The first report of a European sighting of a koala was made on 26 January 1798, 10 years after British settlement. It was made south-west of Sydney, near Bargo. The report was not published until 1895 in the Historical Records of New South Wales, and this entry was accompanied by a note that gave the location as the mountains west of Sydney. This error persists in texts to this day, and it is misleading because the Blue Mountains are not a stronghold for the koala, whereas the south-west of Sydney has both the habitat, and a koala population that was present at first settlement and it is there today. The first material evidence of a koala seen by Europeans was provided by Barrallier, who obtained some koala paws in November 1802 near Nattai. Nattai is also south-west of Sydney, and is part of a regional stretch of habitat that includes Campbelltown, Nattai, Bargo, and to a lesser extent, the coast near Mt Kembla. It was either a koala from Hat Hill, now Mt Kembla, in August 1803, or a koala brought in by Barrallier in December 1802, that was the first living koala seen publicly in the colony. The conclusions drawn from the examination of the historical record are that koalas were not present in or immediately around Port Jackson, where the British settlement was established, but there was a population present to the south-west of Sydney. This population was present in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, and the population is still present today on the south-western, outer suburbs of the ever-expanding city of Sydney. It is thus the longest-known koala population to Europeans in Australia, and it is now part of the natural history of Sydney.

Atkinson, A. 1988 Camden: farm and village life in early New South Wales. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Australia.

Barrallier, F. 1975 Journal of the expedition into the interior of New South Wales 1802. Marsh Walsh publishing, North Melbourne, Victoria.

Bladen, F. M. 1985. Historical records of New South Wales. Vol. 3. Hunter, 1796-1799. Sydney Government Print, Sydney, NSW Australia.

Chisholm, A. H. 1955. How and when was the lyrebird discovered. Emu 55 (part 1): 1-15.

Crowther, M. S., McAlpine, C. A., Lunney, D., Shannon, I. and Bryant, J. V. 2009. Using broad-scale, community survey data to compare species conservation strategies across regions: A case study of the Koala in a set of adjacent ‘catchments’. Ecological Restoration and Management 10: S88-S96.

Currey, J. E. B. (ed.). 1966 Reflections on the colony of New South Wales George Caley. Landsdowne Press, Melbourne, Australia.

Finney, C. M. 1984 To sail beyond the sunset. Rigby, Australia.

Iredale, T. and Whitley, G. 1934. The early history of the koala. Victorian Naturalist 51: 62-72

Jackson, S. 2007 Koala: origins of an icon. Jacana Books, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, Australia.

Knox and LR Fowler. 1991. Journeys into an unknown land. P60 in A history of the forbidden land - Wollondilly Shire. Chapter 5, Pt 1, edited by L.R. Fowler, F.B. Knox and S. den Hartog. Published by Wollondilly Shire Council. (It is undated, but it was probably 1991.).

Lhuede, V. 2007 Yerranderie Is My Dreaming, Valued Books, Milsons Point, NSW, Australia.

Liston, C. 1988 Campbelltown, the bicentennial history. Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Lunney, D., Close, R., Bryant, J., Crowther, M. S., Shannon, I., Madden, K. and Ward, S. 2010. The koalas of Campbelltown, south-western Sydney: does their natural history foretell of an unnatural future? Pp 339-370 in The Natural History of Sydney, edited by D. Lunney, P. Hutchings and D. Hochuli. Royal Zoological Society of Sydney, Mosman, NSW, Australia.

Lunney, D., Crowther, M.S., Shannon, I., and Bryant, J.V. 2009. Combining a map-based public survey with an estimation of site occupancy to determine the recent and changing distribution of the koala in New South Wales. Wildlife Research 36: 262-273.

Macqueen, A. 1993 Blue Mountains to Bridgetown. The life and journeys of Barrallier 1773-1853. Published by Andy Macqueen, Bee Farm Road, Springwood, NSW.

Martin, R. and Handasyde, K. 1999 The koala: Natural history, conservation and management. UNSW press, UNSW, Sydney 2052, Australia.

Moyal, A. 2008 Koala: a Historical Biography. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia.

Norst, M. J. 1989 Ferdinand Bauer: artist and scientist. Lothian Publishing, Port Melbourne, Australia.

Organ, M.K., 1991 Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines, 1770-1850, Wollongong University. Reference from Michael Organ's website.

Phillips, B. 1990 Koalas. The little Australians we'd all hate to lose. AGPS publication, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Reed, P., Lunney, D., and Walker, P. 1990. Survey of the koala Phascolarctos cinereus (Goldfuss) in New South Wales (1986-87), with an ecological interpretation of its distribution. Pp 55-74 In Biology of the koala, edited by A.K. Lee, K.A. Handasyde and G.D. Sanson. Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW, Australia.

Stanbury, P. 1978 Australia's Animals. Who discovered them? The Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, Sydney.

Troughton, E. 1943 Furred Animals of Australia. (1^st edition). Angus and Robertson, Sydney, Australia.

Troughton, E. 1967 Furred Animals of Australia. (9th edition). Angus and Robertson, Sydney, Australia. (It is noted that on the imprint page that the full reference says ninth edition, then added 1973, being the revised and abridged edition).

Ward, S. J. 2002 Koalas and the community: a study of low density populations in Southern Sydney. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown.

Weir, N. 1998 From timberland to smiling fields. A history of Orangeville and Werombi. Oaks Historical Society. University of Western Sydney press.

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Contents

Data & Figures

References

Other RZS NSW Publications

The Natural History of Sydney

Edited by

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7882/9780980327236

ISBN electronic:

978-0-9803272-3-6

Publication date:

2010