JODIE DEAN
Environmental concerns have been raised following the reclassification of koala land in Redland Bay to make way for a subdivided housing estate.
The block, located at Muller Street, was downgraded from high-value bushland habitat to medium-value rehabilitation by the Redland City Council after recommendation from the Gondwana Ecology Group.
Redland City is known for its well established koala population.
Koalas have long been local residents in the Redland City Source: pixabay.com
President of the Koala Action Group Debbie Pointing said the downgrading of classification was something occurring more frequently in the local area.
“We’re seeing this type of thing happen more and more,” she said.
Ms Pointing said development applications no longer have strict environmental guidelines.
“We used to see a number of conditions quite specifically for koala initiatives, to make it easy for koalas to move through the area and things like that; we don’t see those coming through on these development applications anymore,” she said.
Councillor Wendy Boglary, who voted against changing the classification along with councillors Craig Ogilvie, Paul Bishop, Lance Hewlett and Murray Elliott, told the Redland City Bulletin that the development will destroy valuable habitat.
“I’m against this because it is just to allow a higher yield for the developer and this is just more decimation of koala valued land,” Cr Boglary said.
Housing developments are destroying koala habitat in the Redland City Source: wikimedia.org
Ms Pointing says that the Koala Action Group is worried about the future for koalas in the Redland City.
“We do have grave concerns about the direction the council are going, it appears that koalas are taking a back seat to developers and profit margins.”
“It [the development] equals a lot of habitat loss, and not just that but all of these houses, all of the fences, create barriers to fauna movements,” she said.
