Tree clearing, not urban sprawl, wiping out koalas in Queensland, WWF says

Analysis shows 94% of the 5,000 estimated koala deaths due to habitat loss from 2012 to 2016 occurred outside the state's heavily developed south-east

Environmentalists estimate that tree clearing in regional and rural Queensland is now 15 times more destructive to the state's koala populations than urban sprawl.

Development, and the loss of koala habitat for housing and infrastructure, was considered a key reason why the koala was added to the "vulnerable" species list in 2012.