PICK up free food trees, plant them and wait for the koalas to come!

That’s the word from the Myall Koala Environment Group (MKEG), who have 200 koala food trees to give away to lucky locals.

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The dwarf Parramatta red gums (Eucalyptus parramattensis, subspecies decadens) are given each year by MidCoast Council for the annual Myall River Festival tree give-away.

But due to COVID restrictions, this year’s festival has been cancelled, so the group will give the trees for free directly to local residents, to be planted as soon as possible this spring.

Volunteers will be giving away koala food tube stock trees and other native shrubs donated by MidCoast Council together with a sheet of instructions on tree planting and their care.

They will be available on Saturday 6 November at Woody’s Building & Garden Centre, Tea Gardens, from 9am to 2pm.

The Tea Gardens Public School P&C Committee will also be having a BBQ fundraiser.

There will be another opportunity to pick up free trees the following weekend from Hunter Valley Providores in Wanya Road on Tea Gardens Industrial Estate, from 8am to 12 midday on Saturday 13 November.

MKEG publicist Adrienne Ingram urged people to stop and chat to the volunteers who will try and answer questions about local flora and fauna, including how to spot and eradicate nasty noxious weeds.

“If you have the space to plant more than one tree, you are welcome to take more,” she said.

The dwarf Parramatta red gum is an attractive, small (4-6 metre) eucalypt that koalas absolutely love to eat.

This particular subspecies is classified as vulnerable, though it thrives in sandy soils and is ideal in urban yards in the Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens area because of its small size, barely reaching the gutters.