The Great Koala National Park (GKNP) will be established, following 15 hours of debate in the NSW Upper House.
Despite facing another long night in the chamber wading through scores of proposed amendments, Upper House MPs managed to get the job done at about 4pm on Friday.
The successful vote in the NSW Upper House means more than 178,000 hectares of state forest and Crown land will be added to the national park estate.
This will create a connected network of protected forests that spans more than 475,000 hectares, from the Macleay Valley to the Coffs Coast.
Conservation win: Environment minister Penny Sharpe said the bill’s passing was a “defining moment for conservation in NSW”.
“After more than a decade of campaigning and years of detailed assessments, consultation and planning, we have cleared the final hurdles to delivering our biggest environmental commitment,” Sharpe said in a statement.
What is it: The creation of the GKNP means the habitat of an estimated 12,000 koalas, 36,000 gliders and more than 100 threatened species will be protected permanently from logging.
What happened: The legislation passed through the NSW Lower House on Wednesday, with minor amendments, before being introduced to the Upper House on Thursday afternoon.
Debate continued to midnight, and resumed on Friday at 9am.
Many of the amendments had been proposed by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, as it sought to address grievances related to biosecurity; access to, and permissible activities within, the park; fire management; and the sale of carbon credits to fund the GKNP.
Forest Bridge: The Greens made unsuccessful attempts to add additional forest “compartments” officially designated as plantations to the GKNP, including sections of the Pine Creek and Tuckers Nob state forests.
Local conservationists have long argued these specific compartments - essentially a sliver of land - provide a “forest bridge” between existing national parks, to allow native wildlife unbroken passage between habitat areas.
As they will not be included in the GKNP, further logging is set for parts of Pine Creek and Tuckers Nob.
Carbon plan approved: The Clean Energy Regulator has approved the park’s carbon project, which means companies will be able to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits from the GKNP.
Carbon credits generated through the project will not be available to coal and gas projects.
Image credit: L Patabendi.