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.

NSW KOALA STRATEGY MARK II

The 2019/20 bushfires, and a damning report from the 2019 Legislative Council Inquiry into NSW Koala Populations sent the NSW government hurrying to produce a report claiming successes with their earlier Strategy, and deciding on further tactics to prevent Australia from losing a globally renowned species on their watch.

Will this updated Strategy be any better?  It comes with funding of $193.3 million, along with 30 actions aimed at doubling NSW koala numbers by 2050. This in itself could be questionable when eventual outcomes are released since koala numbers today are not known, with an estimate of 15,000 to 30,000, giving a ballpark figure of 20,000.

There is also concern that this commitment will not see any marked changes, for a number of reasons. The main one is that although over 280,000 ha of premium and secondary koala habitat is officially identified in north-east NSW State forests alone, with some supporting important koala hubs, there are still no plans to permanently protect these vital habitats from logging.

Another is that instead of basing conservation outcomes on legislative changes and government responsibilities, they once again are to rest on private landowner decisions - to either sell their homes to the government, or take up binding conservation agreements (CAs) attached to their properties' titles. For the first option the government wants 15,000 ha, with some already selected from the Northern Rivers. For the CAs, they plan for just 7,000 ha from across the whole of NSW. This does not generate confidence that many necessary koala corridors will be safely protected.

Also the actual protection value of a CA can often depend on adjoining neighbours, who can legally log their properties, and gradually clear for a number of legitimate reasons, even through koala habitat.

On a more positive note, if this funding can support a dedicated effort to bring our koalas back from the brink, then we might hope to see some level of success, perhaps to a point where a passing tourist in known koala habitat might even be able to see a koala.

- Patricia Edwards

 

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , May 18, 2022.

 

THE GREAT KOALA NATIONAL PARK

A recent University of Newcastle report examined the economic and environmental benefits that could result from the creation of the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP) on the NSW Mid- North Coast.

Kevin Evans, spokesperson for the GKNP Steering Committee, said the research demonstrated “the Great Koala National Park would make a significant contribution to the NSW economy and be a major job boost for the Mid-North Coast region just when it is so desperately needed.”

Habitat loss is a major threat to survival of the koala as a species.   The GKNP proposal was developed to increase koala habitat protection by adding 175,000 ha of native state forests to existing protected areas establishing a 315,000 ha reserve.  This new park would stretch across the local government areas of Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Bellingen, Nambucca and Kempsey protecting an area that is home to around 20 per cent of the NSW koala population.

The proposal was initiated by Mid-North Coast conservation groups who commissioned an independent scientific assessment by ecologist David Scotts of the public native forests that would need to be protected if we are to avoid koala extinction.

Mr Evans said the Newcastle University report included employment projections as forestry related jobs are transitioned over a ten year period to park management and restoration through a government funded transition plan.

“We fully support a government funded industry transition,” he said.

He believes that as NSW currently obtains over 85% of its timber requirements from plantation sources, an investment in expanding this resource should be a priority.

The urgent need for improved protection of koala habitat was confirmed by last year’s NSW Legislative Council inquiry into koala habitat which found that koalas could become extinct in NSW by2050 unless effective action was taken.  Significantly this inquiry said that the GKNP “has great merit”.

Mr Evans says that there is widespread community support for the proposal.  He wants the NSW Premier to live up to her promise of being the Premier to save our koala for future generations.

            - Leonie Blain

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , February 17, 2021. 

 

For more information on the proposed Great Koala National Park see   https://www.gknp.org/

 

 

STAN MUSSARED'S "GOODBYE BLINKY BILL"

On January 16, 2017 Stan Mussared's   "Goodbye Blinky Bill"  was published as the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner.  Koalas were under threat then and had been for years.   What Stan wrote in 2017 still applies today.  Indeed their situation is even worse now with predictions that they could be extinct in NSW by 2050. 

 

 * * * * *

Far too often we humans stand beneath a tree, look up at a koala on a branch far above our heads and say in a voice loud enough for him to hear, “Our interests are more important than yours.”

The koala may answer softly, “No tree, no me.”  He could have added, “And if my home is threatened, then so is the diversity of other flora and fauna that share the same ecosystem with me.”

But we fail to hear.

Forested areas are cleared to make way for our developments – urban areas, agriculture, roads and highways – and loss of habitat, the number one threat to a healthy koala population, takes place.

The precious habitat areas that remain are fragmented and isolated, and on koalas trying to exist in these pockets the pressure builds and serious issues quickly arise.

There is now excessive energy expenditure on greater ground movement as koalas search for the scattered food trees.  As they move across highways, fences, car parks, and backyards, they face a myriad of problems from motor vehicles, dogs and swimming pools.

The greatly reduced habitat areas lead to a greater density in the remaining koala population.  There is now increased competition for food and many are forced to eat poorer quality leaf.  There is also a greater tendency for inbreeding, and thus a lower genetic quality animal.

The destruction of koala habitat creates very high stress levels which increases susceptibility to disease.

Historically koalas have not been treated well.  Up until 1930 around 2 million koalas were “harvested” for the fur trade.  A public outcry resulted in a change and koala numbers slowly increased.  However, with habitat being removed , koala numbers are spiralling down again.

It is indeed time that we change our statement as we look up and say in a voice loud enough for him to hear, “Yes, I will care for you and our Community of Life with understanding, compassion and love.”

-          Stan Mussared

SAVING KOALAS FROM EXTINCTION

In the Daily Examiner recently , I was appalled to read one person's assessment that new laws aimed at protecting koala habitat would spell the demise of the timber and agricultural industries.

I realise it's everyone's right to have, and express their opinions, but how anyone can spout that type of utter rubbish is beyond me. The agricultural industry had been pretty successful in Australia for more than 200 years, albeit at enormous environmental expense, but we all have to eat. However, to suggest that stopping farmers from cutting down koala feed trees, which have always been there up until now, would somehow cause the industry's collapse, is ludicrous.

The native forest timber industry, which the writer also claims will be threatened with collapse if these laws are enacted, would have gone belly-up decades ago if tax-payers hadn't been forced to subsidise it. By rights, having incurred million dollar losses year after year for the past two decades, state forest logging should have been shut down years ago. At least that would have likely halted the downward spiral in koala numbers, and perhaps even allowed a modest recovery.

Right now, the NSW Government is spending huge amounts of money supporting a range of programs and initiatives to save koalas under the Saving our Species program. These include land acquisitions, feed tree-planting, monitoring and reporting programs and distribution of information.

However, while habitat enhancement is essential to the recovery of koalas, the fact that there is still widespread land-clearing and logging on a scale that far outstrips the habitat creation efforts of the Saving our Species' program, will ensure the continued decline of koalas into oblivion.

Other possible initiatives include investigations into captive breeding, training of vets in the treatment of koalas, and support for wildlife carer organisations, all seemingly last-ditch attempts to stave off extinction, rather than a proactive approach to providing land for koalas to recover across their natural range. The latter would be a logical approach, but we live in a world where logic is in increasingly short supply – witness the panic buying of toilet paper!

            -John Edwards

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on March 23,  2020

COMMUNITY ASKED TO SPEAK OUT TO SAVE BRAEMAR'S KOALAS

In a media release of September 7 the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA)

called on the community to speak out against the logging of core koala habitat

in Braemar State Forest south of Casino on the NSW North Coast.

NEFA undertook its third Koala assessment of Braemar State Forest last weekend and again found abundant Koala scats, reaffirming that it is one of the most significant Koala populations known on State Forests, according to NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

"We now estimate that there are over 100ha of Koala High Use Areas, which is unprecedented on State Forests. Over the past 20 years, across the hundreds of thousands of hectares they logged, the Forestry Corporation only found a total of 200ha of small scattered Koala High Use Areas"

"Braemar encompasses core breeding habitat that is part of the nationally significant Koala population previously identified across the nearby Carwong and Royal Camp State Forests.

"Our appeals to the Premier to intervene and ensure that all Koala High Use Areas are identified and protected were counter-productive. Instead the Government has decided to switch over to the new rules where Koala High Use Areas are no longer protected.

"A new Harvesting Plan was released last Saturday and logging is due to start on the auspicious date of Friday the 13th September.

"There are likely to be 60-90 Koalas living in the area they are about to trash.

"Now that Premier Berejiklian has removed protection for Koala High Use Areas the Forestry Corporation is also proposing logging compartment 13 Royal Camp SF where they were stopped in 2013 because of the extensive Koala High Use Areas NEFA identified.

"The onslaught on the nationally significant Koala population on public lands of the Richmond lowlands is fully underway. Spending millions to build Koala hospitals is treating the symptoms. when we most need to stop trashing their homes to save them from extinction.

"We are calling on the community to speak up for Braemar's Koalas by spreading the word, writing to the Premier and contacting their local parliamentarians before it is too late. 

"We are inviting people to come out to Braemar, at the Rappville turnoff 24 km south of Casino on the Summerland Way, at 10am next Sunday 15 September to stand up for Koalas", Mr. Pugh said.

"They are only expecting to get 1,400 cubic metres of high quality logs from flogging this Koala habitat.

"Annual commitments of such logs from north-east NSW are 220,000 cubic metres, and over the past 3 years the Forestry Corporation has over-logged by 95,500 cubic metres. They need to stop their gross over-cutting rather than destroying Koala habitat for a pittance".

NSW UPPER HOUSE INQUIRY ON KOALAS

A committee of the Legislative Council, State Parliament’s upper house, is conducting an inquiry into koala populations and habitat in the state.

Matters it is investigating include the status of koala populations, the adequacy of current measures to protect the species and the impact of government legislation and policies on koalas and their habitat.

This inquiry is being welcomed by those concerned about declining koala numbers and the loss of koala habitat.  It is hoped that it will lead to effective action by the NSW Government to stop the current slide of koalas in this state towards extinction.

The major threat to koalas is loss of habitat as a result of agricultural and forestry activities as well as urban expansion into koala habitat (including rural residential expansion). Other threats, many of them development related, are road kill, dog attack and stress related disease.  Other threats include drought and climate change.

Current government policies are resulting in loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation.  The NSW Government’s easing of rules on native vegetation has led to an acceleration in land clearing which is affecting koalas as well as other vulnerable native species. 

Changes to logging rules in NSW State Forests are also having a serious impact on koalas and their habitat. A North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) study identified that the Forestry Corporation has logged 2,500 ha of “highest priority” koala habitat over the last four years.

On the North Coast koala populations have collapsed by 50% in the last 20 years.

The NSW Government responded to scientific and community concern about koalas by introducing its Koala Strategy.

A joint report by the World Wildlife Federation Australia (WWF), the NSW National Parks Association and NEFA is very critical of this, pointing out that the $45 million plan will not prevent the extinction of koalas in NSW.  Its primary failing is that “it ignores changes in legislation in 2017 that made it legal to clear 99% of the state’s koala habitat.”

Hopefully this parliamentary inquiry will force the Government to finally take effective action. 

            - Leonie Blain

 This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on August 12, 2019