20/09/2025
🥳On 7 September 2025, the NSW Government formally unveiled the proposed boundaries of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), together with a moratorium on logging in state forests ear-marked for protection, and a comprehensive plan to support workers, industry and local communities.
EDO welcomes the government’s announcement to establish the GKNP, which will provide a much-needed lifeline for endangered 🐨 🐨 koalas and other wildlife that call native forests home, including southern greater gliders, yellow-bellied gliders, glossy black cockatoos and spider orchids. 🐨
The proposal would see 176,000ha of state-owned native forests combined with existing reserves to create a network of protected areas on the NSW Mid-north Coast, spanning 475,000ha. 🌳
In our 2019 submission to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into koala populations and habitat in NSW, EDO highlighted the failure of NSW laws to provide adequate protections for the iconic species.
We advised that the strongest legal protection for koalas would be to reserve designated protected areas, with national parks providing the greatest level of protection against habitat loss and fragmentation, including from development, agriculture and forestry activities.
📜 Formal designation of the GKNP will require legislative amendments to reserve the GKNP under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. 📜
The government proposes to introduce the Bill to the NSW Parliament in 2026.
We encourage the NSW Government to move swiftly to complete these final steps and formally enshrine the GKNP in law. ⚖️
Find out more –🔗 https://www.edo.org.au/2025/09/09/great-koala-national-park-one-step-closer/
