Have Your Say: ePetition against Mt Cotton quarry expansion

24 January 2022

The proposal for privately owned Karreman Quarries to expand its existing 88-ha West Mount Cotton Road site in the Redlands has passed Redland City Council and State Government approval and is now being assessed under the Federal EPBC Act. The expansion would result in the absorption into the quarry operations of some ~60 ha of eucalypt habitat that forms an important regional biodiversity corridor between nearby Don and Christine Burnett Conservation Area and Venman Bushland National Park.

Species of conservation significance that have been recorded on the proposed site or immediately adjacent to it are:

• the tusked frog (vulnerable in Queensland)• the koala (vulnerable in Queensland and throughout the Commonwealth)• the grey-headed flying fox (vulnerable throughout the Commonwealth)
• the powerful owl (vulnerable in Queensland)

While greater gliders were not found on-site during the Environmental Impact Statement survey, this region is well-known for harbouring endangered greater gliders. A significant area of bushland that preserves koalas and greater gliders would be incrementally destroyed over 30–50 years under the proposal, placing already marginalised and highly fragmented populations further at risk.

Redland City Bulletin has reported on conservation group opposition, and an ePetition has been established. The petition calls for Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley to reject the proposal under the Act for the following reasons:
  • the environmental aspect of the site, which borders protected areas (and that the proposed offset property at Avalon Road is unlikely to sufficiently replace vital habitat)
  • non-compliance with the State Government Environmental Offset Policy
  • pending State and Federal Government reviews, including the EPBC conservation status of the koala, the National Recovery Plan for the Koala, the Redlands Coast Koala Conservation Plan 2022–2027, and the Redlands Coast Koala Conservation Action Plan 2022–2027. Approving this development would be premature until reviews of these plans are completed.
  • inconsistencies in the submission regarding habitat scoring, marginal habitat quality improvements, and lack of benchmarking.
Wildlife Queensland opposes the quarry expansion and urges conservationists and concerned Queenslanders to sign the ePetition asking the Federal Government to reject the destruction of bushland that is instrumental to the ongoing protection of greater gliders and other at-risk species in the Redlands.
 

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