AFTER a significant, but temporary, ‘win’, the Friends of Pine Creek hope to gain momentum in their ultimate goal to provide a sustainable habitat for koalas on the Coffs Coast.

As mentioned in previous News Of The Area articles, there is forest available that conservationists say the NSW Government could link together to form a continuous protected area from the tablelands beyond Dorrigo to the coast.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

This would allow native animals to migrate with the seasons, similar to how they could move around before European settlement.

The recent removal of some ‘compartments’ of forest from Forestry Corporation’s current harvest plans and the announcement of Bongil Bongil and Bindarri national parks as Areas of Intergenerational Significance, because of their populations of koalas, has heartened the Friends, who have now turned their attention to linking the parks with existing state forest areas.

They point out that Pine Creek State Forest is around 3,000ha of publicly owned native forest and, while a substantial proportion of this has been converted to single species hardwood plantations, a large part of it remains high quality, moist, mixed eucalypt forest and home to a large and significant koala population that is still threatened by logging.

A Friends of Pine Creek spokesperson said, “Habitat destruction is undeniably the number one threat to koalas and, for this iconic Australian mammal, it really is a case of ‘No Tree, No Me’.”

The combined koala population of Pine Creek State Forest and the immediately adjoining Bongil Bongil National Park is one of the largest and most important koala populations remaining in Australia.

Unlike the Victorian and South Australian populations, the koalas of Pine Creek have not been transported there by humans and comprise a unique and distinctive Coffs Harbour regional genetic group that has evolved in the local area for tens of thousands of years.

And, unlike a large number of NSW’s koala habitats, this forest remains entirely unburnt from the Black Summer bushfires of 2019 and the koala population remains intact, making its biodiversity value immeasurable.

The Friends say that logging will not only target and kill many primary koala habitat trees but will also threaten a regionally significant coastal population of the rare Yellow Bellied Glider, which is listed as an endangered species both in NSW and nationally.

The contentious compartments are also the site of the popular Sawmill mountain bike track, maintained under permit by the Coffs Harbour Cycle Club, and used by bike riders from throughout northern NSW.

The Friends of Pine Creek lobbied the Environment Minister in 2020, proposing a ‘Forest Bridge’ which would be part of the proposed Great Koala National Park.

The spokesperson said, “We will now concentrate our efforts on supporting the Areas of Intergenerational Significance by demanding that the State Government immediately secure the protection of those parts of Pine Creek State Forest that link Bongil Bongil and Bindarri National Parks, including Compartments 7/8/9.”

The Friends of Pine Creek can be contacted at friendsofpinecreek3@gmail.com for further information.

By Andrew VIVIAN