Wildlife extinction on the Redlands Coast

Lynn is correct in stating Redlands was at one time known as the ‘Koala Coast’. My deepest regret is not having met the late Terry Mackenroth personally. Its said there is no fool like an old fool which describes me perfectly. I had a petition with over 300 signatures in an effort to save a protected wetland site in Capalaba, which was under special protection in the Koala Coast policy. Deals were done by then head town planner, Birkdale Cr Beard, Cr Burns, Wello Pt lawyer, with commercial developer Peter Endacott, who destroyed the riparian zone on Coolnwynpin Creek 29-37 Moreton Bay Rd where today area is inaccessible to locals due to towering concrete walls creating a haven for social misfits. Only with the demise of the late Terry Mackenroth did I learn my brother knew the man personally due to his involvement with Little League Club in Carina, described to me as a man who was respected by both sides. I had made appt with Env Min Rod Welford and saw his advisor handing him the photos of the wetland site. I didn’t think about what was behind it, but received a request to pick up a female from an office to accompany me to Mr Welford’s office. Recall waiting a while, then walked together to the minister’s office but the girl disappeared. While waiting by the desk, Mr Welford walked out of his office, and we spoke. He asked ‘where are you from?’ said Capalaba…with that, he turned and walked to the elevator.!?
Entering office of the advisor, young woman sat in chair front of desk and took over. She then asked me to wait outside, meeting was going well, and we would hear from Mr Mackenroth re saving the wetland site. No we didn’t and on following up, got a call from Redland Council telling me I was never to contact the young lady who accompanied me ever again. I then made appt with Ombudsman but 2 pairs of ears listened in, as I needed to know date and who were present when zoning was changed from ‘special protection’ to ‘commercial’. As I said, there is no fool like an old fool. Had I known my brother knew Terry Mackenroth personally, knowing the kind of man he was, feel we may have been successful in saving this once precious oasis, a koala haven, for the people.

THANKS Lindsay Hacket It would be interesting to cross reference the VMA maps March 2018 which have some of the Essential Habitat metadata missing with(the new target for developers RBVs) ,in the SEQ Regional Plan 2017- The Regional Biodiversity Values and Corridors etc on Map 5b . and Naturesearch Fauna obs . in order to plant back corridors

Healthy Land and Water have a recent methodology for mapping koala habitat using ;a wider number of R.E.s with Koala tree species , High Value Regrowth and 5 Koala observation sets. This does involve a small amount of modelling. The high Value regrowth in some LGAs supports half the koala observations.
A serious amount of threatened species data sits inside DES particularly on koalas and some waders in RCC . They should be declared Endangered.
The Ministers Koala Panel Report fails to come up with sufficient answers on ;Tree clearing ,70,000 ha of koala habitat unprotected in the Urban Footprint, Green Fauna Infrastructure (Xings and buyback by DTMR &LGAs) Sanctuaries and buyback and corridors. Invertebrates are threatened too.

There are various proformas for Submissions. See the EDO website. The topic is critical and encyclopedic . There was a previous Senate Inquiry into Threatened Species circa 2012 but it had a poor response from LNP State Government and the Recommendations went the same way as the Hawke Report 2008 int0 the EPBC Act.
The EPBC Act does not seem to have saved a koala, although millions of dollars in offsets 8 years away comes too late for koalas and kangaroos at Flagstone PDA.
The EPBC Act produces EISs that do away with scrutiny which should be enforced under a State EIS but submitted by Federal Govt, State Govts , Local Govts, Quangos and Developers. Traffic Studies and Environmental Studies were hidden by DTMR in the Transurban Logan Enterprise Precinct(LEP) federal EIS . There is a parallel here at Toondah for other documents .
The threatened species are now subject to SEAP and the Common Assessment Method (CAM) for trying to “normalise” classifications across 3 levels of Government . Trying to get species up to Threatened or Endangered classification is now a formidable ,time consuming and costly battle .
A Koala report by Dr David Paull for the Endangered Port Stephens Koalas has been dumped by NSW State Government . This is being challenged by Australians For Animals , but it is dangerous precedent for many species and the SEQ Koalas which should be classified as Endangered, now facing multiple Threatening Processes.