Great Koala National Park 2025 Impact Report

Written By Joshua Asel
Photo and Video by ©Paul Hilton

Introduction

The Great Koala National Park has been announced. In the biggest forest conservation outcome in NSW in last 25 years, all 176,000 hectares of koala habitat will be protected.

On 7th September, National Threatened Species Day, the NSW Government announced that the full 176,000ha assessment area would be protected as part of the final Great Koala National Park (GKNP). As of 8th September, all logging within the Park’s boundary stopped for good. Your funding was critical in helping to secure the most significant outcome for forest conservation in NSW in the last 25 years. This reserve is now the largest koala-focused conservation reserve in the world.

When the NSW Government was elected on the back of promising a Great Koala National Park, the conflict between industry and the environment movement was about whether the final reserve would be adequate to save the koala from extinction or would be just conservation window dressing.

The logging industry has consistently lobbied for a tiny park—as little as a fifth of the proposed area—in a bid to retain as much loggable forest as possible. We ensured the environment movement remained firm and consistently lobbied for the full park: 176,000 hectares of State Forests protected alongside 300,000 hectares of existing conservation reserves. This is because we know that in the fight to save koalas from extinction, this park is a great starting point, not a final step.

Moving forward, we will be working towards the permanent protection of other critical forests across NSW, many of which also contain high numbers of koalas and greater gliders. Aside from drastically improving the outlook of Koalas, the GKNP outcome also places us in an advantageous position to advance an end to native logging in NSW. 

The information below highlights key outputs and expenditures associated with Global Conservation’s pledge of US$50,000 to Wilderness Australia. We could not have run our campaign without the contributions and support of Global Conservation and Paul Hilton.

The Great Koala National Park

The final boundary of the Great Koala National Park will provide habitat for more than a hundred threatened species, including an estimated 12,000 koalas and 36,000 greater gliders.

Highlighting the Intensification of Logging in Core Koala Habitat

Mark Graham, ecologist and activist, was contracted to research and draft the first two reports, with significant contributions by Wilderness Australia Board Director Virginia Young and NPA’s CEO, Gary Dunnett. The purpose of the first two reports was to highlight the following key facts:

  • At the time of publication, half of the logging in northern NSW was happening inside the proposed GKNP;

  • The GKNP was being targeted for destruction before its declaration, with a strategic focus on fragmentation and locations of highest conservation value;

  • The inadequate response of the Environment Protection Authority to ongoing breaches of already weak logging rules; and

  • The direct action by members of the community to protect areas that, if logged, will be irrecoverable in our lifetimes.

Every Week the GKNP was Delayed, More Habitat was Lost

At the start of the year, we began hearing rumors that the GKNP announcement would be pushed back until well after the Australian Federal election (scheduled for May 2025). We decided that instead of focusing on the logging that was happening at the time, we would calculate how much logging will likely occur if the Park’s announcement continues to be delayed.

In our third report, we highlighted that at the time of publication:

  • 1,924 hectares of koala habitat were being logged within the GKNP assessment area.

  • Another 3,469 hectares were scheduled for logging within the next 6 months.

  • Together, these 5,393 hectares significantly increased the loss of koala habitat within the GKNP assessment area since the NSW Government was elected, potentially rising from 7,185 hectares in late 2024 to as much as 12,578 hectares within the next 6 months.


Joint Letters

Environment group letters

At the start of February, Wilderness Australia coordinated a joint letter between 17 NSW and National conservation groups, calling for the declaration of the full 176,000 hectares of the GKNP. This was an effort on our part to prevent the conservation movement from softening its position on the final outcome while under pressure from the NSW Government to do so.

Partly catalyzed by our letter and our growing partnership with WWF-Australia on the forests campaign and the GKNP, a second joint-groups letter was then sent to the Premier in March. WWF, the largest conservation group in Australia, spearheaded this initiative. This letter showcases unanimous support by the conservation movement for the declaration of the full 176,000 hectares of the GKNP.

Business Letter

In May, key business owners Kevin Doye (Kombu Wholefoods) and Lindy Davis (Mountains to Sea: Natural Area Management) travelled to NSW Parliament to deliver a letter on behalf of 110 businesses across the Mid North Coast of NSW. Mark Graham drafted the joint statement as part of his contract with Wilderness Australia. The letter recognized the essential values provided by public forests that underpin the region's economy and community and called on the NSW Government to honor its promise and announce the full GKNP. Wilderness Australia coordinated and funded this delegation to Parliament and, with the help of WWF - Australia, organized a press conference outside NSW Parliament.

  

Lobbying

In our interim report to Global Conservation, dated November 2024, Wilderness Australia described how the crossbench (independents and minor parties) and the backbench of the Labor Party (currently in government) would both play a critical role in ending logging within the GKNP and the Park’s final announcement. We are pleased to share that our key lobbyist, Alec Marr, assisted in coordinating two important letters from the upper house and lower house of NSW Parliament. Both letters called strongly for an end to the delay and for the NSW Government to announce the GKNP.


Media

International media attention

On 9th November 2024, the Washington Post published a story on the damage being done to the GKNP. This story included a three-day field trip into the GKNP with Mark Graham, a local conservationist and expert that was contracted by Wilderness Australia. We have no doubt this piece contributed to raising the profile of the Koala and brought international attention to the long delays in announcing the final GKNP boundaries.

National media attention

We coordinated a number of key Australian media stories bringing attention to the ongoing logging inside the GKNP, including:

This article was published in response to our first report and features Wilderness Australia Chair Bob Debus and Director Virginia Young.

This article was published after our third report was released and features Wilderness Australia Chair Bob Debus.

This article was published after Wilderness Australia contracted Paul Hilton to gather footage of current logging happening inside the GKNP. It also mentions the analysis in our March 2025 report.

Wilderness Australia contributed $5,000 to funding a full-page ad illustrating the joint letter that WWF-Australia pulled together.

This TV story ran after our press conference outside NSW Parliament with the two business delegates from the Mid-North Coast of NSW.


Social media

Using the high-quality footage of logging destruction within the GKNP, Paul posted a short reel on Instagram in collaboration with the three participating environment groups: Wilderness Australia, WWF-Australia, and The Bob Brown Foundation. A second reel was posted by Wilderness Australia, also in collaboration with Paul Hilton, integrating the press conference footage among shots of logged koala habitat. In total, these videos amassed more than 36k views across all platforms.

Joshua Asel
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Breaking News: The Great Koala National Park has Been Declared Amidst Illegal Logging