A conservation group has created a pop-up museum in the heart of Sydney to reveal what life would be like if koalas went extinct.   

Set in the future, the 'Koala Museum est. 2050', designed by the World Wildlife Fund conservation group, aims to give visitors the experience first hand. 

'Imagine if the only place you could see a koala was in a museum?' the wildlife group asks.  

'Could you be looking at the last wild koala of NSW?'

Koalas could be extinct in New South Wales by 2050, according to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia conservation expert (stock image)

Volunteers (left) stand outside the pop-up museum at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, Sydney, where exhibits include taxidermy koalas (right)

Set in the future, the 'Koala Museum est. 2050', designed by the World Wildlife Fund conservation group, aims to give visitors the experience first hand

The free pop-up exhibition, held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay in Sydney, kicked off on Saturday.

'Visitors will learn about what they can do to prevent this projected extinction from taking place, and will be able to sign a petition calling for action to protect koala habitats and share their action on social media,' the exhibition description reads.

WWF-Australia estimates koala numbers in NSW have plummeted to less than 20,000, with experts predicting the native marsupials could be extinct by 2050. 

Koalas numbered in the millions just 200 years ago.

The organisation attributes the decline in koala numbers to the rampant destruction of koala habitat. 

The exhibition is part of WWF Australia's #savekoalas campaign after a coalition of conservation organisations came together to raise awareness about how new deforestation laws are driving koalas to extinction

The exhibition is part of WWF Australia's #savekoalas campaign and features taxidermy koalas (pictured) and skeletal remains

'In just one small part of NSW, 14 hectares of koala habitat was bulldozed each day in 2017-18,' WWF said.

The exhibition is part of WWF Australia's #savekoalas campaign after a coalition of conservation organisations came together to raise awareness about how new deforestation laws are driving koalas to extinction.

'Koala numbers are plummeting in NSW,' Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders said on Friday.

'Deforestation rates have escalated in NSW and Eastern Australia is now a global deforestation hotspot. We need new laws to turn this around.'

'We want people to understand that koalas face extinction unless we stop destroying their homes, which means ending deforestation and the bulldozing of habitat.'  

The museum features taxidermy koalas and skeletal remains.

WWF Australian forest and woodland conservation policy manager Stuart Blanch told SBS: 'The thought of koalas becoming extinct was almost unimaginable just a few years ago'.

'This Koala Museum demonstrates the sad reality if we don't take action now,' he said.   

'Isn't the koala the Australian animal icon?!' one visitor said. 'How can the government allow them to go extinct?!'