Koalas at Yannathan and on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

This post looks at references to koalas at Yannathan and more broadly on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp.   

In May 1891, Cyrus Mason wrote a letter to The Age newspaper, about a Surveying party who in the 1860s were forced to eat koalas to survive   - 

Surveyors are again at work where Mr. Surveyor W. S. Urquhart traversed 44 years since named the area south of his line "Koo-wee-rup " and wrote "deep water " upon his splendid plan (No. 2) of the traverse of the country between Melbourne and the Bunyip River. Some 30 years back Mr. (Sir Graham) Berry and others sent a surveyor and party to explore and report upon the Koo-wee-rup country with a view to their private use. They started from Lyall's, at Western Port, pushed their way on the south side, were reduced to starvation, only kept alive by eating native bears, until they reached the Bunyip River, when the strongest of the party managed to reach the hotel on the main road and obtained food, this investigation ending in some pencil markings upon the map in the Crown lands department.(1).

You can read more about Cyrus Mason, of  Woodyats, Tynong, here.

The South Bourke & Mornington Journal of June 8, 1887 published an article of a trip from Berwick to Yannathan. The route taken was the Berwick-Clyde Road, the South Gippsland Highway, through Cranbourne, then through Monomeith and to Yannathan. In the article, the unnamed writer said that Yannathan was 'swarming' with koalas or bears as they were called -

At Yannathan my business was completed and left me a day to look about the locality. The place swarms with "bears.'' In nearly every other tree they are to be seen. The name "bear" quite intimidates the "new chum," but no need of fear, for they are truly harmless beasts living on the gum leaves, and I am told are rapidly killing the gum trees as effectually as if they had been "rung" (2).

Six years later there was another account of koalas at Yannathan, this one painting a far bleaker picture of their numbers. This was a letter published in the Weekly Times on July 1, 1893, addressed to Uncle Ben the editor of the children's section.
A Bear. — Yannathan.
Dear Uncle Ben,
This is my first letter to you. I am going to tell you a story about a bear. One morning early about three o'clock when my sisters were in bed they heard something scratching. They thought at first that it was the rats, but soon they knew that it was too loud for them. They looked down towards the window where the noise came from. Seeing a shadow like a man's hand, they got out of bed, went to the window and looked out. Then they saw a bear which had climbed up the wall and was trying to hold onto the window, but could not. Mother, who was in another room, heard them laughing. She asked what was the matter, and they told her, so she got up and went outside, and took the bear off the window and put him on the ground. In the morning when we got up it was in a pear tree in the garden. The bears that are about here are quite harmless. They are very scarce, but when we first came into Yannathan there was a great number.
I remain, your affectionate niece, Sarah Aitken, aged eleven years and eight months (3).

The Koala or 'Australian Bear'

Australian Bear, c. 1880-1890. State Library of Victoria Image H29682/3

The cause of the decline in koala numbers in Yannathan can be attributed, mainly, to habitat loss due to the clearing of land for farming. Dr Niel Gunson in his book The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire writes that early settlement in the Yannathan district started on the western boundary in 1875 and by 1878 all the dense forest country had been selected (4). Clearing at Yannathan began as soon as the settlers could undertake the work, it has been said of this thick bush country (paperbark, tea tree, blackwood, silver wattle, musk tree and clematis) that 'when cleared it proved to be the best land in Gippsland' (5).

This interesting article about fauna on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp in 1894/1895 comes from a column in The Argus of September 12, 1934 called Nature Notes and Queries by Alec H. Chisholm. Mr Chisholm also notes land clearing as the reason koalas and lyre birds disappeared from the Koo Wee Rup Swamp.

Koalas at Koo-wee-rup

Stating that he has been very interested in the discussion on koalas' food trees, E.A.B. (St. Kilda) recalls that in the years 1894-95 he was camped at the Koo-wee-rup swamp and saw many koalas in swamp gums there. The trees were on a narrow ridge parallel with and about 20 chains east of the main drain, and the ridge was entirely surrounded by real swamp and tea-tree. A young koala taken to camp would climb tea-trees and black-woods, but would not feed there, although he throve on leaves from the swamp gums. That young bear was kept for about three months, and was never seen to drink. The writer wonders, therefore, if the moisture in leaves is sufficient for them. It is added that the swamp gum ridge was cleared for cultivation and the koalas disappeared. In the clearing of the eastern end of Koo-wee-rup many lyrebirds must have been destroyed. (6).

The koala was also killed for 'sport'. There was a report in March 1882 about a fishing and hunting trip to the Bass [River] district which mentioned the amount of sport they were going to have! Ducks, swan, hare, native bears, 'possoms and fish were to be got without the least exertion (7). Given that the koala was also called the 'Australian sloth' it is no wonder that they could be got without the least exertion.

Koalas did however, sometimes fight back. This report is from May 1904 -

A boy, aged 10, named Stanley Anderson, living at Lang Lang, noticed a native bear in a tree, and climbing up to it attempted to catch it by the ears. The bear made an attack on young Anderson, tearing his left arm very badly, and also making its teeth meet in his thumb. (8) 

The koala was also a component of the fur trade, not, however, the high-end garment segment of the market. This is part of a report from 1880 - Another numerous marsupial is the native bear, or Australian sloth, possessing a short matted wool, and a thick pelt unamenable to softening influences. These inoffensive creatures are most tenacious of life, and when they are killed, sorely test the patience of the skinner. The best of the skins are made into carriage rugs, but the majority are only fit for mats (9).

The 'Australian Native Bear' was considered cute enough to feature in this postcard from c. 1908, even if some people still thought they were only fit to become a mat.

Australian Native Bear. Study by Muir. State Library of Victoria Image H42748/12

In Victoria, koalas gained some protection in December 1898, when they were deemed to be native game and thus protected (10). This gave them year round protection, though this was objected to by the Fur Buyers' Association who thought koalas should only have protection for part of the year. As a matter of interest in 1899 the Fur Buyers' Association spokesman, Mr Coles said that last year on the London market a total of 176,000 skins were offered. New South Wales sent 134,000 and Victoria and Queensland 51, 600. This showed that there was not such a slaughter going on here as there was in New South Wales (11). The Government did not alter the year round protection for koalas and in 1938 strengthened their protection by including injuring and molesting the animals as well as destroying them within the scope of the bill (12).

Of course protection from slaughter did not protect the koala from habitat loss, and one solution for this was to re-locate koalas from one area to another such as in the 1930s from French Island to Quail Island. You can read about this here. Quail Island is at the northern end of Western Port Bay. It also appears from the following two reports from the Dandenong Journal in the 1940s  that some koalas were moved to Tooradin 

Tooradin - The ever-popular teddy bears (koalas) are now on view about the foreshore and surrounding gums. Apparently they are enjoying a brief sojourn at “the Port” preliminary to their retirement for the tourist season and from the small boy menace which by regrettable past experience they have learnt to avoid. (13)

Native Bears in the Manna gums at Tooradin are a popular feature to tourist bus passengers making a stop over for teas. When fires and disease affected the feeding trees at Chinamen [sic] Island in Westernport, the Fisheries and Game Dept, released a fair number of bears on this locality, hence their numbers. (14)

To finish off - it appears that boys were often blamed for the decline in koala numbers. In a 1931 report about transferring koalas from Phillip Island and  French Island to Quail Island and Chinaman Island -

It was considered useless to attempt to form colonies on the mainland until boys with pea-rifles learned to leave the koalas alone and other persons learned not to take them as pets. (15).

Footnotes

(1) The Age, May 23 1891, see here.
(2) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 8, 1887, see here.
(3) Weekly Times July 1, 1893, see here.
(4) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968), p. 112.
(5) Gunson, op. cit., p. 114
(6) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, March 15 1882, see here.

(7) The Argus, September 21, 1934, see here.

(8) Great Southern Advocate, May 12 1904, see here. 
(9) The Argus, December 9 1880, see here.
(10) Victoria Government Gazette, December 9, 1898, p. 4238, http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1898/V/general/109.pdf
(11) The Herald, July 11 1899, see here. The Fur Buyers' Association was also referred to as the Furred Skin Buyers' Association (The Herald, July 3, 1899, see here) I am not sure which is correct, and it doesn't really matter now, 120 years later, however I do like to be historically accurate.
(12) The Argus, December 14, 1938, see here.

(13) Dandenong Journal, November 10, 1943, see here.

(14) Dandenong Journal, November 24, 1948, see here.

(15) The Argus, May 9, 1931, see here.

A version of this post, which I wrote and researched first appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past.