“Thermal drone surveys have found 68 koalas on the new property, highlighting its existing importance to the local population and confirming the significant opportunities this land holds,” said Transport Minister Mark Bailey.
Greenridge property at Pimpama will serve as a protected area for Koalas near the M1 as the Queensland government continues its building of the Coomera Connector corridor.
The land is located next to the Pimpama River Conservation Area (PRCA) which is already located near another 400-hectare property at Tabooba.
Together the combined land has created almost 900 hectares of secured space for wildlife and over $500,000 from the Coomera Connector project has been dedicated to research anc care for Koala’s in the area.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said that all Koala’s near ongoing M1 works will be relocated to the properties.
“Most of that land at Tabooba will be used to offset the environmental impacts of the 16-kilometre stage one of the Coomera Connector (Coomera-Nerang),” she said.
Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said that the new M1 is “desperately needed”.
“While there are unavoidable impacts… [the] Federal environmental approvals are expected to set conditions on the Pimpama property that will see it protected for at least the next 20 years. We expect the koala habitat to significantly grow in that time.”
The announcement comes just after it was revealed by the Queensland government that $2.7 million worth of funding for a proposed state of the art Koala research facility at Dream World was diverted to creating a new ride at the theme park.
Tourism and Innovation Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said that the research facility would also operate as a big tourist attraction but the pandemic hit and the overseas tourists stopped.
“In view of the Future Lab project being placed on hold, the Queensland government approved that the funding previously approved for the research facility be repurposed to support the construction of the new ride, taking into consideration the immediate impacts of the pandemic and the appeal of new tourism offers likely to attract returning domestic visitors and international tourists when borders reopened,” he said.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said that the issue “falls entirely in the Department of Tourism and Industry development” adding “it would be entirely inappropriate to transfer money from the Department of Environment and Science to a theme park”.
