Aussie Ark makes conservation history with chlamydia-free koala population in Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary

Marking an historic milestone for conservation efforts, conservation organisation Aussie Ark has successfully recaptured and retested the Koalas residing in the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary and is thrilled to confirm the population has remained chlamydia-free.

Securing a chlamydia-free wild-living Koala population is a massive milestone for this iconic species which faces imminent extinction in the wild. The highly infectious disease causes blindness, infertility, even death, and is decimating Koala populations nationwide. Scientists now predict Koalas could be extinct in the wild as early as 2050.

Aussie Ark’s koala conservation effort is nationally and globally significant with Aussie Ark’s pioneering ‘capture and care’ program now a blueprint for Koala management nationwide. The Sanctuary's cohort is now one of most genetically viable and valuable in Australia.

The journey began in November 2024, when Aussie Ark engaged the specialist Koala teams of Ecosure and Endeavour Veterinary Ecology (EVE) to find the eight animals living ‘wild’ in the 400-hectare feral proof Sanctuary. Deploying state-of-the-art thermal sensing drones, the Koalas were firstly located via heat detection and then carefully extracted from their trees.

Each Koala was sedated and given a rigorous health check by EVE’s specialist vet Dr Julien Grosmaire, who checked blood, urine, teeth, eyes, body condition and even internal reproductive organs via ultrasound to determine if Koalas had chlamydia.

In this process the team got a close look at Aussie Ark’s Koalas; four males called Gerbert, Blue, Manna and Scribbs, and four females called Grevillea, Flora, Banksia and joey Gymea. Incredibly Banksia, Gymea and Scribbs were chlamydia-free and released immediately. But the five others were chlamydia-positive, with both Flora and Grevillea already infertile due to the disease. These five Koalas were transferred to external specialist Koala hospitals and treated.

Once chlamydia-free, they were returned to the Sanctuary and released with innovative K-tracker biotelemetry collars – a purpose-built Koala GPS tracking system – for ongoing monitoring and intervention.

That first stage of operations was lauded as a huge success. But the ultimate test of the program’s success was whether all the Koalas remained chlamydia-free.

All eight Koalas were recaptured, re-tested…and it’s indeed ‘mission accomplished’.

Aussie Ark Managing Director Tim Faulkner said Aussie Ark’s success securing a chlamydia-free group is “groundbreaking” and added “Aussie Ark’s aims are multifaceted. Firstly, we will manage what is possibly the world’s first chlamydia-free population of Koalas. Secondly, we aim to demonstrate that our ‘capture and care’ model can be rolled out throughout Australia. Thirdly, we are committed to improving the trajectory of wild Koalas which are on a crash-course towards extinction.”

Aussie Ark’s chlamydia-free Koala group will be kept safe and well within the confines of the Sanctuary, with plans to bolster genetics and build the population into the future.

If you’d like to help Aussie Ark save the iconic Koala from extinction, please donate now at aussieark.org.au