Most forests and woodlands of south-eastern Australia are fire prone. These landscapes are typically dominated by tree species of the genus Eucalyptus, and many of these are proficient epicormic resprouters after fire. Several marsupial folivores rely on Eucalyptus foliage, including the koala. Little is known about the nutritional composition of epicormic leaves and whether folivores can utilise them. Following the 2019–20 megafires, we offered koalas epicormic leaves from eight eucalypt species that occur in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands and measured concentrations of foliar chemical constituents known to influence koala feeding (total and available nitrogen, formylated phloroglucinol compounds (FPCs), and unsubstituted B-ring flavanones (UBFs)). Captive koalas ate epicormic leaves from the four eucalypt species belonging to the subgenus Symphyomyrtus but ate relatively little from the species of the subgenus Eucalyptus. Available nitrogen was significantly higher in symphyomyrtle epicormic regrowth than in monocalypts and differed between species. Concentrations of FPCs and UBFs also differed between eucalypt species. Our results suggest that post-fire epicormic regrowth from symphyomyrtle species may be more readily browsed than that of monocalypts by koalas in the NSW Southern Tablelands. Therefore, some burnt areas are likely to be better quality habitat for koalas than others.

Dry rainforests and open woodlands occur across much of eastern Australia. However, the biogeographic history of these habitats remains poorly known, especially when compared to nearby moist rainforest areas. Land snails are commonly used as model organisms to understand patterns of origins of regional endemism due to their low vagility. Here we present an analysis of patterns of mitochondrial genetic diversity in three camaenid snail lineages with distributions centred on vine-thicket and open woodland habitats of eastern Queensland, specifically Euryladra from open woodlands, Brigaladra from inland semievergreen vine thickets, and Figuladra from coastal vine thickets. Lineages from habitats west of the Great Dividing Range show relatively low genetic divergence between localities, with particularly low structuring in the open woodland taxon Euryladra. Figuladra from vine-thicket habitats closer to the coast shows relatively deeper genetic divergence, with marked divergences between some upland and lowland areas in south-east Queensland, and across the St Lawrence Gap. This structuring suggests that taxa associated with vine thicket habitats have had a more discernible history of isolation than open woodlands. This said, genetic divergence across many vine thickets patches in lowland coastal regions is also shallow, suggesting many apparently disjunct vine thicket habitats and their associated species also have a recent history of connectivity.