Unless inconsistent with context or subject matter, each word or phrase defined in this glossary has the following meaning when used in this document:
| Authorised Officer | An employee of the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action who is authorised under section 83(1) of the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 for the purposes of the Wildlife Act 1975 |
| Coppice | Regrowth on the stumps of harvested trees left to regenerate. |
| Coppice management | Any activity which is undertaken on coppice that may impact Koalas. At a minimum it includes the application of chemicals (herbicide or pesticide), fire treatment and the mechanical removal or destruction of coppice. It excludes coppice thinning operations where coppice stems are selectively removed. |
| Expected Koala Index | The average Koala Index across the industry. |
| Feller buncher | A harvester that can rapidly cut and gather a number of trees before felling them. |
| Fire treatment | Any activity which is undertaken using fire. For example, burning coppice or slash. |
| Gullet | A cleared area created by a harvester felling trees into standing blue gum plantation. As soon as the trees are able to be fallen into previously harvested or open areas then it is not a gullet. |
| Harvest zone | The area to be harvested in a shift by either a feller buncher or single grip harvest system. |
| Juvenile Koala | A Koala joey that is dependent on its mother and is not yet weaned. |
| Koala incident | Includes any situation where a Koala is physically impacted during blue gum plantation management operations. The impact could be by trees, machinery, chemicals, fire or people. It includes a Koala falling from a tree in the harvest zone or a juvenile Koala being separated from its mother. Koala incidents do not include near misses or finding a dead or injured Koala in a blue gum plantation where the cause is unable to be determined or is clearly not related to plantation operations, although these data must be recorded and reported to the Conservation Regulator. |
| Koala Index | The model explained in Appendix 2 of this document. |
| Manager | A blue gum plantation management company that leases a blue gum plantation from the owner of the plantation for the purposes of managing the plantation, or who has been contracted by the owner of a blue gum plantation to undertake the management of the plantation. This includes third party or stumpage agreements where ownership of the trees pass to a company at harvest. |
| Near miss | A dangerous incident where no harm comes to a Koala, but it is exposed to an immediate or imminent serious risk. It includes any incident where a Koala is almost physically impacted during operations, either by trees, machinery, chemicals, fire or people, for example a Koala walking past a harvester in operation. |
| Operational area | A single area of variable size, shape and orientation on which a plantation management operation occurs. |
| Owner | The owner of a blue gum plantation. This can be either a natural person or a body corporate. |
| Plantation | The blue gum plantation in which the plantation management operations will be undertaken. |
| Plantation management operations | Any activity that poses a welfare risk to Koalas. At a minimum this includes harvesting, roading, fire treatment of slash and coppice management. |
| ProofSafe | The mobile phone and tablet application that is used by plantation owners and managers to record and report the data required under the authorisation to disturb Koalas. |
| Qualified ecologist | A person suitably qualified by training, education and experience in Koala ecology, management and welfare, such as a landscape ecologist with Koala expertise. |
| Single grip harvester | A harvester that fells, debarks and cuts individual trees. |
| Slash | Woody debris left after harvest operations. |
| Spotter | A person employed or engaged to spot Koalas in a blue gum plantation during operations. |
| Veterinarian | A veterinary practitioner registered with the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria or interstate equivalent. |
| Wildlife rehabilitator | A person authorised under section 28A(1)(f) of the Wildlife Act to enable the care, treatment or rehabilitation of sick, injured or orphaned wildlife. |
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