About

Founded in 2016, Bangalow Koalas is a community group devoted to protecting the village’s unique koala population, thought to carry a gene pool that may help facilitate the species’ future survival.

What started as a handful of concerned neighbours determined to prevent a 400-metre stretch of 30-year-old koala food trees from deteriorating or being forcibly removed, has grown into an active, change-creating community group with more than 130+ members lead by Bangalow local, Linda Sparrow.

What Bangalow Koalas has achieved in just six short years is remarkable.

With a long-term goal of creating a Koala Wildlife Corridor to encourage koalas out of urban areas and away from threats, Bangalow Koalas has planted 336,000 trees since 2019. The ultimate goal is to plant 500,000 trees by the end of 2025, of which we are well on the way of achieving.

As a result, the corridor has already expanded and connected existing sections of koala habitat from Byron Bay and surrounds, and is now heading further westward to Tenterfield, north to the Queensland border and south towards Grafton.

Bangalow Koalas also holds educational workshops including Landholder Workshops, Koala Health and Habitat Workshops and the “Kiddy” version for preschool and primary school age children. In addition we are also recording sightings in the hinterland and surrounds, mapping them on Friends of the Koala sightings page on their website.

Our mission is to educate, involve and inspire the community. Our project will strengthen the connection between the community and wildlife by enhancing koala habitat and other native habitat in a wildlife corridor across the Northern Rivers of NSW.