Photo: Supplied.
FROM THE KOALA ACTION GROUP QLD INC, REDLANDS
Leaf is a female koala who has already lost more than any koala ever should. Last year, she was struck by a vehicle on Sturgeon Street and rushed to the RSPCA for emergency treatment.
Vets discovered she had been carrying a joey at the time of the accident, but despite extensive searches, her young was never found. Leaf lost an eye in the collision and after months of rehabilitation, she was finally released back into the familiar trees near Ormiston – the only home she knows.
Now, that home is under threat.
Ormiston College has submitted a Ministerial Infrastructure Designation (MID) application to the Queensland State Government to expand its campus with an Olympic-sized swimming pool, new classrooms, a new boarding house, an indoor sports stadium, and three new sporting fields.
If approved, the plan would require the removal of 652 identified non-juvenile koala trees, most of them mapped by the State Government as Core Koala Habitat. The final decision will rest with Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.
Koalas are regularly seen on the proposed development site and in nearby gum trees along Sturgeon Street and surrounding parkland less than 100 metres away and Leaf is one of them.
Wildlife advocates say the college land forms part of her home range and movement corridor – the network of trees she and other koalas rely upon to feed, rest, and move safely through her territory. Under the current plan, a large section of that corridor would be destroyed.
“Leaf has already survived being hit by a car, losing her joey, and losing an eye,” said a spokesperson for Koala Action Group. For a koala like Leaf, losing this habitat isn’t just inconvenient – it causes confusion, displacement and added stress that can be a death sentence.”
“Planting small plants won’t help Leaf and other koalas who will lose mature habitat trees with massive canopies” the spokesperson said. “Koalas need mature trees, in this important corridor and habitat area. Tiny saplings won’t feed or shelter them for a decade or more – the koalas are likely to be long gone by then.”
Ormiston College Principal and CEO, Michael Hornby claims that only just over 50 koala food trees will be removed and that hundreds more will be planted. Koala Action Group disputes this, pointing to the development plans which identify 652 non-juvenile koala trees to be cleared. Whilst not all are primary food trees, all play a critical role in shelter, movement, and long term survival for koalas.
Much of the site is also designated High Ecological Value Wetland, providing vital refuge during times of drought and extreme weather – exactly the kind of safe haven animals like Leaf and other wildlife depend on.
“This decision will determine whether Leaf gets to keep the home she’s fought so hard to survive in,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re asking the Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie to prove his government is committed to koala conservation and honour the values of their new Koala Conservation Plan by rejecting this plan.”
