Furphy: “It’s just plantation”.

Fact: Some hardwood plantations resemble native forests and contain valuable habitat.

Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) manages some 34,000 hectares of forests classified as hardwood plantations in north east NSW (FCNSW 2024 pp.8). However, the definition of plantations used by the NSW Government is not in line with definitions used by other states, the Australian Government or intergovernmental organisations. Typically, plantations are understood to be intensively managed with regularly spaced trees (e.g. ABARES 2023; FAO n.d.). But NSW legislation defines plantations as lands on which a majority of trees or shrubs have been planted or sown by seed, with no mention of regular tree spacing or the intensity of management (Plantations and Reafforestation Act 1999 No 97, section 5).

In practice, this means that there are areas of forest classified as plantation that resemble native forests and which have important biodiversity values. This includes regrowth native vegetation as well as small remnants of native forest that were never cleared. There are whole forest areas in the NSW plantation estate that would be understood to be native forests in other states (Cadman 2023).

Moreover, the regulation of plantations has facilitated the clearing of native forest and native vegetation for plantation establishment, known as forest conversion, resulting in the loss or degradation of ecological values (Cadman et al. 2024; Pugh 2022).

There are plantations excluded from the newly declared Great Koala National Park (GKNP) area with quality habitat for the endangered koala which are critical for the integrity and connectivity of the park (e.g. Tuckers Nob and Pine Creek state forests) (Cadman & Clode 2023; Cadman et al. 2023; FoPC n.d.; NPA NSW 2023; Vivian 2024b). Koalas have been detected inside these plantation areas (Paul 2024; Smith & Pile 2024; Vivian 2023, 2024a). Analysis using government data found that on the whole, plantations within the GKNP foot-print did not differ significantly from other forests in terms of suitability for koalas, with areas in some plantations potentially of high conservation value (Rout 2025).

However, to date plantations have been excluded in the government assessment for the GKNP (Jessop et al. 2025 pp.1), with key areas actively being logged or slated for logging (Vivian 2024c).

Further reading

Cadman, T. & Clode, D. (2023). ‘A home among the gum trees: will the Great Koala National Park actually save koalas?’, The Conversation, 4 December. Available at: https://theconversation.com.