The Koala Corridor

Without intervention Koalas are predicted to be extinct in NSW by 2050. After the catastrophic fires of the summer of 2019/20, in which 61,000 Koalas are estimated to have perished; the Koala has become the poster child for governments wanting to prove their environmental credentials, corporations looking for mascots and environmental campaigners concerned about habitat loss.

As South West Sydney koalas search for tastier eucalyptus leaf or a female koala on the bush fringes of Appin Road, dodging traffic and dog attacks, researchers track their progress to understand their movement eastward. Architects and planners discuss how housing developments can be more sustainable.

The shy Sydney Koala is now caught in the crossfire, with its survival dependent on politics, developers and public sentiment.

The Koala has long been on a trajectory to extinction; due largely to lack of public concern and political will. It is estimated 61,000 koalas perished in last year's fires. 0nly 1% native vegetation remains west of the Great Dividing Range, so the East Coast Koalas are in the majority.
We have now the urgent task to save the remaining koalas.
The little know story of South West Sydney's koalas, a healthy colony which is on the move due to lack of habitat, is brought into the spotlight.

Outcomes: more action on koala protection legislation, strengthen state laws protecting biodiversity, raise discussion about the protection of endangered species within the arenas of general public and media, and prompt appropriate legislative responses to the above. Seek to mobilise the younger generation to this cause, as they have been so successfully mobilised on Climate Change by the Adani mine issue and by Greta Thunberg's "School Strike for Climate".

If it reaches a wide audience and alerts the general public as to the major threats to the Koala's survival, which are, as well as bushfire, land-clearing of koala habitat, road kill, and dog attack. Good outcomes: increased public support for wildlife corridors, underpasses, tree planting programs and funding of koala rehabilitation programs, better planning laws and more koala friendly design in housing development. Ideally environment protection laws, concepts like Bio-banking, and environmental offsets all have to be reviewed and improved so they serve the wildlife they are intended to protect. This could be at a constitutional level or at least at a state government level. The 6th Mass Extinction calls for urgent action to preserve many species.
These goals are ambitious but if film can start new conversations around the issue and bring new supporters to the cause it will be great.

We are consulting with community level groups (Sutherland Shire Environment Group, Georges River Environmental Alliance, Save Sydney Koalas, and local residents groups in Campbelltown, Appin and Wilton), with the Total Environment Centre and WIRES re animal rescue, and have a number of higher level environmental consultants (names are confidential at the moment) advising us.
We will be guided by scientists and researchers who experts in the scientific facts and ecologists who area advising both sides of the debate.

Lobby local government to maintain and develop wildlife corridors on the city fringe. Volunteer for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Donate to science research projects about the range, diversity and behaviour of local koala population in their area. Talk to their local school, church group, environmental action group. Join WIRES or another wildlife rescue group. Send their children to study science or environmental studies.
Donate to the impact campaign for the film. Help the impact release strategy by organising a screening, talk or other event in your area.

Increased mainstream media coverage of the issue of habitat protection as a key factor in mitigating the effects of climate change. More sophisticated understanding of the status of endangered native animals in the fact of increasingly severe heat and drought and the importance of trees in the environment for the comfort of humans and animals. Measuring the number of impact screenings, the take up by schools, educational institutions and general viewer numbers on multiple platforms. Raise this issue to the attention of more Global NGOs and agencies (Koalas are already on the radar with World Wide Fund for Nature and Nature Conservation Council).