Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail exhibition at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, October 3

Twenty four of the hand-painted - and popular - koalas will take pride of place in the gardens from October 4 through to November 30.

Project director for the trail, Margret Meagher, says the exhibition is an exciting time for everyone involved.

"This is very exciting for us. The Botanic Gardens rarely features such a big exhibition," she said.

"The exhibition will showcase our koala trail to a much wider audience.

"The decision is already delivering results with social media reach since September 1 of 376,000 which augurs well for the promotion of the Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail in the Port Macquarie-Hastings.

"The Botanic Gardens usually attracts around 900,000 visitors over those two months and our joint aim with the gardens is to reach over one million for this year and social media reach of 10 million."

During the exhibition, five new koalas will be unveiled including Charlie The Botanic Horticulturist - by Kim and Wayne Staples - commemorating the work of colonial botanist Charles Frazer.

Frazer accompanied John Oxley to Port Macquarie in 1819 to collect specimens and those plants are still flourishing in the gardens.

The Botanic Gardens was founded by Lachlan Macquarie in 1816. The heritage-listed site covers some 30 hectares and is located at Farm Cove.

The gardens is considered the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world.

Meanwhile Ms Meagher said the Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail took out the 2019 Mid North Coast Business Awards for Excellence in Innovation and are now looking forward to both state tourism awards and state business awards in November.

Once the new hand-painted koalas are complete it will bring the total to 73 koalas.

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