011 at the behest of then President of The Coastwatchers Association Inc, Sheila Monahan. The Coastwatchers Association Inc (the Eurobodalla’s not-for-profit environmental advocacy group) provided two tranches of funding for the project’s 2012-13 phases and is the sponsoring organisation for this year’s Commonwealth-funded fieldwork.
Keith has insisted on a non-judgmental citizen science, agency and community liaison approach, leading the project’s research into koala presence, koala history and koala habitat in the Eurobodalla Local Government Area.
Family circumstances caused Keith to move from the Eurobodalla back to Canberra at the end of 2012. From there Keith continues to coordinate the project pending the emergence of a new coordinator.
Keith’s 2020 priorities are:
to lead the fieldwork conducting 10 RGBSAT plot surveys ground-truthing the forested patch between Wamban and Nerrigundah, identified by our prior research as a potential viable breeding corridor
to promote the long-term revival of the local wild low-density koala population to the point that it no longer teeters on the edge of extinction, including beginning the update of the Eurobodalla Koala Recovery Strategy
to encourage businesses, land managers and the wider community to exploit the Eurobodalla’s koala story and continuing habitat for commercial, cultural and biodiversity reasons, as a contribution to the Shire’s recovery from the bushfires and COVID-19 crisis
to contribute to the project’s public education campaign, in person wherever possible as well as through mainstream media, this website and social media
