Local groups and agencies from MidCoast Council, Koalas in Care, MidCoast2Tops Landcare, Taree Indigenous Development and Employment (TIDE) and Tinonee Public School. have been working together to help the marsupials.

The $130,000 funding will further support the work they have been doing and allow them to implement programs in the future, with each partner committing additional funds and resources to the project, including council through the environmental rate.

Fires burnt a staggering 209,549 hectares or 20.5 per cent of the MidCoast Council area, which had a devastating impact on local koalas.

This project will establish koala refuges, assist landholders to strengthen their own koala populations, and understand and help facilitate safe koala movement by identifying important corridors and community road safety programs.

Together these actions will help rebuild and strengthen local communities and koala populations.

The funds will be distributed across five focus areas, including the implementation of a koala and community road safety program at Tinonee, working with TIDE to plant koala food trees at Cattai Wetlands, koala connectivity modelling and evaluating revegetation scenarios in the Kiwarrak Area of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS), strengthening koala refuges and corridors, and assisting bushfire affected landowners to re-establish vegetation on their properties.

The project will run until March 2022.

The community can also help by sharing koala sightings with council's environmental team - visit the MidCoast Council Mid Coast koala mapping report a koala sighting here page.

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