For most of his adult life, my father was a timber worker on the NSW north coast, mostly in the sawmills of the Manning and Hastings valleys.

He would often remark that there was no future in forestry. But on Sunday we saw an announcement that will bring real jobs back to the forests. Only now, the work will revolve around repairing nature, restoring wildlife and protecting against catastrophic bushfires.

Spanning 176,000 hectares of public native forests, the Great Koala National Park will provide a home to up to 20 per cent of NSW’s remaining wild koalas.Credit:

The case to reconstruct the forestry industry is undeniable. Across the road from our family home in Taree was a sawmill. There were two others in walking distance, and a dozen more a short drive away. Today, only two of those 15 sawmills remain. And the forests themselves are smaller, shorter, younger and less biodiverse. They are also drier and at far greater risk of catastrophic bushfires.

Unsurprisingly, the native forest logging industry in NSW is now on life support. If it wasn’t for NSW taxpayers, there wouldn’t be a pulse. Over the past four years, taxpayers footed a bill of $73 million to cover the industry’s losses while stumping up an additional $127 million to keep basic native forest logging operations going.

The sun rises over the future Great Koala National Park, as seen from Point Lookout in the New England National Park.Credit: Janie Barrett

Even with the purse........

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