NSW Premier Chris Minns has announced the creation of the full 176,000-hectare Great Koala National Park, a decision that has been met with celebration from conservationists and anger from the timber industry.
According to a news article by The Sydney Morning Herald, standing at Bongil Bongil National Park alongside Environment Minister Penny Sharpe, Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, and North Coast Minister Janelle Saffin, Minns said he was aware of the deep impact on timber workers but stressed that the choice was necessary.
“We’ve decided to go for the largest option. And there’s a simple reason for that. We are faced with the situation where koalas will go extinct in the wild by 2050 unless we make this decision,” Minns said.
“I’ll be honest with you – there was a real temptation to take a compromise in relation to the size of the park, to protect more industry and narrow and shrink the size of the Great Koala National Park,” Minns added.
“We made a decision that [a compromise] would be the worst of all worlds – there would be an economic impact on the industry, but … [not] long-term preservation of the greater glider, of the koala, and other threatened species,”Minns explained.
Minns cited three factors behind the decision: evidence of threats to species, the tourism potential of the park, and a pivotal move by electricity provider Essential Energy.
The company, which supplies 95 per cent of NSW, decided last year to phase out hardwood power poles in favor of composite alternatives, significantly reducing demand for local timber.
“[Essential Energy’s] decision to get out of hardwood for their telegraph poles made a big impact on me in terms of the future of this industry,” Minns said.
“It doesn’t mean there’s no future for the [forestry] industry, but it does mean that it’s substantially changing,” Minns added.
The Minns government will invest $60 million into visitor infrastructure including campgrounds, trails, and mountain bike tracks.
“I want when visitors from overseas come here, they go and see the reef, they go and see Uluru, and they come to the Great Koala National Park,” Sharpe said.
The new park will connect with 300,000 hectares of existing protected land, creating a vast conservation area where logging will cease immediately.
Koalas were listed as endangered earlier this year, with about 12,000 believed to live in the state forests set to become part of the park.
The government estimates around 300 jobs will be directly affected. A support package will provide Jobkeeper-style payments to six mills, while officials work to secure wood supply for 19 others. Union leaders and timber operators expressed frustration.
Australian Workers Union NSW secretary Tony Callinan said, “I’m very angry, very confused and disappointed that a Labor government has placed the desire of the green lobby ahead of the workers it was formed to assist.”
Brook Waugh, who manages Thora Mill near Bellingen, said, “To say I’m devastated is just an understatement. In one respect, I’m glad my grandpa and my dad have already died because my grandpa built our mill, and we’ve managed to keep it going all these years through the hard times and kept people employed.”
The government has delayed legislation formalizing the park while it seeks to access federal carbon credit schemes that could provide ongoing revenue.
Minns acknowledged the uncertainty of that process but said the creation of the park had to come first. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the Liberals supported protecting koalas but claimed questions remain unanswered, while National Party MP Dugald Saunders described the decision as a “massively crushing blow” to the timber industry.
North Coast Greens MP Sue Higginson said she was “jubilant” about the announcement, though critical of the destruction that occurred during consultation.
The establishment of the Great Koala National Park marks one of the most significant conservation moves in NSW history.
Beyond protecting threatened species, it positions regional NSW as a premier destination for eco-tourism, with major implications for the outdoor recreation and hospitality industries.
