Our dwindling koala population needs a public register of the remaining koala food trees in the Port Macquarie local government area, an active education program for residents or owners of these properties and heavy fines for felling.

Since purchasing our property 12 years ago, we have noticed the decline in koalas.

Now, we only have a solitary koala that sleeps and feeds in a Tallowood tree in our front yard.

Somehow it navigates its way across busy roads and survives the nonchalance of neighbours, who leave their dogs to run free.

Council may not be able to challenge development that meets weak, state government, land clearing legislation, but if it is serious about a koala strategy, it must cease partnerships with State Forest and stop ignoring their clear felling of koala habitat.

When Port Macquarie can no longer support a Koala population will there still be forests for them?

Many residents and visitors are unaware that, in the seventies, forward thinking conservationists fought Council and developers, to preserve the coastal walk and the region’s national parks and reserves, that now attract visitors from all over the world.

Now we need residents to, once again, stand up and challenge this endless destruction. We need more than a koala strategy, we need a plan to protect remaining habitat for the future, for koalas, other threatened species and for our sanity.

Who will want to live here or visit, if the place we love continues to be destroyed in the name of ‘progress’ and dare I say it, greed?

The Hello Koalas might be great for tourism, but, it will be Goodbye Koalas, unless there is a significant shift in attitude.

Krissa Wilkinson

Port Macquarie