Council Koala Plans of Management built on community koala mapping
Residents' koala sightings and field surveys are turned into a shire-wide habitat map, and the council writes it into binding planning rules and a funded restoration program.
Start small
Spend about 3 months running a household koala sighting survey across one suburb or catchment with a local Landcare or koala group, a council officer and one ecologist to confirm records with scat surveys at sample sites. Cost is mostly printing, postage and ecologist days. Take the draft map to council and propose a koala steering committee.
The problem
loss of native koala habitat
Where it fits
Local governments in New South Wales with koala populations under development pressure, working under a state policy framework (SEPP 44 from 1995, later Koala SEPPs). Needs a willing council, scientific partners, a community survey with good response, a standing steering committee of local groups and agencies, and outside funding for habitat restoration. The habitat map has to be refreshed over time.
The principle underneath
Making habitat visible on a map that the community helped build gives both legitimacy and legal force. Planning decisions can then steer development away from core habitat, while a standing committee keeps restoration going year after year.
Who to call
Port Stephens Council CKPoM Steering Committee; Tweed Shire Council and the Tweed Coast Koala Management Committee; Coffs Harbour City Council; NSW Koala Strategy; Environmental Defenders Office (EDO); local groups such as Friends of the Koala, Team Koala and Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers.
Watch out for
Plans stay voluntary and take years to finalise. Major projects and land clearing are not covered. Maps go out of date. Habitat targets depend on outside grants. Restoration on private land is lost when properties are sold. Fire disrupts the work. Community surveys over-represent places where people live, so they need field surveys alongside them.
Where it comes from
Grew out of NSW State Environmental Planning Policy No. 44 · Koala Habitat Protection (1995), with NPWS scientists working alongside councils. Port Stephens (mapping published 1998, plan approved 2002) and Coffs Harbour (survey 1990, plan 1999) were early models, followed by the Tweed Coast plan in 2015. Aboriginal knowledge of koalas and Country is not part of these published plans; any version that draws on it should engage local Aboriginal land councils and custodians.
Where it's worked
Tweed Coast, NSW, Australia · 2015 to 2018
34,460 trees planted (23.25 ha against a 300 ha target), koalas using plantings at 66% of surveyed sites within 2 to 3 years, and about 100 ha bought by the NSW Government at Pottsville.
DocumentedSource
Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia · 1990 to 1999
A postal survey of about 18,600 households returned 2,018 replies and 3,309 mapped sightings; with scat surveys at 119 sites this produced the maps for the 1999 plan.
DocumentedSource
Port Stephens, NSW (habitat remapping) · 2025
Council partnered with the NSW Koala Strategy on new koala habitat maps, with targeted surveys at more than 250 sites and voluntary surveys on private land.
DocumentedSource
Port Stephens, NSW, Australia · 1990s to 2025
Shire-wide habitat mapping (peer-reviewed, 1998) underpinned a comprehensive plan approved in 2002 and overseen by a steering committee since 2001.
Peer reviewedSource
Where it failed
Only 5 comprehensive Koala Plans of Management were finalised in the 25 years after SEPP 44 began in 1995. Plans are voluntary and apply only to council-approved development, not to complying development, major projects or land clearing under the Local Land Services Act (EDO, 2020). Tweed Coast: by Year 3 only 23.25 ha of new habitat had been created against a 300 ha target, landholder uptake was slow, and restored private sites had no long-term protection.
Related Fruit
- SaplingVolunteer koala corridor planting on private landA community group links up farms and backyards with volunteer-planted koala food trees to reconnect fragmented habitat.
- TreeWildlife crossings with exclusion fencingUnderpasses, overpasses and rope or pole bridges, paired with fencing that funnels animals to them, reconnect habitat split by roads and stop roadkill.
- TreeConservation covenants on private landLandholders voluntarily register a binding agreement on their land title to protect native habitat, often permanently, sometimes with annual stewardship payments.