Koala Park threat to timber towns

It's also a big step backwards for global environmentalism given the substitution of imported timber from countries like Indonesia and Malaysia for high-demand building products, they warn.

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley's promise to create a 315,000-hectare Great Koala National Park inland from Coffs Harbour would see a further 176,00ha of prime coastal blackbutt resource, one of the most sought-after timber flooring products, locked up.

Preliminary modelling indicates annual North Coast timber allocations would need to be cut by 44 per cent, or 100,000 cubic metres, to accommodate the new park, according to industry bodies Timber NSW and the Australian Forest Products Association.

That would directly wipe out 3000 milling jobs, not to mention the knock-on effect of those businesses that service the mills and workers, said Timber NSW's Maree McCaskill.

"It will have a massive impact on the economic welfare of North Coast regional communities," she said.

NSW has the most highly regulated timber industry in the world, with more than 2000 operating conditions applying to timber harvesting, Ms McCaskill said.

That's in stark contrast to forestry operations in overseas countries, where species like the orangutan are under threat, that would likely fill the supply gap left in Australia, given the fast-growing demand for timber products, millers and forest growers say.

"We can't have a vibrant and sustainable timber industry if we continue to play political games with the resource," Ms McCaskill said.

North Coast timber mill owners said their industry had already developed a Koala Code of Practice, vetted by various koala organisations, with the aim of safeguarding the native animal.

They pointed to Southern NSW red gum towns like Mathoura, Barham and Deniliquin, which were once thriving timber towns.

When forestry was traded for national park, those communities were promised eco tourism but instead got ghost towns.

The North Coast Forest Taskforce said the idea indicated a lack of understanding of what was actually threatening koala populations.

Loss of habitat to urbanisation, dog attacks and motor vehicles were the big threats along with bushfires.

The taskforce said experts suggested koalas generally moved out of national parks as they preferred the regrowth leaves of State Forests and private land.

North Coast Nationals MPs Andrew Fraser and Chris Gulaptis have weighed in, saying NSW has more than seven million hectares of national parks and protected lands so turning more forest into national park was just a Labor ploy to attract Green preferences.

Groups including Friends of the Koala and the Wilderness Society said the plan would "fill a big gap in the conservation of NSW's world-class forests" and help protect a national icon.

However, it did not go far enough, said Northern Rivers Friends of the Koala president Lorraine Vass.

"We need to see a network of these types of parks from the Queensland to Victorian border because ultimately, with climate change, the NSW coast will be an important refuge not just for koalas but all our wildlife," she said.