Volunteer koala corridor planting on private land
A community group links up farms and backyards with volunteer-planted koala food trees to reconnect fragmented habitat.
Start small
Walk your own block and two neighbours' with a local ecologist (one morning, often free through Landcare) to mark a 50-tree strip of local koala food species; run one volunteer planting day with seedlings costing roughly a few hundred dollars.
The problem
Koala habitat is cleared and fragmented, mostly on private land where public reserves cannot reach.
Where it fits
Works in fragmented rural landscapes where many small landholders will offer land, with a strong volunteer base, a local nursery supply of koala food trees, and corporate or NGO funding partners. Proven in the Northern Rivers of NSW.
The principle underneath
Habitat on private land can be rebuilt one property at a time if a trusted community group handles plants, labour and funding, and landholders only need to say yes. Each planting links to the next, so value grows as the network fills in.
A pattern in nature
Like mycorrhizal networks linking separate trees, small plantings join into one connected system.
Who to call
Bangalow Koalas (Northern Rivers, NSW), IFAW Australia, WWF-Australia, local Landcare groups.
Watch out for
Plantings lost to drought, weeds or floods without follow-up maintenance; relying on one funder; landholders selling or changing land use; burning out a small core team.
Where it comes from
Community restoration practice from the Northern Rivers, on Bundjalung Country; Bangalow Koalas has mentored four other east coast groups. Open to share; no cultural knowledge is drafted here.
Where it's worked
Northern Rivers, NSW, Australia · 2018-2025
500,000 trees planted across 454 ha on 123 properties in seven shires with 3,000+ volunteers.
DocumentedSourceBangalow Koalas on the Landscape
Northern Rivers, NSW, Australia · 2023
250,000 trees milestone toward a Northern Rivers wildlife corridor reported by ABC.
DocumentedSourceBangalow Koalas on the Landscape
Where it failed
Public sources on Bangalow Koalas focus on successes and do not report losses; planted corridors take years before koalas can use them, and gaps remain wherever a landholder declines. Survival through drought and flood, and ongoing maintenance costs, are not documented in the sources found.