The Great Koala National Park
Let’s Make It Happen!
Help Us Protect a True Aussie Icon – the Koala!
Koalas need our help. Without swift action, they could disappear from the wild in NSW within the next 25 years.
Your voice matters. By sending a letter to the NSW Government, you can help show there is strong community support for fulfilling the promise to create the Great Koala National Park.
The Great Koala National Park has the potential to become a national treasure — rivalling destinations like the Blue Mountains and the Great Barrier Reef.
But right now, logging is still happening within the proposed park boundaries, putting koalas and their habitat at serious risk.
The time to act is now — let’s make it happen!
Send a letter to key NSW Government MPs letting them know you want to them to create the Great Koala National Park
What is the Great Koala National Park?
It’s a plan to connect 175,000 hectares of publicly-owned state forests to existing National Parks, creating a 315,000 hectare nature reserve in the Coffs Coast Region and giving endangered species, like koalas, a safe place to live.
Why do we urgently need it?
They are predicted to become functionally extinct in NSW by 2050 so we need to act now to save them. Protecting their habitat is one of the best ways we can do this.
Koalas are officially endangered.
Most NSW koalas live outside of protected areas.
This is because our National Parks tend to include higher, less fertile country instead of the fertile coastal forests that koalas need to thrive.
Especially those that need mature forests and big trees to live in – like spotted-tail quolls, powerful owls, glossy black cockatoos and greater gliders.
The park will benefit hundreds of species.
By stopping logging in these precious areas, forests will have a chance to grow older and bigger, increasing carbon stores and helping to fight global heating.
It will help protect us from global heating.
Tourism is a billion dollar industry in Australia and the park would be a major drawcard for the Coffs Coast with long bushwalks, swimming holes, mountain bike tracks and of course, koalas!
It will bring more ecotourism to the area.
The koala – an endangered Australian icon
Koalas are the only living member of the phascolarctidae family, which makes them totally unique on this planet. The problem is, they thrive in the coastal forests often chosen for logging, agriculture and housing development.
Their numbers are dwindling fast. They dropped by a third between 1990 and 2010 and on top of this, it’s estimated that the 2019-20 bushfires killed over 70% of the remaining koalas on the North Coast. They are now officially endangered.
The Great Koala National Park would protect prime koala habitat – putting a stop to logging in the park, restoring forests and linking lowland coastal forests to higher escarpment forests so koalas (and other animals) can roam freely and rebuild their numbers.
The Dunggiirr (koala) – sacred to the Gumbaynggirr Nation
The Dunggiirr (koala) are sacred to the Gumbaynggirr People and culture, and to the landscape of the Gumbaynggirr Nation itself.
According to the Gumbaynggirr People, Dunggiirr is a very powerful animal, their magic is very strong, and their Spirit both feared and respected.
They play a key role in Creation Stories, Laws and Customs, Spirituality, core values, and the Gumbaynggirr identity
