How much can a koala bear? This 70-year-old Coffs Harbour activist is about to find out

What possesses a man to don a marsupial mask in winter and trudge 500km, just to make a point?

For Coffs Harbour activist Peter Elzer, 70, the genesis of the long walk came "in a moment of madness one sleepless night".

Elzer is scheduled to depart on the walk tomorrow (July 19) at 9am outside The Happy Frog Café, Coffs Harbour.

It will take him about a month to get from Orara East State Forest to Parliament House on Macquarie Street in the Sydney CBD, where he will deliver a letter to Premier Chris Minns containing a plea to fulfil the promise of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP).

During the day Elzer will walk wearing a costume koala head, and across his stomach will be written “Looking for a home”. He says at night he will sleep by the side of the road.

With only three weeks to prepare, Elzer has been walking 10-15km a day to get his “muscle memory back” from 2022, when he walked 2,048km over 121 days from Melbourne to Queensland to raise awareness of racism in regional Australia.

A stop to native logging, not the timber industry 

Until the Labor government formally establishes the boundaries of the park, logging can and will continue within state forests that were assessed for inclusion of the site. 

Elzer is not opposed to logging, but does want to see an end to native forest logging.

“Most of the important timber comes from plantation harvesting. And we do need timber, of course. And that needs to be further managed to our advantage,” Elzer told the Mid North Coaster.

“But all the scientists are telling us that our native forests, our eucalyptus forests, are all important habitats,” Elzer said. “There needs to be a hold on native habitat logging.” The grandfather said that doing so would protect important corridors for native animals.

Elzer believes establishing the GKNP is just “a small part of what needs to be done to ensure survival for many of our threatened species. And koalas are just one animal”.

Last month Elzer locked himself to a harvester at Mount Coramba to stop planned logging. 

Asked why he puts himself in such uncomfortable situations when he could be enjoying retirement, he says he has “seen with my own eyes what's happened in our area over the last 50 years living in Coffs Harbour. I've seen koalas disappear from our city centre, from our northern beaches”.

“It’ll be cold,” Elzer conceded. “It’ll be tough. But if we want a better world, we have to stand up and walk for it. I hope to meet friends and forest supporters along the way.”

Elzer plans to stop at local MP offices along the way, seeking support to push the government to deliver the park.