24 July 2020
Wildlife Queensland Sunshine Coast & Hinterland Branch has launched a parliamentary petition to counter Queensland Air Museum’s petition to expand their facility into Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve.
Australia’s largest aviation museum, the Queensland Air Museum (QAM), is seeking to extend its footprint into Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve in Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, a small but important patch of coastal wet heath named in honour of one of Wildlife Queensland Sunshine Coast & Hinterland Branch’s past presidents, Isabel Jordan (1922-2004), a passionate advocate for the environment and the community.
QAM (sponsored by Mark McArdle, Member for Caloundra) is petitioning the Queensland Parliament to allow them to extend into the western, larger part of the Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve along Caloundra Road (see Lot 687 on Property Boundary Map).
The aviation museum wants to raise its profile by direct exposure to the main road, and extend its plane display, education areas and parking (see QAM Master Plan).
QAM does not mention in their petition that their expansion would impact the Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve, land administered for State Government by Sunshine Coast Council as Trustee and stated as important for biodiversity and habitat connectivity values (kangaroos have been sighted in the western area).
The Reserve, one of the last remaining coastal heaths in the region, also allows water to disperse into other wetlands and eventually into Pumicestone Passage and provides visual relief to the built environment and traffic along busy Caloundra Road.
Wildlife Queensland Sunshine Coast & Hinterland Branch has concerns that if QAM takes the western part of the Reserve then they might lobby to use the smaller (and most spectacular for wildflowers) area on the east of Pathfinder Drive. Note that QAM also wants to expand into Lot 304 (Unallocated State land) adjacent to Lot 687, which will also diminish the connectivity values.
Help us to protect Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve: please sign our counter online petition
Please sign and share our online counter petition to Parliament and help us to protect Isabel Jordan Bushland Reserve from development.
This petition:
- is open to Queensland citizens only
- closes on Saturday 5 September 2020 so that it can be presented in the 8, 9 and 10 September Parliamentary sitting (the last before the election).