French Island might sound like it’s located somewhere off the coast of France yet, in reality, it lies around 68 kilometres from Melbourne. With only 110 inhabitants, the Australian island is one of the few places on Earth to not be dominated by humans but by animals – koalas, to be precise.
Living on French Island as a human being isn’t an easy thing. As an unincorporated territory in the state of Victoria, it doesn’t have any electricity or garbage collection, paved roads or water supply, police or even medical supplies. With no bridge connecting it to the mainland, visitors only ferry.
The fauna and flora on the island seem to be thriving under those off-grid conditions. A regenerated national park land covers two thirds of the island and is home to 230 bird species and some 600 plant species. However, the koalas might be the animals benefiting the most from the remote location of French Island. Around 5,000 to 7,000 individuals are living in the area, around 60 times more than the 110 human inhabitants, making it the largest and healthiest koala population in the state of Victoria and the second-biggest in the country, after Kangaroo Island.
There are multipe reasons for tha thriving of the population. Currently, koalas suffer a lot from habitat loss, car collisions and dog attacks, all of which are kept to a minimum on the island. But the biggest factor might be the fact that the koalas on French Island aren’t suffering from chlamydia, a natural disease in the marsupials that has been naturally regulating their population. French Island is, in fact, the last chlamydia-free koala population in the state of Victoria.
However, the little gray bears on French Island aren’t perfect. According to Kelly Smith, managing the Koala Awareness Program through the Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation near Melbourne, multiple health issues are affecting the island’s population.
“On French Island, they call them pinhead koalas”, Smith told the Smithsonian Magazine. “Pinheads because they’ve got small heads and big bodies. And a lot of them have a skewed jaw, which means their jaws aren’t lining up properly, so they can’t eat or chew their [eucalyptus] leaves properly, which can lead to malnutrition and starvation.”
Smith also pointed out that koalas on French Island are short on eucalyptus trees, as the animals are breeding too quickly and, at the same time, inhabitants are chopping down trees in order to limit bush fires. And even though the koalas on the island are reproducing at a rapid pace, their genetic diversity is low and would greatly benefit from new genetic material. Nowadays, each year over 200 koalas are transferred from French Island to reserves in other parts of Victoria.
Despite the difficulties, French Island might well be one of the best places to see koalas in the wild. The island might not be accessible by car but if you’re in the Melbourne region and looking for an off-the-grid getaway, this might be ideal. And while doing so, don’t forget to donate some money to a koala preservation organisation.
