Professor Wood Jones releasing the one of the first Koalas introduced to Kangaroo Island.

Koalas were relatively common in the south east of South Australia at the time of European settlement but by the 1930s they were considered extinct on the States's mainland, despite becoming protected fauna by law in 1912. The ravages of hunting, land clearance and disease were responsible.

Koalas were introduced to Kangaroo Island in the 1920s when 18 animals from Victoria were released in Flinders Chase National Park at the western part of the island. Since the koalas have no natural predators on the Island, and an abundance of food, they have thrived. So much so that there have been attempts to curb the population by translocation, beginning in the 1960s to the Riverland, Adelaide Hills, Eyre Peninsula and the South-East. The idea of culling the koala population on Kangaroo Island has been controversial and deemed undesireable by the government. Sterilisation has been tried.

Wood Jones, Frederic, 1879-1954