Project Koala Gunnedah is calling on election candidates to include the region's koalas in their future plans if elected on Saturday.
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"As candidates prepare for the election on Saturday, we are asking them to keep in mind that koala numbers have declined rapidly in Gunnedah - the town known as the Koala Capital of the World," Project Koala Gunnedah chair Marie Low said.
"We are in significant drought, and our thoughts are with the farmers battling to keep their stock and families fed.
"This climate also has a devastating impact on koalas, who struggle to survive in the heat and cope without available water.
"We will be looking to work with the successful candidate to give our koala population the best chance possible."
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Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate Jeff Bacon said he grew up seeing koalas every day on the Liverpool Plains and the native mammal holds "a special place in my heart".
"We can't let these national treasures become extinct. We need to investigate ways we can sustain these populations," he said.
"We want to see koala populations increasing and one way I think the government can do that is identify places where they naturally breed and concentrate on a regeneration project of the eucalypts they live on and in.
"We have an obligation to those koalas and we should be looking after them."
We will be looking to work with the successful candidate to give our koala population the best chance possible.
- Marie Low, Project Koala Gunnedah
A spokesperson from the office of Nationals' candidate Kevin Anderson said Mr Anderson had a "strong, solid commitment" to sustaining the region's koala population.
Mr Anderson is chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Landcare and in 2018 announced $6.48 million for a koala park in Gunnedah, $106,000 in revegetation grants, and $30,000 for the Blinky Drinker project.
Independent candidate Mark Rodda said habitat was key to koalas' survival and wanted to see a focus from the state government on preserving it.
"I think the state government should buyback Shenhua. The risk to groundwater is too great but also the risk to koala habitat is too great," he said.
"We shouldn't be allowing further encroachment of an industry [mining] that may see the demise of the koala population.
"We're reducing their viable stocks of trees to the point that they will have nowhere to go.
"Do we want to see the extinction of such a wonderful animal or do we want to try and work to live with it in harmony in its habitat?"
Gunnedah WIRES koala carer Martine Moran said as the drought continued, it was a critical time to keep koalas in mind when making decisions - whether it be about tree clearing, wildlife funding or providing care for our native species.
"It's time for politicians to take a stand to help koalas," she said.
"We need strong leaders who are prepared to fight on behalf of our native animals."
The NVI contacted Animal Justice's Emma Hall, Greens' Robin Gunning and Labor's Stephen Mears who did not respond before publication.