Generations of Australian’s have grown up with Blinky Bill, the cheeky koala with a big imagination.

But imagine if the next generation has to grow up without koalas. Imagine a childhood without seeing a koala in the wild, or hearing the call of an owl.

Logging, mining, land clearing, and development are threatening to push the koala, and a host of other native wildlife, to extinction. With just 8% of Australia’s original forests remaining, we cannot afford to lose any more forests.

Blinky Bill, and his friends, need native forests to survive.

Now, imagine a future where native forest logging has ended. Western Australia has shown this is possible, announcing an end to all native forest logging from 2023. NSW, Victoria and Tasmania should follow this bold, positive step and embrace a future where all our timber needs are met from plantations.

Our Australian Native Forest Declaration calls on our leaders to end all native forest logging, now.  There is no time to lose or we will lose the koala, forever.

We need your support for our campaign to protect Australia’s remaining native forests, to ensure that our children, and their children, can grow up with koalas, quolls, owls and other wildlife living in our forests.

Blinky Bill needs native forests. Your pledge will help us ensure that the next generation can continue to enjoy Blinky Bill, knowing that he and all his friends are still living and thriving in Australia’s native forests.

The problem

Without urgent action, koalas are headed for extinction.

Koala numbers are plummeting, with two-thirds of koalas wiped out in the last 20 years. At the current rate of decline, koalas will be extinct in NSW by 2050. Logging, mining and urban development are the main reason for the loss of habitat that is pushing the koala towards the precipice of extinction.

Compounding these factors are the dramatic effects of climate change. In particular, the recent catastrophic bushfires, forecast to increase in frequency and intensity as the climate crisis deepens, wiped out up to 70% of koalas in northeastern NSW.

The solution

Protect native forests – now.

The great place to start is an immediate end to all native forest logging. Western Australia is leading the way, ceasing all native forest logging from 2023.

Ending all native forest logging will help save the koala by protecting threatened species habitat, mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of large bushfires.

All our timber needs, and the associated jobs, can easily be met from existing plantations.

Our campaign

At the heart of our campaign is our landmark Australian Native Forest Declaration, calling for an end to all logging of native forests.  This is urgent, achievable and supported by the vast majority of Australians. We need your support to reach 100,000+ signatures, to make sure the roar of the crowd cannot be ignored by our leaders.

To achieve this, we plan to run a high profile advertising campaign featuring Blinky Bill including:

• NSW regional newspaper advertisements
• National social media campaign
• Eye-catching street posters in Sydney and Canberra
• NSW billboard campaign

In preparation for a hard-hitting markets campaign (where we target companies buying native forest products), we want to commission research to discover where timber from koalas' habitat is going.

Finally, we want to raise public awareness of our campaign to save the koala and protect native forests with creative merchandise, featuring Australia’s favourite koala, Blinky Bill.

$60,000 – National advertising campaign with a special NSW focus featuring newspapers ads, extensive social media promotions and plastering the streets with Blinky Bill.

$20 000 - Blinky Bill billboards raising the alarm that Koala habitat remains threatened by logging.

$10,000 – Koala Markets Research Team, we will research what companies are receiving timber from Koala habitat as part of our plan to get Blinky’s home out of the stores and left standing.  Then we will let them know it is critical to help stop logging of Koala habitat.

$10,000 – Our Defend Native Forests Media Team – we have a team of photographers, film makers and designers who are a critical part of our campaign team, producing a range of video and photographic assets which showcase the beauty of Australia’s native forests and their wildlife and the devastation that logging wreaks on them.