While many were lauding last week’s announcement by NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe that ‘Koala Hubs’ inside the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP), would not be logged, local conservationists were dismayed at the flip side of the announcement, that logging in the rest of the area Labor has been promising to protect for almost a decade, will continue until the end of 2024.

“The North Coast Environment Council and our member groups in the area of the GKNP are extremely concerned that what the Environment Minister appears to be saying is logging will continue, at the same intensity, for at least another year, while ‘assessments’ are done,” said NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell. 

Koala seen in Diehappy State Forest being planned for logging and not protected by the NSW Government’s announcement.

While many were lauding last week’s announcement by NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe that ‘Koala Hubs’ inside the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP), would not be logged, local conservationists were dismayed at the flip side of the announcement, that logging in the rest of the area Labor has been promising to protect for almost a decade, will continue until the end of 2024.

“The North Coast Environment Council and our member groups in the area of the GKNP are extremely concerned that what the Environment Minister appears to be saying is logging will continue, at the same intensity, for at least another year, while ‘assessments’ are done,” said NCEC Vice-President Susie Russell.

“Labor has taken the proposal for the Great Koala National Park to the last 3 State Elections. Presumably that was because they recognised the value of the area to ensuring that Koalas are not extinct by 2050, which is their current trajectory. It is incredible that after championing the need for the Park for almost a decade they now need to spend one year, two years… talking about the values of the area and working out the impacts. That would be alright, if the logging stopped, there would be no rush, but every day now, these important forests are being degraded with log truck after log truck, carting away Koala feed trees.

“The Great Koala National Park forests are not just important for Koalas, they are important for all the other fauna, important for protecting our water catchments, for drawing down and storing carbon, and for being the foundation for numerous education, health, tourism and recreational opportunities in the area,” Ms Russell said.

Cath Eaglesham, President of the Bellingen Environment Centre said that they had been lobbying for the GKNP for almost a decade. “We are extremely disappointed with Labor's recent token announcement; which is completely inadequate and does nothing to protect our Endangered Koalas and their homes. The Koala Hubs are only 5% of the proposed park, based on outdated modelling and includes, areas already logged and burnt,”she said.

The Kalang River Forest Alliance are disappointed that the Kalang headwaters and Oakes State Forest is not recognised as critical core Koala habitat. Kath Kelly for KRFA said “Penny Sharpe's announcement of the temporary suspension of logging in the 106 identified Koala hubs will not stop the escalating fragmentation of core Koala habitat. We know the Kalang is important to Koalas. Citizen Science was conducted in 2020 and 2021, however all the data that was entered on Bionet is not there due to the 4 years of missing data.”

“While protecting 5% of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) is better than 0% as has been the case for the last 6 months of the NSW Labor government, it’s tantamount to saying they are committed to allowing as much of the remaining 95% to be logged as is possible in the next 15 months, while some kind of still stalled “process” slowly, oh so slowly might happen. This is clearly unacceptable and counter to the goal of actually saving Koalas from their current trajectory towards extinction by 2050. The government must urgently do more or risk not only Koalas but their own reputation and election promises,” said Lyn Orrego of the Nambucca Valley Conservation Association (NVCA).

“We are calling on the government to suspend logging from all of the proposed Great Koala National Park and to use half of the $80 million allocated for the GKNP to help timber industry workers transition out of native forest logging and into the plantation sector, forest restoration, Park management or other,” she said.

Ann Coyle from Friends of Pine Creek said, “the Office of Environment and Heritage Koala Hubs are a very small concession, it is interesting that 7 of the 8 compartments proposed for logging in Pine Creek State Forest are covered by koala hubs. Every compartment would have been logged already without the efforts of conservationists. How many “hubs” have already been logged?” she asked.

Contacts

Kath Kelly Secretary of the Kalang River Forest Alliance, mob 0487 416 021

Ann Coyle Friends of Pine Creek 02 6653 4077

Lyn Orrego, Nambucca Valley Conservation Association

Cath Eaglesham, President of the Bellingen Environment Centre 0439 924 890

Susie Russell NCEC Vice-President 0429 655 044

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