Ten years ago NSW Labor promised to create the Great Koala National Park. The area proposed after consultation with environment groups such as the National Parks Association was about 176,000 ha. $80 million has been budgeted to support the development of the park.
According to the government environment department website, assessment work is underway to refine the boundaries of the park. It is spread over a number of locations in the mid-north coast of NSW. This is taking a very long time!
The NSW government states that they have implemented a halt to timber harvesting operations within designated koala hubs located in the Great Koala National Park assessment area. Koala hubs are areas with strong evidence of multi-generational, high-density koala populations. But there are a lot of other areas slated to be part of the park that have koala populations and logging is occurring in these locations.
The North East Forest Alliance estimates that over 20,000 ha has been logged since the park was proposed with the rate of logging accelerating since the Labor government came to power.
The Nature Conservation Foundation recently revealed that Forestry Corporation is planning to log up to the borders of the parts of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, such as Mount Hyland Nature Reserve, Dorrigo National Park and New England National Park in coming months.
The government is turning a blind eye and allowing Forestry NSW to continue to log in these areas. We now hear that Forestry Corp is pressuring for a park only one-third the size of the original proposal and claiming huge amounts in compensation despite the fact that their native forest operations have been running at a loss over many years.
All we can do is continue to send emails to our MPs. There is also a march on 23 March.