Protect the Richmond River Koala Parks

The largest stronghold of koalas in the Richmond catchment is under threat. Help stop their homes from being logged and help protect them in National Parks before it's too late! These koalas are genetically distinct from those in the Great Koala National Park.

Join in calling for 56,200 hectares of public native forests in the southern Richmond River valley and Richmond Range (south of the Bruxner Highway) to be made into national parks.

A Last Chance for Koalas and so Much More!

Protecting the Richmond River Koala Parks will help:

• give Koalas in the Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS), a genetically distinct population from those in the Great Koala National Park, a chance to recover from past logging and the recent wildfires
• protect the most extensive ‘Nationally Important Koala Area’ in the Richmond catchment
• restore the health of the Richmond River by improving water quality, increasing dry season flows and reducing storm runoff
• protect a biodiversity hotspot, including habitats of 132 threatened species (4 Critically Endangered, 39 Endangered, and 89 Vulnerable) threatened with extinction
• establish a refuge for a variety of threatened woodland and dry forest animals, along with a suite of endemic plants
• provide and restore essential tree hollows for 22 threatened species, including Barking Owl, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Squirrel Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider, and mature nectar feed trees for these gliders 
• provide a crucial winter refuge for migratory and nomadic nectar-feeding species, including flying foxes and the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater
• link existing National Parks and fragmented animal populations into one continuous protected sanctuary
• protect 35,000 ha of forest ecosystems inadequately reserved under national forest reserve targets
• satisfy our international commitments to protect 30% of this bioregion by 2030
• address climate change as the recovering forests draw down and store millions of tonnes of CO₂ through natural forest growth
• reduce fire frequency and intensity by allowing forests to regain their natural resilience
• protect this region’s most important climate change corridor from Bundjalung National Park on the coast, up the Richmond Range, to the Border Ranges National Park

What’s at Risk?

• Koalas in the Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) likely lost half their population in the 2019/20 wildfires. 86% of these State Forests were burnt. The Koalas are slowly recovering. These forests need time to heal.
• Instead core Koala habitats are now being targeted for logging, the Forestry Corporation logging most of their preferred feed trees.

We can save Koalas, and many other species, from extinction, by protecting these forests and allowing their populations to grow.

Please help by promoting this proposal.

To join in this campaign contact [email protected]

• For an outline of conservation values see: Protecting the Richmond River Koala Parks (PDF)
• For an outline of catchment values see: Restore the Richmond River (PDF)

See About for more on values and Threats for current logging intent

The Richmond River Koala Parks Campaign Team acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks . We pay our respect to the past, present and emerging Elders of the Bandjalang and West Bundjalung Nations.

We will continue to work closely with Aboriginal communities, groups and knowledge holders during our campaign to see the Richmond River Koala Parks  become a reality.