Documentary paints frightening picture of threat to koala population

The Koalas‘ filmmakers Georgia Wallace-Crabbe and Gregory Miller of Film Projects. Photo: Supplied.

A documentary focusing on the extinction threat to Australia’s iconic koalas is screening at the Gala Warrawong until Wednesday (31 July).

The Koalas was filmed in Lismore, Ballina, Bagotville, Nambucca, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Tuckers Nob, as well as in the Campbelltown area, where the last surviving healthy colony in Sydney is under threat from a $550 million dollar housing development in the Campbelltown/Appin area.

Climate change, fires, floods and extreme weather events are increasingly wreaking havoc on the koalas’ habitat, but human infrastructure is a major threat.

Filmed across a year, The Koalas follows members of Save Sydney’s Koalas, who are fighting to preserve the koala corridor.

It examines the fate of this last healthy koala colony and asks whether the current approach to urban growth is compatible with the fight to preserve the wild koala.

The Koalas takes audiences on a journey into the lives of individual animals, led by charismatic characters Wonnie, Bexley, Tom, Baz, Coral and joeys Hope and Pala.

As their stories unfold, the audience sees the unique characteristics of koalas, their bond with their young and the wildlife carers who look after them.

The Koalas is at the Gala Cinema Warrawong at 2:45 pm daily until Wednesday.