Hello Koalas is a bold multi award-winning public art project initiated in Port Macquarie to celebrate the region's koalas through the talents of local Australian artists while raising awareness of the plight of endangered fauna and flora.

The message became even more urgent over the months of the Sydney visit, as bushfires took their toll on koala numbers across the country.

The unique one metre high individually hand-painted koalas each have their own personality and bring joy and a sense of fun and community to Port Macquarie-Hastings.

Twenty-two of the 74 Hello Koalas sculptures made the journey to Sydney for a mini sculpture trail that led visitors on a treasure hunt through the garden using maps and phones.

The Facebook Event recorded 27,000 interested participants for the Royal Botanic Garden with October visitation up 14 per cent despite the extreme weather conditions and fire dangers.

The Royal Botanic Garden also experienced a 127 per cent increase in app downloads. Due to the success of the event, three of the Hello Koalas stayed on in Sydney throughout the 2019 Christmas holiday season and into March 2020.

This was the second official tour for the Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail, with a one-month stay at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra in March 2019 which also highly successful with a social media reach of 12.89 million and 20 per cent increase in visitation.

The Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail began in 2014 with 50 koalas.

This year, plans are well underway for a new Hello Koalas sculpture to honour the wonderful work of our emergency services, particularly in last summer's unprecedented bushfire crisis.

The annual Hello Koalas Festival, traditionally held in June, at which the new koala would have been launched, has now been postponed until September 26-27, COVID-19 restrictions permitting.

Under those restrictions, Hello Koalas has also been working to promote local businesses who have stayed open, encouraging the #supportlocal campaign, with the ongoing presence of Hello Koalas also a beacon of hope and resilience for the community.

The project has won gold at the 2019 NSW Tourism Awards in the Cultural Tourism category and represented the NSW at the Australian Tourism finals. Also was a finalist in the 2019 Business NSW Awards in the category of Excellence in Innovation.

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