The National Koala Conference held in Port Macquarie was well attended by Friends of the Koala representatives including by our Patron, veterinary team, volunteer coordinator, several team coordinators, habitat restoration project managers and management committee members including our President. 

The Hon Penny Sharpe MLC, Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for Environment and Minister for Heritage also attended and stayed throughout the Saturday dinner, demonstrating her Government’s commitment to the NSW Koala Strategy, which aims to double the number of koalas in NSW by 2050 and is backed up by considerable financial investment. You can read more about this here: NSW Koala Strategy. We were really pleased to be invited to have a face-to-face meeting with the Minister and discuss the critical role Friends of the Koala plays in the survival of koalas in New South Wales. 

Participants came from all walks of life including the business sector, all levels of Government, academics, individual landowners, the media, the non-profit sector, authors, volunteers and others. It was an eclectic mix of people with one common interest: to save the precious, iconic Australian koala. The program was ambitious with many excellent speakers sharing their theoretical and practical work.

It was a highly professionally organised conference. It is heartening to see the commitment by so many and the hard work being put in. We left feeling energised. We are not alone in our endeavours and will continue to do our best.

We would like to finish by sharing the conference Gold Sponsor’s message to attendees with you all in case you wish to connect with this initiative: “The National Koala Monitoring Program thank all of you who shared valuable insights on the range of methods and approaches that are being used across the country to monitor koala populations. We are keen to stay connected as we roll out this national effort – please reach out to koalamonitoring@csiro.au for updates.”