KOALA PROTECTION IN LIMBO IN NSW

 More than two years have passed since the Minns’ Government won office in NSW.  One of its election promises – the creation of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) – appears to be in limbo.  While there have been various committees meeting and discussing the proposed national park, the time line for actually creating it keeps extending.

Those concerned with protection of koalas and other threatened species in the area of the proposed new park are watching its ecological viability being continually damaged because the Government is allowing Forestry Corporation NSW to industrially log in the State Forests which are being considered for inclusion in the park.

The proposed park will include about 1760 sq km of State Forests and 1400 sq km of existing National Parks in five local government areas from Kempsey to the Clarence.  It will provide a network of protected koala habitat on public lands which would protect approximately twenty per-cent of NSW’s remaining wild koalas.

Many conservationists and community members are wondering just what will be left for biodiversity if the important habitat in these publicly-owned State Forests continues to be trashed by logging.

They have reason for concern because Koalas are listed as an Endangered Species in NSW, Queensland and the ACT.  In 2020 a NSW Legislative Council Inquiry found that koalas will become extinct in NSW by 2050 if urgent action is not taken to protect their habitat.  Sadly, urgent action on protecting koala habitat is obviously not on the NSW Government agenda.

This was quite apparent to the Nature Conservation Council of NSW  when it pointed out that in the recent state budget there was no new funding for the GKNP, no plan to transition timber workers, and no pathway to protect the native forests our threatened species call home.

While the Government has no sense of urgency to protect Koalas and other important species and continues its delaying tactics on creating the GKNP, there are many community members who are doing what they can to delay or halt destructive logging in our State Forests.

-        Leonie Blain

 Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 2 July, 2025.

WHERE'S THE POT OF GOLD?

Much has been written about the current rush to find critical minerals in the Clarence Valley, and with demand rocketing, the state government is hoping to collect billions of dollars in royalties. As a result, exploration approvals are being fast-tracked with little regard for the resultant social upheaval or potential environmental destruction.

The Clarence Valley has a history of mining starting with the 1800s gold rushes, followed by the mining of copper, silver, cobalt, antimony and a host of other minerals which, by the 1950s, were mostly exhausted. 

So, is there any as-yet-undiscovered mother lode waiting to be uncovered? Events over the past 50 years suggest not, and it’s significant that most of these modern-day explorers have focussed their activities on those earlier mine sites, producing glossy prospectuses, and hinting that modern technology will succeed where previous methods had failed. 

The Dalmorton gold field is a classic example where, in 1980, 40 years after serious mining had ceased, the Little River Goldfields company spent almost a decade exploring, using aero magnetics, geochemistry, gradient array IP and magnetics.

In all, they drilled over 120 holes and then, clearly having found nothing, packed up and left, recently to be replaced by another explorer, Revolution Metals. However, following a flurry of announcements in 2017, including about the completion of deep ground-penetrating radar surveys, these announcements ceased and their website was shut down.

Dalmorton is not alone, White Rock Minerals’ partner company at Mt Carrington, Thomson Resources, split following exploratory drilling in 2022. Castillo Copper came, drilled for 3 years at Cangai, and also left. Corazon Mining’s Mt Gilmore operations have seemingly stalled, despite receiving state and federal government grants, and drilling to almost 800m without finding anything. Likewise, Anchor, after bouncing around and drilling on the Dorrigo Plateau for 11 years, has gone, only to be replaced by Trigg Minerals, bent on repeating the cycle once again. 

As I see it, the government has nothing to lose, while Clarence Valley residents have everything to gain by having the catchment declared off-limits to mining.

  

-            John Edwards

 

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent 25 June, 2025.

 

Local Business Delegation Supports Creation of Great Koala National Park

 Liz Jeremy, NSW  National Parks Association President and local Mid North Coast resident,  welcomed NSW Premier Chris Minns' positive response to a delegation representing local businesses and recreational groups calling for the declaration of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP).

 Ms Jeremy said, "More than a hundred businesses and recreational groups from the Coffs Harbour region have signed an open letter telling the NSW Government that the Great Koala National Park is not just good for Koalas, it will be a drawcard for regional tourism and a boon for local business." 

"Tourism is so important for our region, and the more than a hundred businesses who signed onto the open letter are saying that the Great Koala National Park is the natural and cultural wonder that will put us on the national stage along with the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru." 

The open letter highlights the urgency of permanently protecting 176,000 hectares of State Forest as part of the new national park. The open letter states "Every day the decision to create the Great Koala National Park is delayed, we lose more koalas, and the tremendous potential for tourism and conservation slips away.”

The proposed park, which was promised by NSW Labor before it won the March 2023 state election, will include areas of publicly-owned State Forests as well as the existing National Parks in five local government areas from Kempsey to the Clarence.  It will provide a network of protected koala habitat on public lands which would protect approximately 20% of NSW's remaining wild koalas.

The delay in creating the promised park has been of increasing concern to local conservationists and community members.  They are watching important habitat in the proposed park area continuing to be industrially logged by the NSW Forestry Corporation.  Many of them are wondering just what will be left of biodiversity if the important habitat in these publicly-owned State Forests continues to be trashed by logging.