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.

GOOD NEWS ON LAKE MENINDEE

What a wonderful sight! Water is now pouring into Lake Menindee after the gates were opened connecting it once again to the Darling-Baaka River. 

With water in the lakes, invertebrates will hatch, fish will breed, birds will arrive and the lake will be once again teem with life. The local community and Barkandji will enjoy the lakes and tourists will arrive to revive the local economy.  

This is partly thanks to everyone who supported the campaign to stop the reconfiguration of the Menindee Lakes. The government had planned to do engineering works to cut off the lakes from the Darling-Baaka River in the name of “efficiency”.   

The outcry from the community forced the government to pause those engineering works and open the gates to Lake Menindee to let it fill with flood waters from Queensland and northern NSW.   

Even though the Menindee Lakes have been given a reprieve, this incredible ecosystem will remain under threat until the government promises to abandon the engineering once and for all.  

You can be sure that the Nature Conservation Council will never rest until the lakes are saved and our rivers and wetlands get the water and the protection they so desperately need. 

This means limiting irrigation upstream to sustainable levels to restore natural flows along the Darling-Baaka all the way to the Menindee Lakes and then on to the confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth.  

It also means opposing unsustainable floodplain harvesting licences where water is diverted from our waterways into private dams. 

Jane MacAllister 
Water Organiser 
Nature Conservation Council  

 

NSW LOWER HOUSE PUTS KOALAS ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXTINCTION

NATURE  CONSERVATION  COUNCIL

Media Release

22 October 2020

The Coalition government’s Local Land Services Amendment Bill endangers koalas and scuppers any hope the government will achieve its goal of doubling koala populations by 2050.

The bill passed the NSW lower house yesterday and is scheduled to be debated in the Legislative Council in November. 

“If this bill passes, developers and big agribusiness will be free to destroy koala habitat in nine out of 10 council areas across NSW where koalas are likely to occur,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“The bill not only limits koala protection laws to a tiny portion of the state, it rules out ever extending those protections into new areas where they are desperately needed.

“If passed by members of the upper house, this law will allow property developers to bulldoze koala trees and subdivide some of the best koala forests left in NSW to create hobby farms and suburbs.

“Just weeks ago Liberal MPs and the Premier stared down Deputy Premier Barilaro over koala protections. 

“To now vote for a massive weakening of the laws is a disappointing back down.

“Currently, the koala SEPP  (State Environmental Planning Policy) only applies in six of the 88 council areas where koalas are likely to occur.

“The changes mean genuine efforts to protect koalas on private land will be limited to those areas.

“The government needs to urgently tell the people of NSW how it will ensure koala feed trees and habitat will not be lost because of a careless lack of regulation of land clearing.

“We call on members of the Legislative Council reject this bill so our koalas have a fighting chance of living beyond 2050.”

 

THE TOWARDS ZERO DEFORESTATION ROADSHOW

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC) is holding their Towards Zero Deforestation Roadshow on the NSW North Coast between July 23 -27.  Sessions are being held in the Tweed, Lismore, Ballina, Byron Bay and Grafton. 

The NCC  believes nature in NSW is in crisis. New laws allow for devastating deforestation and broad scale land clearing of important wildlife habitat. At least 1000 species of plants and animals in NSW are facing extinction, including the koala; and the destruction of their habitats is the leading threat.

As a result of these new laws, 99% of identified koala habitat on private land can be bulldozed, and a staggering 8 million hectares of forest and bushland has no protection from deforestation.

 The NCC believes this devastation is firmly within our power to stop.

 In their Roadshow sessions Daisy Barham and Shirley Hall from the NCC will cover how we can all work together to call for stronger laws for nature - and how community members can get involved.

In Tweed, Lismore, Ballina and Byron, environmental lawyer and Outreach Director for the Environment Defenders Office, Jemilah Hallinan will talk through what the changes to the laws mean for nature. In Grafton Vicki Lett, WIRES wildlife carer since 1988, will talk about the devastating impact deforestation has on wildlife and bulldozer caused crisis for wildlife habitat.

The NCC is hoping that community members will call on the state government to take action to save our forests and bushland from bulldozers, and protect wildlife habitat.

The Grafton Roadshow will take place from 6 – 8.30 pm on July 27 at 104 Bacon Street, Grafton

NSW GOVERNMENT'S NEW KOALA PROTECTION CLAIMS

 MEDIA  RELEASE

New analysis shows Berejiklian government’s koala reserve system offers the species virtually no new protection  

The Berejiklian government’s planned koala reserve contains only 2% of high quality koala habitat and offers no significant new protection for the species whose numbers are rapidly declining, new analysis has shown.

The North East Forest Alliance obtained and analysed maps of 24,000 hectares of mostly state forests that the government plans to use for a koala reserve system, which is a major plank in the government’s long-delayed Koala Strategy, unveiled on May 6.

KEY FINDINGS

• 82% of the “new reserves” offer no new protection to koalas. That is because 82% of the “new reserves” were already protected in forest reserves.
• Only 2% (554ha) of the new reserves are high-quality koala habitat. This assessment is based on the government’s latest koala habitat modelling.
• Hunting will be permitted in 8 of the 12 areas because they will be designated Flora Reserves.
• All the reserves are in the hinterland, away from the coastal forests where the best koala habitat exists.
• Less than 2.5% of the “new” reserves match the proposed Great Koala National Park.

(See the table below for a detailed analysis of the new reserves.)

North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh:

 “It is fraudulent for the NSW Government to pretend that these are new Koala Reserves. There are many state forests known to be far more important for Koalas that the Government has ignored. 

“The selection of these areas has been a cynical political exercise with no attempt to identify and protect the most important Koala habitat on State Forests, with the only apparent criteria being to have no impacts on timber.”

National Parks Association Senior Ecologist Oisin Sweeney said:

 “It is clear the government has made a choice – it is timber over koalas.

“The government’s own mapping shows the importance of the Great Koala National Park proposal, yet the government plans to implement an intensive harvesting zone that will see koala habitat destroyed over large areas and reduced forests to monocultures of blackbutt between Grafton and Taree.”

Quotes from the Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolski: 

 “Koala populations on the North Coast have collapsed by 50% in the past 20 years and the NSW Government’s strategy will do little to redress that decline.

“If the Berejiklian government was serious about saving our koalas from extinction it would ending native forest logging, strengthen land clearing laws and create the Great Koala National Park.

“The government’s koala strategy fails to do any of these things and as a result it will fail koalas.”

Summary of analysis of the government’s new koala reserves

Reserve name	Region	Area (OEH claim)	Proposed designation	% already protected (Forest Mgt Zones)	High-quality koala* (ha)	Koala records	Hunting allowed
Mt Lindesay	Northeast	6195	Flora Reserve	36	244	49	No
Belanglo SF	Sth highlands	1818	Flora Reserve	69		68	Yes
Barrington Tops	Northeast	155	Flora Reserve	96	0	0	Yes
Corrabare	Northeast	843	Flora Reserve	98	0	1	Yes
Watagan	Central Coast	3107	Flora Reserve	99	0	3	Yes
Olney	Central Coast		Flora Reserve	-	0	6	Yes
Carrai	Northeast	2103	National Park	100	0	0	No
Comleroy	Northeast	2905	Flora Reserve	100	0	0	Yes
Mount Boss	Northeast	1383	SCA	100	273	2	No
Oakes	Northeast	593	National Park	100	37	1	No
Jellore SF	Sth highlands	1415	Flora Reserve	100	NA	3	Yes
Meryla SF	Sth highlands	4084	Flora Reserve	100	NA	0	Yes
	Total	24601		82% (19,802ha)	554 (2% of total)	133	No = 4 Yes = 8