26-07-2025
Calls for action as road safety project remains incomplete after five years
After Australia approved new housing developments in the middle of one of the nation's most important koala habitats, the amount of traffic began to increase. In 2020, the NSW government was told new road crossings were needed to protect them along Appin Road in Sydney's southwest, but five years on, none have been completed.
Since then, koalas have been listed as endangered, and their remaining habitat has been fragmented by development and bushfire. A NSW Parliamentary inquiry has warned the iconic marsupials are on track to be extinct across the state in just 25 years, with habitat destruction a key driver of their demise.
But while construction of the underpasses has been slow, there's one area where there has been rapid progress, and that's the construction of houses around the Campbelltown area, and as a result, there are more cars, and koalas are dying at an alarming rate. Research by ecologists at Biolink indicates:
Since 2019, vehicle strikes have impacted up to 62 per cent of Campbelltown's koala population.
Vehicle strikes of koalas across southwest Sydney rose by 56 per cent from 2023 to 2024.
This year, over 20 koalas have already been killed in southwest Sydney.
Why haven't developers completed any underpasses?
The koalas in southwest Sydney are considered the most important in NSW, because they are the only population free of chlamydia, an infectious disease that causes sterility and death.
One of the biggest projects on Appin Road, also referred to as the "killing corridor", is the controversial 1,700-home Fig Tree Hill development. It was originally conceived by developer Lendlease, and its impact on koalas attracted fierce criticism and resulted in Australian Ethical Super divesting from the company.
Lendlease promised to build two underpasses along the road at the former homesteads of Beulah and Glen Lorne as part of a voluntary planning agreement. It forecast the latter would be complete by mid-2025.
Since then, the project has been sold to developer Stockland, but its records indicate it has only managed to construct 50 per cent of the Glen Lorne underpass.
'Stockland is committed to delivering on the vision for the Figtree Hill community and good progress continues to be made on the Glen Lorne underpass,' a Stockland spokesperson told Yahoo News.
It appears progress on the underpass is being held up due to negotiations with LendLease, which still owns the land on the other side of the road, as Stockland needs to get access to this property to complete the project.
A Lendlease spokesperson confirmed, 'Discussions are underway to facilitate access to the Glen Lorne underpass.'
A third underpass at Ousedale Creek is currently being planned, according to Transport for NSW, but construction has not begun.
Report finds koalas are being failed
The Sydney Basin Koala Network, which was founded by the Total Environment Centre, and received three years of funding from WIRES, has issued its 2025 progress report. It warns the situation for koalas is 'increasingly dire' in Campbelltown, and calls on the Minns Labor Government to acknowledge its efforts to protect them are 'failing'.
Sydney Basin Koala Network spokesperson Stephanie Carrick told Yahoo News koala protections are moving slowly, but development is being fast-tracked. 'It should be the opposite. Koala protections need to come first if they're serious about protecting koalas,' she said.
Most of the farmland on the west side of Appin Road is slated for housing developments, and this will fragment a corridor that koalas have used for thousands of years to travel between the Nepean and Georges Rivers.
Although the underpasses have not been completed, bushland along the edge of Appin Road has been bulldozed, and fencing has been erected to stop koalas crossing. But because of their need to continue to cross between the rivers, the Sydney Basin Koala Network has found they're travelling into new areas they haven't been seen in years, and are being killed there instead.
Responding to questions from Yahoo News about the issue, Transport for NSW said its fencing is reducing the risk of koala strikes.
'Some of the current fencing along Appin Road is temporary while the developer undertakes this significant upgrade along Appin Road,' it said.
'A permanent fence connecting from Noorumba Reserve through to Ousedale Creek will create a continuous safety barrier. The temporary fencing reduces overall risk of koala strikes while works are underway.'
Signage has been installed along Appin Road to warn motorists about koalas, but the government's own research has raised doubts about its effectiveness.
What happens when a koala is struck by a vehicle?
Carrick said most koalas are killed instantly when they're struck by vehicles. But often no one stops to check if they've survived, and evidence has been collected showing animals have been hit multiple times.
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'When you think about a small koala being hit on an 80km/h road, you're not going to have much of the animal left. We're seeing horrific injuries where they're squashed or torn apart,' she said.
'It is terrible that nothing has happened to protect them.'
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