TAFE Yallah student Mason Cox, Emma Crittenden from Featherdale’s mammal department, Symbio conservation manager Jarrad Prangell and TAFE NSW Yallah Horticulture Teacher David Brookfield at the first harvest of Yallah’s koala food plantation. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
A tiny forest at Yallah will feed koalas from Helensburgh to Sydney.
Students and staff at TAFE NSW Yallah have planted 450 eucalyptus trees to provide a reliable food source for koalas cared for at Symbio and Featherdale wildlife parks.
Planted in October 2025 the trees have already provided their first harvest for hungry marsupials.
Koalas are picky eaters, and every single koala eats about 500 g of leaves each day – so keeping captive populations fed is no easy feat.
Carers often have to take long bushwalks with extendable polesaws just to get enough leaves to fill hungry bellies.
Jarrad Prangell, conservation manager at Symbio said plantations like the one at Yallah TAFE made an enormous difference to their ability to support the koalas in their care.
“Our population of koalas is ever-growing, with the hope we can future-proof koala populations for the future forever,” he said.
“Koalas are pretty fussy – of 750 eucalypt species in Australia they will only eat about 20, and their real favourites are what is being grown here, about five or six species.
“Like us, they all have different favourites. They like the sweeter, softer tips.
“Our population at Symbio is forever growing, so to have a source of food we don’t have to stress about each week is huge.”
The trees mark the first stage of a dedicated koala food forest supporting wildlife care and conservation.
Students from across different study areas have supported the plantation.
Certificate III in Construction Landscaping students constructed protective fencing around the young trees, horticulture students have grown the saplings from root stock to first harvest and animal studies students have seen firsthand how koala feed is grown, harvested, and supplied.
TAFE NSW Yallah Horticulture Teacher David Brookfield said the initiative was an important contribution to koala welfare.
“We’ve been planning this for a long time, since prior to COVID,” he said.
“This area close to the creek on the alluvial loam soils we have here … we’ve had a phenomenal growth rate and phenomenal harvest.
“We prune them low-down, close to the ground to encourage lots of shoots low to the ground and another good harvest for the koalas.
“We are grateful for the support of the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program for providing materials, and for Stroud Homes’ donation of the eucalyptus tube stock, which makes this project possible.”
Parks and gardens student Mason Cox said the project was a rewarding way to develop their skills.
“We’ve done a lot of mulching and maintenance to get the trees to where they are now and make them as lovely as possible for the koalas,” he said.
“It’s a really different way of approaching growing them; we get to see a lot of things at TAFE you wouldn’t see in the average workplace so it’s a really good way to learn.”
