MEDIA RELEASE 11 December 2025

In her media release of 11 December 2025 Environment Minister Penny Sharpe states

The NSW Government has completed its first comprehensive statewide koala survey, providing the most accurate picture to date of where koalas live and how populations are distributed across the state.

…

Populations in NSW continue to face significant risks, including habitat loss and fragmentation, climate impacts, disease and vehicle strikes. These threats are expected to intensify over coming decades, underscoring the importance of protecting key habitat and wildlife corridors.

Now that the NSW Government has undertaken new modelling that identifies key koala habitat, they need to stop logging it and ensure it is protected from clearing, according to North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

Logged preferred Koala feed trees in key koala habitat in Braemar SF

MEDIA RELEASE 7 September 2025

North East Forest Alliance and North Coast Environment Council welcome the Minns Government’s decision to place a moratorium on the full Great Koala National Park while they resolve the issue of obtaining carbon credits for creating it as a national park.

Finalisation of the Great Koala National Park will be a historic step forward in forest conservation, on par with Wran’s  historic 1982 Rainforest Decision that protected 120,000 ha of forests in north-east NSW and ultimately led to the protection of all rainforests, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“NEFA thanks Environment Minister Penny Sharpe for maintaining this commitment at the last election, and undertaking a robust environmental assessment. We trust that she will now see this through to fruition.

“This park will protect 12,000 Koalas and enable their populations to recover as their feed trees regrow. This is the sort of action we need if we want to double their population in NSW.

MEDIA RELEASE 13 January 2025

The Minns Government was elected on a promise to save Koalas and create the Great Koala National Park, but a new assessment by the North East Forest Alliance shows that in the 21 months since the election they have logged 7,185 ha of the park, 8.4% of the State Forests able to be logged, with new operations now starting.

“It is outrageous that despite their promise the Minns Government has accelerated logging of the Great Koala National Park, while rejecting repeated requests to implement a moratorium, phase-out strategy or protect core Koala habitat, report author Dailan Pugh said.

The report is here: ‘Accelerating Logging Within the Great Koala National Park’

NEFA President Dailan Pugh OAM discusses the dire situation in Braemar State Forest.

Why should we prioritise the protection of State Forests if we want to save Koalas?

• On the north coast 215,000 ha (20%) of DPIE's high quality Koala habitat (KHSM classes 4&5) occurs on State Forests
• On the north coast 234,000 ha (24%) of the Commonwealth’s Nationally Important Koala Areas occur on State forests.
• It is in public ownership, so large areas can be easily and immediately protected.
• Occurs in a forest matrix relatively free of urban fragmentation impacts (ie domestic dogs and traffic).
• Large areas degraded by loss of preferred koala feed trees >30 cm diameter still has tree cover capable of relatively rapid restoration of habitat values (compared to new plantings)

TO HELP SAVE KOALAS FROM EXTINCTION IN THE WILD BY 2050, THE NSW GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO:

1. Protect State Forests where we know Koalas live

We can start with protecting Koala Hubs identified in 2017 by the Office of Environment and Heritage as "highly significant local scale areas of koala occupancy currently known for protection". Almost 20,000 ha (19%) of Koala Hubs occur on State forests… This government considered them so important that they belatedly protected 8,400 hectares of Koala Hubs in the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP) in September 2023, though they refused to protect the the 11,400ha of Koala Hubs on State Forests outside the GKNP, and continue to log them.

And other known areas of particular importance, such as Braemar State Forest. In 2019 NEFA identified outstanding densities of Koalas in a pre-logging survey, witnessed >70% killed in the October wildfires, put out water to aid the survivors as the drought continued, watched as most habitat was reoccupied, and then in 2023 took the Forestry Corporation to court try to stop the logging after Penny Sharpe refused to intervene. Now the continued existence of this population is at risk as over 70% of their preferred mature feed trees are being logged.

2. Require they look before they log to identify other Koala homes

If the Forestry Corporation happen to see a Koala when logging, they need to wait for it to flee before they can cut down its tree. The Forestry Corporation have proven time and time again that they can't identify Koalas in occupied habitat, so surveys must be independent.

3. Retain all preferred Koala feed tree species in potential habitat to facilitate recovery

MOST IMPORTANTLY, IF YOU WANT TO SAVE KOALA'S HOMES WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CREATE THE POLITICAL WILL. HERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

Lobby Premier Chris Minns on his website, asking for him to stop logging Koalas' homes on State Forests, request a response.

Make a submission to The NSW Koala Strategy, by either:

• simply requesting koalas' homes on State Forests be protected from logging, by emailing [email protected]
  
• or taking a few minutes to fill out their online form dealing with issues in more detail, see NEFA's submission guide on save Koalas' homes.  

The NSW Government is reviewing its 2021 Koala Strategy, the thrust of which is to do nothing about protecting Koala homes on State Forests, and only protecting Koala homes on private land where the landowners want to sell or enter voluntarily conservation agreements. It’s open slather for those wanting to destroy Koala habitat. If you care about Koalas, please take a few minutes to make a submission to help save Koala’s homes.

MEDIA RELEASE 29 September 2022

To mark Save the Koala Day (Friday 30 September), the North East Forest Alliance is appealing to the NSW Government to stop approving core Koala habitat for clearing and logging, if they have any genuine intent to stop Koalas becoming extinct in the wild by 2050.

The NSW Government’s spending of tens of millions on Koala hospitals, open range zoos and planting seedlings won’t stop Koalas becoming extinct in the wild unless they save and stabilise surviving Koalas by protecting their existing homes, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“Every day the NSW Government is allowing the Forestry Corporation to cut down mature Koala feed trees in public forests, and farmers to bulldoze them, while their propaganda arm goes into over-drive pretending that Koalas don’t need their feed trees.

MEDIA RELEASE - 12 July 2022

NEFA welcomes the EPA prosecuting the Forestry Corporation for illegally felling giant and hollow-bearing trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest in 2020, though maintain this area of outstanding Koala habitat should never have been approved by the NSW and Commonwealth Governments for logging.

Enough is enough, logging of public forests has to stop, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“It is reprehensible that the in this day and age that the Forestry Corporation are still cutting down these massive awe-inspiring trees, the height of 10 storey buildings and 300-500 years old, that provide the large hollows that many of our iconic animals depend upon for dens and nests.

“These trees provide essential homes for the nationally Vulnerable Yellow-bellied Glider and Endangered Greater Glider.

“It is a tragedy that this was allowed to occur within an area identified as some of the most important Koala habitat in Australia, because the NSW and Commonwealth Governments changed the logging rules in 2018 to remove the need for pre-logging Koala surveys and allow Koala High Use Areas to be logged” Mr. Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 3 May 2022

NEFA considers that that the new Private Native Forestry Code of Practice released on Monday is a step backwards, and will increase the extinction risk of our most imperilled species of plants and animals.  

In general they are allowing increased logging intensity, reduced retention of old hollow bearing trees essential for the survival of a plethora of hollow-dependent species, and reducing protections for most threatened species, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“Under this code most threatened species of plants and animals will get no real protection what-so-ever.

“The only improvement is an increase in the exclusions around headwater streams, though at 10m this is still dramatically less than the 30m identified as necessary in numerous reviews.

MEDIA RELEASE 9 April 2022

The NSW Government’s Koala Strategy released today will do little to turn around their extinction trajectory as it is not stopping logging and clearing of Koala habitat which, along with climate heating, are the main drivers of their demise.

“The Strategy proposes nothing to redress the logging of Koala habitat on public lands where at best 5-10 small potential Koala feed trees per hectare need to be protected in core Koala habitat, with the only other requirement being to wait for a Koala to leave before cutting down its tree” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“We know that Koalas preferentially choose larger individuals of a limited variety of tree species for feeding, and losses of these trees will reduce populations. So protecting and restoring feed and roost trees is a prerequisite for allowing populations to grow on public lands.

“The most important and extensive Koala habitat we know of in NSW is in the proposed Great Koala National Park, encompassing 175,000 hectares of State Forests south of Grafton and west of Coffs Harbour.

“Similarly on the Richmond River lowlands the most important and extensive area known is the proposed Sandy Creek Koala Park, encompassing 7,000 ha of State Forests south of Casino.

MEDIA RELEASE 28 February 2022

The North East Forest Alliance is calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene to stop logging of important Koala habitat in Yarratt State Forest near Wingham in accordance with the June recommendations of the Natural Resources Commission and the Commonwealth’s February Conservation Advice for now Endangered Koalas.

As a signatory to the North East NSW Regional Forest Agreement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has responsibility for NSW’s refusal to protect important Koala habitat on State Forests, and must modify his approval to provide rapidly declining Koala populations with the protection they urgently need, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

DPI Forestry’s Koala habitat ranking, OEH Koala Hubs and Koala records in Yarratt State Forest.

Conservation groups are dismayed by the NSW Government’s rejection of the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry 'to prevent the burning of wood from native forests to generate energy' and exclude its being classed as renewable energy.

Contrary to the Government’s claims of moving to net zero carbon and doubling Koala populations, burning native forests for electricity puts us and Koalas on an extinction trajectory, said North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

The recent NSW parliamentary inquiry into ‘Sustainability of energy supply and resources in New South Wales’ found the burning of forest biomass for power generation is “not economically or environmentally sustainable, and it generates significant carbon emissions”, recommending “the government takes steps to declassify forest biomass as a form of renewable energy and ensure it's not eligible for renewable energy credits”.