Will a new national park protect Sydney’s chlamydia-free koalas?
A promised national park along the Georges River has been created to protect koalas in south-west Sydney, as the state pushes ahead with the construction of 73,000 homes on the Cumberland Plain where a healthy koala population is located.
The park, Warranmadhaa or Georges River Koala National Park, will safeguard an important north-south koala corridor between Campbelltown and the Southern Highlands, but environmentalists warn that crucial east-west habitat connectivity between the Georges and Nepean rivers is lacking.
A koala at Smiths Creek in Leumeah near the new Georges River Koala National Park earlier in 2025.Credit: Les Shearim
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said in a statement on Wednesday that the government had committed $48.2 million to establish and manage the park, which she said was “one of the most important in the state for koala conservation”.
The plans for the park were announced in 2023 as part of the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan to allow urban development in the region. Planning Minister Paul Scully said in a statement on Wednesday: “This is a strategic approach which aims to balance urban development with the protection of important biodiversity including threatened plants and animals.”
A koala at Springs Creek in the footprint of the new Georges River Koala National Park.Credit: Geoff Francis
The park covers 962 hectares, from Long Point to Appin, and the government plans to grow the park with land transfers to protect up to 1830 hectares of habitat, which the government said was a priority but would take time.
Stephanie Carrick, manager of the Sydney Basin Koala Network, welcomed the government gazetting the existing state-owned parkland as national park, but pointed out that half was still in private ownership.
“The thing that we’re concerned about is a lot of the properties in the footprint that haven’t been gazetted are actually trading on the open market, so we’re not sure when they’ll ever be part of the national park,” she said.
Carrick said the national park would provide north-south connectivity to Heathcote National Park, but the koalas needed to be able to move east-west between the Nepean River and Georges River. The best option was the Mallaty Creek corridor, she said, which was excluded from the conservation plan and currently fenced off.
The government intends Ousedale Creek to provide east-west connectivity because it has the most habitat, but Carrick said there was a greyhound course and a motocross track in the way. The conservation plan also identified Noorumba and Beulah corridors further north, but these needed significant revegetation, she said.
“Koalas need east-west connectivity, and it’s really important for that population [between Campbelltown and Sutherland Shire],” Carrick said. “One, they’re chlamydia-free, and to the south [around Appin] is chlamydia land. And two, they’ve got low genetic diversity, so they actually do need to move around more, but what they’re doing is cutting off habitat within that chlamydia-free zone.”
Sydney Basin Koala Network said the number of koalas struck by vehicles in south-west Sydney rose by 56 per cent in 2024. Wildlife crossings under Appin Road promised by the government and developers were still not complete.
The Minns government has still not fulfilled its election promise to create the Great Koala National Park in northern NSW, which could see up to 176,000 hectares of state forest added to existing national park estate.
Get to the heart of what’s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.