NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty is standing firm behind a 176,000-hectare Great Koala Park—even as critics, including the former head scientist for the CSIRO, warn that the decision to close the $4 billion industry on the mid-north coast was based on “flawed science.”
During question time, Nationals MLC Scott Barrett pointed to the government’s own line, stating that “the majority of research confirms that timber harvesting has negative impacts on numerous threatened species, including Koalas.”
Moriarty, however, hit back, insisting her government has a “long-standing commitment to the protection of the koala and other animals,” and that she lacked full context for that quote. She doubled down on delivering both a koala park and a thriving timber industry, saying work is already underway to make the two objectives compatible.
But departmental scientist Dr Brad Law has data to prove that’s incorrect.
Speaking at Primex Field Days in Casino, he unveiled AI-analysed, acoustically derived surveys showing no net loss of koalas in eastern seaboard state forests after logging. “Private native forestry plots did show a slight population drop after thinning, but soon after the koalas returned,” Dr Law said, adding that between 2015 and 2020—and including the 2019 bushfires—his team logged 14,000 hours of koala bellows across 171 public-land sites. Unique vocal signatures revealed virtually identical densities in state forests and national parks.
“In part this is because within state forests there are extensive exclusion zones,” Law explained, before adding that sealed roads, not timber harvesting, posed the greatest risk: “More roads equal more road-kill and fewer koalas. It should be a high priority to mitigate road damage.”
- To learn more about Dr Law’s research, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from last year.
