Southern Forests – National Parks Association of NSW

Southern Forests Campaign Update Spring 2025

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2025August 26, 2025in Spring 2025Leave a comment

Kate Carroll, Conservation Projects Officer

As the long delays on the north coast’s Great Koala National Park continue to frustrate communities and conservationists, momentum is gathering in the south with our next big proposal – the Great Southern Forest National Park. This landmark proposal is perhaps the NPA’s most ambitious yet. It represents years of groundwork and is now culminating in a powerful, evidence-based case to protect some of the most ecologically valuable public native forests in southern NSW.

Southern Forests Campaign Update

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2025May 29, 2025in Winter 2025Leave a comment

Kate Carroll, Conservation Projects Officer

The proposed Great Southern Forests National Park is a bold step toward safeguarding one of southeastern Australia’s most ecologically valuable landscapes. In the wake of the Black Summer bushfires and mounting development pressures along the coast, the continuation of industrial logging in these forests is increasingly untenable. The proposal spans tall wet forests, rainforests, and woodlands across the south coast and hinterlands, aiming to protect their rich biodiversity and critical habitats. By connecting and consolidating existing protected areas, the park would strengthen ecological resilience and provide a vital refuge for forest-dependent species as climate change accelerates.

Thinking big, the next phase in campaigning for our Southern Forests

Posted by NPA NSWon August 27, 2024August 26, 2024in Spring 2024Leave a comment

Gary Dunnett, CEO and Kate Carroll, Conservation Projects Officer

Some of NPA’s deepest roots lie in the forests that cloak the landscapes between the Great Dividing Range and the rugged southern coasts. These are contested regions whose economy relies upon nature-based tourism, while allowing the very worst of industrial clear-felling and woodchipping.

NPA has been calling for a shift from exploitation to protection of the southeast forests for decades. The long history of the forest campaigns is documented in David Gallan’s wonderful 2016 documentary ‘Understorey’.

Those campaigns had significant successes, including the creation of parks such as Southeast Forest National Park. The parks that were established as part of the original Eden and Southern Forest Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) negotiations were a great beginning, but are not enough to truly secure the biodiversity values of the forests.