Landscape legacies: Koala habitat change in Noosa Shire, South-east Queensland

Present day Australian landscapes are legacies of our colonial history, while future landscapes will be legacies of ecological processes and human impacts occurring today. This paper investigates the legacies of European settlement of Noosa Shire, South-east Queensland, with particular emphasis on the economic and political drivers and the resultant loss and fragmentation of Koala Phascolarctos cinereus habitat. Patterns of habitat loss between 1860 and 1970 were quantified at a coarse level from historical and land tenure records, while changes over the past 30 years were mapped at a finer spatial resolution from aerial photography and satellite imagery. Periods of high economic growth and to lesser extents depression are linked to increased vegetation clearing. Fifty per cent of P. cinereus habitat has been lost since 1860, with habitat class 2A (30-