It really doesn’t get much better than planting bare paddocks and watching them grow into forests. In 2023 we did 32 plantings on 30 properties, across 5 shires of the Northern Rivers of NSW. We are now planting hope on a game-changing scale – hope for koalas, hope for the planet and, in the face of climate change, hope for the mental health and wellbeing of our younger generation.
By creating a wildlife corridor across the Northern Rivers of NSW, Bangalow Koalas is connecting vital habitat in strategic locations for koalas and many other native species. This corridor will allow koalas to live and move around safely by reducing the main threats they face from the habitat loss that’s been occuriring unchecked for decades – that’s everything from disease and dog attacks to fatal vehicle strikes.
Our hands-on community based response to the climate crisis is already working.
Bangalow Koalas has planted 336,000 trees in six shires of the Northern Rivers of NSW since 2019, connecting individuals, families, communities, and Indigenous and Landcare groups in a collaborative effort to give us all hope – especially our children – that real, make-a-difference change is not only possible, it’s happening.
And we need to keep going. There’s still more than 164,000 ‘Hope Trees’ to get in the ground by 2025.
Bangalow and beyond now has a community group devoted to the village’s unique koala population and the surrounding areas – Bangalow Koalas Inc. is a registered environmental organisation with DGR status (deductible gift recipient) and charity/not-for-profit. It became active in May 2016 with the local community realising the importance of our Koala population on the western side of Bangalow.
Our goal is to create a Koala Wildlife Corridor across the Northern Rivers of NSW, connecting habitat from Byron Bay and surrounds west towards Tenterfield, north to the Queensland border and south towards Grafton. The ultimate goal is to plant 500,000 trees by the end of 2025.
In a short period of time, we have been awarded the 2019 NSW Landcare Awards – Australian Community Media Landcare Community Group Champion, Australia Day 2020 and 2022 Byron Shire Environmental Project of the Year. President, Linda Sparrow has also been awarded Australia Day 2020 and 2022 Byron Shire Environmental Citizen of the Year and finalist for the 2020 and 2022 NSW Environmental Citizen of the Year Award. We have also been awarded the Byron Shire Council 2020 Sustainability Award and have been invited to be a mentor in the Green Innovation Awards – Mentoring Program in 2021. Linda Sparrow was awarded the Australian Geographic Society Conservationist of the Year Award for 2022.
The Koala is listed as a threatened species nationally under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity (EPBC) Act 1995 and in NSW under the Threatened Species Conservation (TSC) Act 2022.
Bangalow Koalas’ long-term goal is to create a Koala wildlife corridor, forming a linkage of habitat from Byron Bay/Bangalow heading westwards towards Tenterfield and south towards Grafton, allowing koalas to move safely across the local landscape.
