Threatened Species Strategy Action Plan – Priority Species Grant: Koala Detection using Artificial Intelligence

The Environment Restoration Fund – Threatened Species Strategy Action Plan – Priority Species Grants program is an initiative of the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The program is designed to support organisations in undertaking activities that "improve the trajectories of priority species" (Australian Government, 2023). In 2022, Noosa and District Landcare Group Inc (NDLG) secured a grant under this program. NDLG, in partnership with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), used this funding to devise a program to grow koala monitoring capabilities in the community of the Noosa region. The program included a three day training workshop and a series of drone surveys. This document reports on the results of the drone surveys undertaken as part of the grant activities. Thermal imagery was collected from four surveys conducted at three sites in the Noosa hinterland. Seventeen koalas were detected overall, with detections in individual surveys ranging from two to eight