Koala Woman Says

This electorate stretches from the southern suburbs of Brisbane to the NSW border and includes Beaudesert, Boonah, and Gatton so it provides a transport gateway for most of the freight coming from interstate. The area is slated for major infrastructure development: “Nation Building” the politicians call it, but officially it’s called the Bromelton State Development Area, 15,000 hectares of it. A huge development corridor stretching from Greenbank (where there are lots of Koalas) to south of Beaudesert which will cut off any east-west movement of Koalas in the electorate. Not that there are that many in the west, but are some and this development will seal the fate of these Koalas: there will be no recruitment and no dispersal, Koalas in the east will be genetically isolated.

There are Koalas at Yarrabilba: another development priority for 20,000 people. Most of the Yarrabilba “Priority Development Area” was formerly pine forest. Why can’t all development be in places like this, where Koalas might have once been, but haven’t been for 30 years? And then of course there are all the busy roads through Koala habitat to get there…

Will he Act or Axe?