Koalas are iconic. But they’re also a species in peril. In 2022, the status of the koala changed from vulnerable to endangered. While the change in status is alarming, it also means an increased level of protection for the species.

Queensland’s koala populations are in decline, and local extinctions continue to occur. This is largely due to clearing and fragmentation of koala habitat.

Queensland’s regional NRM organisations, with the support of the Australian Government’s Saving Koalas Fund, are working to reverse this trend.

The Saving Koalas Fund will provide $76.9 million over four years to support the recovery and long-term conservation of the koala and their habitats.

Large-scale koala project in Gympie region

The Burnett Mary Regional Group is leading its region’s first large-scale koala conservation initiative.

The project aims to enhance koala habitat in the Gympie area, improving both its quantity and connectivity. It is being delivered in partnership with local landholders and conservation organisations.

This approach focuses on habitat establishment, weed control, and fencing to promote natural regeneration and create safer, more resilient ecosystems.

In 2023–24, plantings were completed across nearly 100 hectares. These areas include key revegetation sites, which are already attracting local koalas.

The survival of koalas in the Gympie region depends on the restoration of their habitat. This includes continuing efforts to enhance habitat connectivity, condition, and accessibility for threatened koala populations. Find out more.

Credit: Brianna Heeley

Scenic Rim koala conservation efforts

Healthy Land & Water’s work to protect koalas involves restoring the quality, extent, and connectivity of their habitat within priority areas in South East Queensland.

Focusing on three major projects in and around the Scenic Rim—key koala habitats across Flinders Peak, North Pine, Lake Manchester, and Grandchester—the Healthy Land & Water team has conducted targeted planting and weed control, alongside improvements to fire management. Find out more.

Sarina landholders protect koalas

Reef Catchments, the Natural Resource Management organisation for the Mackay Whitsunday Isaac region, was awarded $3.5 million from the fund to expand and improve koala habitat in Sarina.

The Reef Catchments team is supporting Sarina landholders to treat weeds such as lantana and guinea grass which choke out native trees and pose a significant fire threat to koala habitat.

The project also enables the community to plant koala food and habitat trees to create and sustain koala friendly corridors.

Charley Geddes, a local koala researcher, has identified over 400 koalas in and around the nearby town of Nebo. She has found koalas in both expected and unexpected places.

‘Every tree is important,’ Charley said. ‘Koalas only eat the leaves of a select few tree species — primarily eucalypts — so every single koala food and habitat tree that we can preserve or plant is an opportunity to create a better future for koalas in our region.’

Credit: Charley Geddes

Koalas get a boost in the Fitzroy Basin

Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA) received $4.5 million from the fund to restore and protect koala habitat in the Clarke-Connors Range — one of the largest wilderness areas in the state and home to one of the most significant koala populations in regional Queensland.

The project is delivering weed control to reduce fire risk and planting native species to improve koala habitat and connectivity. Land managers, local and state government, and First Nations People, are all involved in the two-year program.

FBA is also collaborating with graziers who are keen to improve the health of their local environment for their business and koalas.

Koalas in South-Western Queensland

Southern Queensland Landscapes is using its Saving Koalas Fund grant to provide restoration, rehabilitation and other koala management advice to landholders.

There have only been 17 official sightings of koalas in the region since the 1980s so the group is using cutting-edge habitat mapping as well as local knowledge of koala locations, especially from First Nations peoples.

Southern Queensland Landscapes is working with its partners, including citizen scientists and its own koala detection dogs, to confirm stronghold areas of current koala populations and improve habitat, including landscape linkages, to enhance their resilience to climate change.

Protecting threatened species

Koalas are just one threatened species that Queensland’s regional NRM organisations are working on. See more of our threatened species work here.

Featured image: Brianna Heeley