REDLAND koala populations have crashed by 80 per cent from 1996 to 2014 and may be in terminal decline, according to a report for the Environment Department.
Heavy development is thought to be behind the crash, as well as disease, dog attacks and car strikes, with the report showing protection measures have failed to curb the decline.
The University of Queensland study by Associate Professor Jonathan Rhodes, Dr Hawthorne Beyer, Dr Harriet Preece and Professor Clive McAlpine says the declines are rapid and likely increasing.
The difference between the Pine Rivers and Redlands is likely due to the latter _ a koala stronghold 20 years ago _ having been more heavily developed.
"The rapid declines ... indicate populations in considerable danger and there is a risk that it may be too late to stabilise,'' the report says.
Environment Minister Steven Miles said the government would appoint experts to urgently explore ways to better protect koalas.
“I have also directed the department to come up with realistic short-term options,'' Dr Miles said.
The status of koalas, which already are listed as threatened, is likely to be be upgraded to vulnerable.
Koala Action Group patron and former Redlands councillor Helen Murray said koalas were compromised in the 1880s and 1990s when it was decided farm land should go to housing, rather than some being revegetated.
Former mayor Eddie Santaguilana tried to help koalas but no council had bothered since.
In 1987, the Redlands koala population was likely more than 10,000 but was now just a few hundred.
Ms Murray said she spent 18 years as a councillor and over that period anyone who fought for koalas was denigrated.
She said Mayor Karen Williams had not fought for koalas, having said that road signs warning about koalas were a waste of money.
Cr Williams hit back, saying Ms Murray's comments no more than finger pointing.
"The fact is the decline in koala populations has been an unfortunate trend for decades, including when Ms Murray served as councillor,'' Cr Williams said.
Cr Williams said Ms Murray knew that installing costly flashing koala signs, leaving dead koalas painted pink on roadsides and planting large koala food trees next to busy roads had been a failure and it was pointless continuing such strategies.
"The threats facing koalas are complex and varied... We need a koala protection strategy based on science and embraced by the broader community,'' she said.
"...The report confirms what council’s own statistics have been telling us _ we need take a fresh, unified approach to koala protection if we are to save them,'' she said.
Ms Murray said there was little prospect of stopping the animals becoming extinct, especially if the Toondah Harbour development went ahead as planned.
The Toondah plans should be altered and the city plan redrafted to ensure bushland was linked between places like Ormiston, Hilliards Creek and Wellington Point.
Cr Williams said the Redlands had likely done more than any other council to stem the tide but the financial, legal and planning constraints faced by local government had to be acknowledged.
KAG president Debbie Pointing said she particularly feared off-set regulations under which tree plantings had become an excuse for removal of habitat
Dr Miles said the previous government had weakened laws which saw tree clearing rates almost double but agreed with Cr Williams that it could not be assumed that earlier koala protection strategies would stop the decline.
