With the koala population in NSW facing extinction by 2050, the concept of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) was suggested by the ALP who were campaigning to be elected as NSW government for the first time since 2011.
After the ALP were voted into office in March 2023, Forestry Corp NSW closed parts of Boambee State Forest for logging between 7th June and 1st December 2023. Boambee State Forest is on the western edge of Coffs Harbour, and is part of the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP).
Ecologists campaigning for the park want a moratorium on logging within the proposed area during the consultation phase. The new Environment Minister Penny Sharpe ruled out a moratorium.
“It makes absolutely no sense spending $80 million of taxpayers’ money to create a GKNP, while those very values we’re trying to protect are being destroyed,” said Paula Flack, from the NSW National Parks Association.
Needless to say, voters are not impressed by the continued logging in areas earmarked for the Great Koala National Park. Some believe the state-owned Forestry Corporation NSW is deliberately targeting the most critical conservation areas first because they know that they will soon be locked out when the GKNP is created.
Protests have stopped logging, even for a day, all around the state. On 28 June 2023, a Tree-Sitter halted logging in Boambee State Forest. A forest defender was suspended high in a tree-sit from a configuration of ropes, immobilising machinery and blocking all logging works.
They said “I am not comfortable in my lifetime accepting & ignoring the destruction unfolding on this continent. I won’t bystand the desecration of Gumbaynggirr forests, it is my obligation living on this country to protect it”
This action follows on from months of concentrated community-led protest in forests around the Coffs Coast area.
The GKNP proposal would protect koala habitat in five local government areas: Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour City, Bellingen Shire, Nambucca Valley and Kempsey Shire Councils and does not include any plantation forest or private land.
The proposed GKNP connects 175,000 hectares of state forests with existing national parks, creating a nature reserve of more than 300,000 hectares.
In 2020, the Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment (DPIE) identified 55,000 hectares of State Forests as potential additions to the existing National Parks, forming the proposed Great Koala National Park.
For more information and updates, visit Bellingen Activist Network’s Facebook group
