The Koalas

A 2020 NSW inquiry found that without intervention, koalas could become extinct in the state by 2050. How has an iconic, gentle species reached this point? The 2019–20 fires killed an estimated 61,000 koalas, compounding long-term habitat loss across eastern Australia. In southwest Sydney, a healthy population moves through shrinking bushland, dodging traffic on arterial roads, while researchers track their health and numbers. Architects and planners question whether new housing developments can include wildlife corridors to support survival. The story moves to Victoria, where koalas thrive in plantations only to be culled or ‘managed’ when forests are harvested. Caught between politics, development and public concern, the koala’s future hangs in the balance. The film becomes an impact tool for campaigners for habitat and threatened species protection, and better scientific input into government policy mechanisms around threatened species, climate change, and environmental heritage.

Koalas are on a path to extinction. About 61,000 died in the 2019–20 fires, and ongoing habitat loss, heat and drought continue to shrink their range. With only 1% of native vegetation remaining west of the Dividing Range, east-coast koalas may be the species’ last chance to survive, but only if we protect forests and share space with native wildlife.
The film follows experts, carers, Traditional Owners and advocates working to save koalas from threats including logging, housing development and fragmented landscapes. It explains why koalas’ specialised biology and dependence on connected eucalyptus forests make them vulnerable, and why remnant small habitat patches are not enough.
Film screenings across Australia—including in state parliaments—have sparked community and policy discussion. We aim to build understanding, support conservation groups, influence planners to preserve habitat and corridors, and inspire action so koalas and other threatened species can survive in the wild.

Outcomes: prompt better koala protection legislation (more effective Koala SEPPs); strengthen state laws protecting koalas and biodiversity generally; and prompt appropriate legislative responses to the above. Stimulate debate about the protection of endangered species within the arenas of the general public, government policy and the media.

As young people were so successfully mobilised on the issue of Climate Change, the Adani mine issue and by Greta Thunberg’s School Strike for Climate, we think they can become a force for protection of threatened species.

We are consulting with community level groups and environmental NGOs (Nature Conservation Council, National Parks Association, Total Environment Centre, Bob Brown Foundation, Sutherland Shire Environment Group, Georges River Environmental Alliance, Save Sydney Koalas, and local residents groups in Campbelltown, Appin and Sutherland shires), with the support of WIRES re animal rescue, and have a number of higher level environmental consultants advising (names are confidential).

We will be guided by scientists and researchers whose expertise in scientific methods and data gathering is peer reviewed and by ecologists who area advising on both sides of the debate.

Lobby local governments to maintain and develop wildlife corridors on the city fringe. Encourage volunteers for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Increase donations to science research projects about the range, diversity, and behaviour of local koala populations in every area. Community members to talk to their local school, church group, or environmental action group about koalas. Community members to join WIRES or another wildlife rescue group, and encourage their children to study science or environmental studies.
Ask the public to donate to the impact campaign for the ongoing screenings of the film and to develop an education kit and an educational one-hour version for schools.. Help the impact release strategy by organising a screening, talk or other event in your local area.