7 years celebrating Wild Koala Day, May 3

Wild Koala Day occurs every year, with events from South Australia to Queensland. It is an international celebration of koalas living wild, in The Bush, where they belong.

Co-founder of Wild Koala Day Janine Duffy says the original vision of Wild Koala Day was to get everyone talking about koalas, protect forests, plant trees for koalas where needed, and educate the public.

“Wild Koala Day started in 2016 with many of the grass-roots koala protection groups working together to bring the plight of koalas to the attention of the public and government,” said Janine.

“We were concerned that Australians didn’t know how much trouble koalas were in. You can’t help solve a problem that you don’t even know about.” she said.

“Now koalas are in the headlines every week, and as we hoped, Australians are pulling out all stops to help.”

Wild Koala Day has also resulted in the planting of 333,890 koala trees since 2016.

Australia’s most experienced Koala tree planting organisations are part of Wild Koala Day: Koala Clancy Foundation, Bangalow Koalas, Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation, Queensland Koala Crusaders & Koala Action.

Here are some of the tree planting stats:

• Bangalow Koalas: 178,665 koala trees planted since 2019
• Koala Clancy Foundation: 57,225 koala trees planted since 2016
• Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation: 30,000 koala trees
• Smiths Creek Bushcare/Greening Australia/Campbelltown Council: 3000+ koala trees
• Koala Action Gympie: 10,000 koala trees
• Clarence Valley Koalas: 5000 koala trees
• ARROW & Kilcoy Landcare: 5000 koala trees
• Raymond Island Landcare: 18,000 koala trees
• Queensland Koala Crusaders: 27,000 koala trees

But it’s not all about planting trees. The strength of Wild Koala Day is that each koala protection group does what is most appropriate for their region.

“The local koala protection group are the experts – they know what their koalas need most, whether it is habitat protection, tree planting, scientific research, public education about dogs and vehicle trauma, or treatment of chlamydia,” said Janine.

Koala groups from Queensland to South Australia have celebrated Wild Koala Day since 2016 with community information events, field days, market stalls, educational workshops, koala counts, tree giveaways, strategy launches, fundraising competitions & auctions, habitat surveys, koala nature walks, and even an airport takeover!

6 Community information events (Pine Rivers Koala Care 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020, Moreton Bay Koala Rescue 2019, Queensland Koala Crusaders 2021)
3 Field days (Koala Gardens at Tuckurimba 2017 & 2019, Gunnedah Koalas 2018)
2 Market stalls (Koala Action Gympie 2020, Moreton Bay Koala Rescue 2021)
4 Educational workshops (Koala Clancy Foundation/Bangalow Koalas tree planting workshops 2020, Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation 2020, Moreton Bay Koala Rescue/Koala Action 2018)
2 Koala Tree giveaways (Koalas of Joyner 2021, Queensland Koala Crusaders )
1 Koala Count (Save Mt Lofty 2021)
1 Strategy launches (Eurobodalla Koalas 2021)
4 Fundraising competitions & auctions (Unconditional Love 2017 & 2019, Libby’s Koala Crusade 2017, Pine Rivers Koala Care 2020)
1 Koala habitat surveys (Eurobodalla Koalas)
12 Koala nature walks (Noosa Koala Sightings/Queensland Koala Crusaders 2016, 2017, 2018 Koala Clancy Foundation 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, Koala Gardens at Tuckurimba 2019, Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation 2019, Toondah 2019)
an airport takeover!! (Avalon Airport, 2017 Koala Clancy Foundation)

Wild Koala Day has also been about public awareness. Since 2016 we’ve generated at least:

2 TV interviews
10 radio interviews
2 radio community service announcements
1 podcast
45 newspaper articles
60 online articles
8 government mentions
and over 1.1 million views on facebook.

Our website wildkoaladay.com.au has had over 30,700 views.