NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe has flagged legislation to gazette the 176,000-hectare Great Koala National Park in late 2026, with the first-ever NPWS Aboriginal cultural heritage rangers to be appointed across the reserve. That is according to a Coffs Harbour ministerial release, in which Sharpe and Minister for the North Coast Janelle Saffin confirmed that the carbon method funding the park is now heading to a federal review.
The first-ever Aboriginal cultural heritage ranger positions follow extensive collaboration with Elders and Traditional Owners on the Aboriginal Advisory Panel meeting Sharpe convened in Coffs Harbour. The proposed park boundary covers a Gumbaynggirr and Dunghutti cultural landscape that includes places of creation, ceremony and spirituality, traditional camps, resource-gathering areas and pathways.
Speaking ahead of the Aboriginal Advisory Panel meeting, Sharpe described the park as one of the most significant koala-habitat reservations in Australian history. “The Great Koala National Park is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Sharpe said.
Saffin, who holds the regional portfolio, said the park sits at the centre of an economic and environmental package for North Coast communities. “The Great Koala National Park is a landmark investment in the Mid North Coast,” Saffin said.
Park-readiness work now spans expanded firefighting capacity through the NSW Rural Fire Service and Forestry Corporation NSW, with the agencies bringing more firefighters, new fire trucks and early-detection technologies inside the proposed boundary. The arrangement keeps Forestry Corporation NSW operationally embedded in park-area fire response despite the September 2025 moratorium ending its native-forest royalty stream across the same area.
Final park creation remains contingent on registering the carbon project under the proposed Improved Native Forest Management method, with the Commonwealth’s Independent Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee now expected to consider the method following the January consultation. Wood Central understands the federal carbon path has been the unresolved element since the supersized reservation was first announced, with the Australian Forest Products Association having flagged concerns over the politicisation of new carbon methods.
It comes as Wood Central reported the NSW Cabinet Office’s Independent Forestry Panel stakeholder consultation report pressed the Minns government for genuine industry input on the still-pending Forestry Industry Action Plan.
More than 4,000 survey responses have shaped the recreation framework alongside dozens of consultation sessions, with the future park designed around both biodiversity protection and the nature-based tourism economy Sharpe and Saffin have targeted for the Mid North Coast. Boundary refinement is continuing alongside that consultation, with state agencies working with local tourism operators, councils and other partners on visitor and recreation opportunities.
The 176,000-hectare park footprint joins roughly 300,000 hectares of existing national park, forming the 476,000-hectare conservation area Premier Chris Minns confirmed in September 2025 — the largest in the world dedicated to koala protection.
