What better place to connect with the rural community then at one of the country’s leading primary industries expos – Norco Primex, Australia’s sustainable farming and primary industries expo.

Since white settlement in Australia, 80 per cent of koala’s natural habitat has been destroyed and much of the remaining 20 per cent occurs on privately owned land, predominately rural land.

It is imperative that Friends of the Koala (FOK) connect with landowners in key koala areas to assist them to better manage their native vegetation with the aim of preserving this ‘iconic’ species. One of the important contribution landowners can make is to preserve their paddock trees or better still to plant more as safe islands for koalas to move across the landscape.

Many land managers appreciate the role these trees play in improving the productive capacity of the land as well as providing a suite of benefits to native wildlife e.g. hollows, safe refuge, food and nesting sites.

More then 200 attendees at the three-day Primex event, engaged with FOK volunteers to share their koala experiences and/or to buy koala food trees.

The design and production of the ‘Cattle need shade and wildlife, and koalas need trees;’ brochure was funded by the NSW Environmental Trust.