A new national park is being sold as a lifeline for koalas on Australia’s east coast, but the fight over what happens next is far from over.
The Australian government has created the Great Koala National Park along the New South Wales mid-north coast to protect koalas and 66 other threatened native species. Conservationists say it could be a turning point for a species declining as eucalyptus forests disappear and climate change drives more frequent, intense wildfires.
The state government committed to the park in 2023 and announced its creation in September 2025. It also imposed a temporary moratorium on timber harvesting within the proposed boundaries, which took effect in December.
When formalised, the park will link existing conservation reserves with state forests into a protected area of almost 5,000 square kilometres, making it one of the largest reserves in New South Wales. The nonprofit Nature Conservation Council says it will protect about 20 percent of the state’s wild koala population.
Jacqui Mumford, who heads the group, called the park “one of the most significant conservation victories in NSW in decades,” according to Mongabay
Mark Graham, an ecologist and longtime environmental campaigner, has spent years pushing for the park. “When I was a kid, forestry was more sustainable,” he said, according to Mongabay. “Now 30-tonne industrial machines bulldoze everything in their path.”
Graham said restoring forest connectivity matters because koala habitat along the east coast is heavily fragmented. “That’s how we protect the environment for the future,” he said.
The park grew out of a 13-year campaign led by environmental groups and grassroots organisations. The government says it will finalise designation in 2026 and has described it as “a centerpiece of koala conservation [in the state of NSW].”
Koalas were listed as endangered under federal law in 2022. A 2014 IUCN Red List assessment estimated 300,000 remained and said numbers were decreasing. Steve Phillips, a koala expert who has worked with the species for more than 40 years, said: “We are lucky if we have between 200,000 and 300 000 in Australia, and maybe 60,000 to 80,000 in NSW.”
The species has been hit hard before. A study by the Australian Koala Foundation estimated at least 8 million koalas were killed between 1888 and 1927, mostly for the international fur trade. In Queensland, hunters killed 600,000 koalas in 1927 during what became known as “Black August.”
In 2024, the New South Wales government’s Koala Science Team surveyed 1,760 square kilometres of state forest and national parks in the proposed park area. Using night-time drone flights over three months, the team estimated there were 10,311 to 14,541 koalas there.
Environmental groups and conservation advocates, including the National Parks Association of NSW, say that number could triple once forests are fully protected from logging.
But the new park does not end the risks. Loopholes in land-use rules, development pressure, weak enforcement and confusion over land-clearing laws are still threatening habitat.
The government says logging has stopped. “[The ban] means that all harvesting operations have ceased, and no new operations will commence,” a department spokesperson wrote.
Environmental watchdogs dispute that. The Australian Conservation Foundation and others say they have documented unapproved destruction and ongoing logging operations.
Graham said some forestry companies claim they are harvesting plantations while cutting native forests inside the proposed park boundaries and in known koala habitat. “Logging must stop completely,” he said.
He said campaigning against logging has carried a personal cost. Graham said he and his family have received verbal threats telling him to be careful and to “mind his own business.” In 2020, he and Andre Johnston were assaulted by two workers near Wild Cattle Creek state forest while logging was under way nearby. Michael Luigi Vitali and Rodney James Hearfield were later convicted of assault.
There has also been confusion about the park’s legal status. State forests are being folded into national park land under the state’s National Parks and Wildlife Act, but the area will not become a fully protected national park until legislation passes parliament in 2026 and final management plans are in place.
The government says it has tried to clear up the rules. A department spokesperson said officials had hosted webinars and held more than 240 meetings with landowners, and that “The department has also been meeting regularly with state officials, local councils and agricultural representatives to discuss the changes”.
Climate change is adding pressure. A parliamentary report found the 2019-20 bushfires burned huge areas of koala habitat and that “at least 5,000 koalas perished”.
Volunteers are trying to reconnect fragmented habitat by planting trees on private land bordering the new park. Sally Cavanagh said she uses a mix of about 10 eucalyptus species to build wildlife corridors. “I choose threatened species, and trees that koalas prefer,” she said. “There used to be rainforest here. Now we’re bringing it back.”
Phillips said the park alone will not quickly reverse the damage. “The GKNP will not help koalas for 20-30 years [because] the area has been so intensively logged,” he said. “Koalas need trees of a certain size, and these forests have been mismanaged and affected by frequent fires, so the animals can’t recover in time.”
He said plantations should continue to be logged, while native forests and “the favorite trees of the koalas” should be left alone. “Enough is enough. Get out of the native forests!” he said.
Phillips also called for 50 metre-wide fire breaks to slow future fires and said some places already show koalas can live alongside people. He pointed to Koala Beach in northern New South Wales, where there are “no dogs, speed bumps on the roads and preserved food trees”.
“The koalas live in people’s backyards,” he said. “We are trying to implement the same elsewhere on the east coast.”
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