Sydney Basin Koala Network’s 2025 annual progress report gives the NSW Government a fail for its slow to no progress on crucial corridors and legislative reform for koalas. Our koalas in the Sydney Basin are at crisis point but with growing community support, we can further ramp up our campaign

Our report, with key contributions from the Environmental Defenders Office and expert ecologists Biolink finds: 

• Record koala deaths on the roads of South-West Sydney with vehicle strike increasing by 56% from 2023 to 2024.
• Damaging development occurring before measures to protect Koalas leading to their demise.
• Refusal to intervene to save a vital 116ha Koala corridor in Campbelltown, despite our research showing up to 60% of the last Koala generation being struck by vehicles in this LGA.
• No follow through with announced enhancements to the CPCP with planning proposals being approved without following mitigation guidelines.
• Properties within the new Georges River Koala National Park footprint trading on the open market.
• No changes made to the flailing Koala Strategy, the Koala SEPPs, the BC Act or the LLS Act.

Our 2024 report showed Koalas in the Sydney Basin were in decline, yet legislation to protect koalas still remains in limbo, while damaging development continues at pace. This 2025 report shows record koala deaths in South-West Sydney as a direct result of this development. The Planning and Environment Ministers must strengthen protections and amend development plans to maintain safe travels across the region for our precious koala populations. 

IMAGE 2: While koalas have been found to be declining in the Sydney Basin, vehicle strike is rising at an unsustainable rate

Through our work with local community groups, more councils in the Sydney Basin are committing to actions to understand their local koala populations via vegetation mapping and population surveys, but they are hamstrung on legislative protections by a NSW Government unable to act with the urgency our endangered koala populations require. Currently the Environment and Planning Ministers are shuffling deck chairs on the titanic with small, piecemeal announcements, while their just released NSW State of the Environment report shows every marker for Native forests and threatened species as poor. 

Image 3: NSW Government progress on key recommendations by the EDO

We are now calling for the NSW Government to urgently:

1. Reform the Biodiversity Conservation Act (BCA) to strengthen protection for koalas (and other species).
2. Protect and restore Mallaty Creek habitat corridor in Campbelltown LGA for koalas with an additional wildlife crossing on Appin Road to mitigate the unprecedented amounts of roadkill on Appin Road, as previously advised by koala experts.
3. Apply a scientifically robust definition of koala habitat to legal frameworks and apply this to all LGAs with koala sightings so all councils can quickly proceed with habitat mapping and Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management.
4. Apply the Chief Scientist corridor advice for Campbelltown and Macathur across the Sydney Basin, connecting the South-West with the North West, and the North-West to the lower Hunter and zone corridors as C2 to prevent fragmentation.
5. Reform the LLS act to end code based clearing and remove the outdated 1990 regrowth rule.
6. Scrap the unscientific Rural Boundary Clearing Code to prevent fragmentation of habitat.
7. Curb urban sprawl and ongoing fragmentation of bushland
8. Ensure any new transport routes do not clear and dissect koala corridors
9. Undertake a strategic supply plan to reduce ad-hoc quarry development on koala habitat.
10. Prohibit logging of Koala Habitat.

Read our report in full here: SBKN 2025 Annual Progress Report

Email your local MP with our plan to save Sydeny Basin koalas here: https://tec.good.do/rescueplanforkoalas/rescue-plan-koalas/