Extinction Rebellion (XR) organised a protest for koalas at the offices of Lendlease in Barangaroo on March 17.
The Black Throated Finches, XR Sydney’s choir group, sang songs and played drum beats in the Lendlease office foyer.
An XR member dressed in corporate clothing and a Lendlease mask mimed cutting down trees with a plastic chainsaw.
The action was organised to stop Lendlease from continuing with the development of a new housing estate in Mt Gilead, in the Macarthur region.
The development threatens one of the healthiest koala populations in the country.
The Figtree Hill estate was approved by Campbelltown City Council in December and will contain 1700 houses. However, the plan for the development does not include the required 390-425 metre corridors to allow koalas to travel through the area.
The decision to approve the estate came after a NSW parliamentary inquiry, released in June, found that koalas are on track to extinction by 2050 at the current rate of habitat destruction.
XR and other environmental groups have slammed the NSW government’s koala habitat policy that removes koala protections from crucial zones in rural areas.
The policy was announced to appease Nationals leader John Barilaro, who last year threatened to bring down the government if his demands were not met.
The XR action is part of the build up to a Save Our Koalas Day of Action on March 21st. The day of action has been organised by a coalition of climate action groups including XR, the Knitting Nannas, and NSW Greens spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.
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