Election season announcements by either political party is not a guarantee for our koalas.
When the Koalas are gone, they're gone for ever. Act now to save them. Curtail urban development in and around their colonies.
Chlamydia free and the largest recovering Koala population in the Sydney Basin, indeed NSW. The NSW government must stop approving the loss of Koala habitat and corridors in Macarthur (Airds, Campbelltown, Appin and Wilton, Wollondilly, and The Highlands).
The Macarthur Land Release should be put on hold until a full and thorough koala strategy is developed for the entire south west region; from Liverpool through Wollondilly and down to Wingecaribee.
Losing Gilead will fragment this local population and push this colony and NSW Koalas towards extinction. NSW Planning must apply their own Koala protections (SEPP 44 - Campbelltown Koala Plan of Management - minimum 425m wide Koala corridors along creeks & rivers with Appin Road Koala crossings), rather than rely on ‘developer Koala reports’ to approve (rezone/bio-certify) as they have for Lendlease’s Gilead development and are doing for Walker at Appin and SE Wilton.
The Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan must apply the Chief Scientist’s Campbelltown Koala Advice (2020) - min. 450m wide koala corridors, keep EPBC oversight of biobanks and set up an independent Koala Recovery Team to approve Koala management plans. In Parliament I will push for the Legislative Assembly to:
1. Declare an Upper Georges River Koala National Park,
2. Stop the rezoning of Stage 2 of the Gilead development and review the approval of Stage 1,
3. Build five effective Koala crossings on Appin Road and,
4. Implement minimum 450m wide Koala corridors across the rivers and creeks of Macarthur.
More Broadly for the whole of NSW:
5. Ensuring laws apply to all koala habitat by adopting consistent, comprehensive mapping across NSW as a matter of urgency, to identify key areas for conservation so koala populations can recover and grow.
6. Urgently reforming state laws to deliver certain protection and strong safeguards for koalas in all environmental, planning and land clearing legislation.
