Koala Smart

Koala Smart is a Lions project aimed to inspire, motivate and educate primary and secondary school children, along with the local community, to actively participate and embrace change to slow the decline in koala populations within the local region.

Koala Smart is an educational and creative arts program for schools in the Port Macquarie Hastings and Kempsey Shire Council areas that fall within or near the local Area of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS). These are specific areas where Koalas are known to exist and where growth in a healthy koala population has been possible because of a valuable genetic diversity.

Significant research and data collected in these ARKS deliver some disturbing predictions. Most notably, if current urban growth practices continue, koalas will become extinct in the next 35 years. It is believed that a significant step in preventing this catastrophe is education – at all levels of the community.

Koala Smart is offered to both Secondary and Primary schools, in both government and non-government schools. The program is split into educational and creative components.

Over the course of the school calendar year, students will be asked to prepare a visual or written response to the question “What would you do to save the koala?”  The school entries will be evaluated and a winning entry from both Primary and Secondary schools will each receive a full-size Hello Koalas sculpture painted in their school colours.

In 2019, participating schools will receive a half-metre Hello Koalas-style sculpture that students will design a theme for and paint. All sculptures will then be put on public display along with their ideas for saving the koala, showcasing the many creative ideas of local students. In October, the public will be invited to vote on their favourites at the public displays – the People’s Choice.