Mick Wilson, Protection Supervisor Mid North Coast & John Shipp, Aboriginal Partnerships Leader for FCNSW, showing the koala elective students the cultural burn in Cowarra State Forest. Image : FCNSW.

University of Newcastle architecture students have put their skills to work to design components of a new koala conservation project in Cowarra state forest.

The group of over 20 students were tasked with designing an entry and perimeter fence for a new Koala Rehabilitation Education & Tourism Precinct to be built in the state forest.

The project was an intensive two-week elective, culminating in a timber design prototype and virtual reality presentation of their concept for the client, Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW).

The course was led by multi-award-winning architect Professor Ken McBryde of the University of Newcastle, and took participants to Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, on a koala tracking project and to witness an Indigenous cultural burn.

The completed architectural design includes fencing, entry feature walls, Indigenous art and signage into the precinct.

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