Dear Minister Speakman and Minister Blair,

I am writing to express my concern over the alarming decline of koalas in NSW and to pledge my support for the Great Koala National Park. I strongly believe that this park is the best chance we have of securing a future for this iconic species in NSW. 

Koala numbers have plummeted by a third in just 20 years and habitat loss, due to land clearing and urban development, has already resulted in koalas disappearing from 75% of their former range. 

The Victorian Government is on the verge of establishing a new national park to protect their faunal emblem, the Leadbeater’s possum. Yet here in New South Wales and across Australia, the koala, our national icon is declining rapidly. Please don’t stand by and watch this happen.

Large  protected areas like the Great Koala National Park remain the single most effective tool for conserving biodiversity worldwide. 

Please consider that this new reserve would not only protect two nationally significant koala metapopulations containing 20% of NSW’s remaining wild koalas, but also the many threatened species that share their home, such as the Spotted-Tailed Quoll, Hastings River Mouse and Powerful Owl.

The short-term gains of unsustainable forest logging are far outweighed by the economic, social and biodiversity benefits the new park would bring.

I urge you to commit to creating the Great Koala National Park so that future generations can enjoy koalas in the wild, as we do today.