The purpose of this layer is to measure koala habitat suitability at any location across NSW.

The statewide Koala Habitat Information Base (KHIB) has been developed as part of the NSW Koala Strategy. It delivers the best available state-wide spatial data on koala habitat, likelihood, koala preferred trees and koala sightings for NSW.

It will be an important resource to assist government agencies, local councils and private land holders with koala conservation decisions.

The Koala Habitat Suitability Models v1.0 (KHSM) are built off a predictive (MaxEnt) model, iteratively developed following a series of expert reviews. The KHSM is delivered as a set of six regional models that show how koala habitat quality varies at a regional scale, and one model that predicts the most westerly extent that koalas have the potential to occupy. Each of the models provide an indication of where animals have the potential to reside rather than where they do reside, i.e. the term “habitat” refers to areas that koalas have the potential to occupy but may not actually live.

Each region's model is available for download below as a zipped 5m tif image readable in any spatial software package. An ArcGIS mxd is also supplied for suggested symbology.

All Koala Habitat Information Base datasets are available for download at the links below under 'Dataset relationship'.

For further information on the data layers and their development, please see the Koala Habitat Information Base Technical Guide.