Hello Koala Lovers,

It is half-way through Save the Koala Month and our team are busy working on fun things  and we are also looking at the bigger picture as always.

I was grateful for all your comments about the Threatened Species Commissioner’s letter and by and large, most of you think she is not urgent enough, not concerned enough and not clear about how AKF can fit into the recovery of the Koala.

So it would appear even with a new Government bulldozers can work in our forests and urban landscapes with little to stop them. We have had so many people write to us this month seeking support to try and stop clearing and often there is nothing to be done because it has either been approved in the dim dark past or the damage has already been done.

It is frustrating and makes me even more determined to get a Koala Protection Act. At least the Commissioner did say she got that document. I wonder whether she read it?

We have also lost Queen Elizabeth since I last wrote and I have found her death deeply moving. I have a picture of her in my office. It was given to me by a British MP when he visited Australia – Mr. Andrew Rosindell, the Member for Romford.

I look at her every day in fact and as a woman I feel deeply inspired by her level of commitment, her resilience and her dedication to her job; all of which I feel I need to have for my work in trying to save the Koala.

Whatever the world thinks of the new King Charles III, what I know is that he is dedicated to the environment and has a grand vision of how the world could be better. I had the privilege of visiting Poundbury, which is a purpose built housing estate designed by the then Prince of Wales and it was inspirational. The Prince, all those years ago, knew that the world would have to work towards more sustainable housing, more protection of farmlands and to find a way of fitting humans into a landscape, not dominating it – just like Koala Beach, which resulted in a Koala friendly estate in Northern New South Wales here in Australia.

I have great faith that His Royal Highness will continue to speak out for the planet, along with others like Sir David Attenborough, and that world leaders will take them seriously. That can only be good for the Koala.

It shocks me that some in the media use the word “environmentalist” as a pejorative term and I am hoping that as we move into a calmer 2023 that we can see we must all be committed to the environment, not just for the Koala, but for us and our species.

Here at AKF we are busy planning for a post-COVID world and I have been out and about visiting country towns and looking at landscapes. It is my intention to keep the new Environment Minister abreast of my concerns and to insist that she takes the plight of the Koala more seriously. What I saw on my recent trip was in many ways shocking and I will over the coming months articulate what I saw.

In the meantime, thanks for all your support. I will leave you with a photo of a dear little Koala that got caught in the crossfire of clearing. It made me furious.

Kindest regards,

Deborah