Koalas caught in crossfire of Ormiston College major expansion for playing fields, Olympic pool
Ormiston College’s ambitious expansion has sparked community fears over the loss of koalas and 650 trees with the school insisting its plans will protect wildlife long-term.
Education
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A prestigious bayside college has come under fire over plans to bulldoze hundreds of mature koala habitat trees to make way for a major campus expansion — sparking a fierce debate between conservationists and the school’s leadership.
Ormiston College has lodged an application for a Ministerial Infrastructure Designation, a state-level planning fast track that bypasses Redland City Council, to deliver new facilities including a 50m Olympic pool, boarding house, indoor sports complex and new junior sporting fields.
If approved, the long-term project would result in more than 650 trees cleared, much of it in mapped “core koala habitat” within a designated Koala Priority Area.
Critics, including the local Koala Action Group, claim it’s an environmental backflip from the school, which was previously honoured for sustainability leadership.
But Principal Michael Hornby insists the project will strengthen the ecological value of the site not destroy it and the works would be carried out with environmental sensitivity, in line with a koala management plan to protect all wildlife.
“There will be no net loss of koala habitat with new preferred koala food tree species planted in the rehabilitation area guided by specialist advice from the project ecologist,” Mr Hornby said.
“We are working with experts in ecology to ensure there is minimal environmental impact and a better long-term solution, which will actually strengthen and improve the value of this corridor.
“We will be reinstating an equivalent footprint through habitat restoration, which includes nine times more preferred koala food trees than originally present.”
The college also defended its plan to build a new 50m pool less than 2km from Redland City Council’s outdated Olympic facility to boost the college’s high-performance sports program, which included freestyle relay world champion and Olympic silver medallist Shayna Jack.
Jack graduated from Ormiston in 2016 and has regularly credited the school for supporting her development.
Still, the proposal has triggered a wave of community questions.
Koala Action Group spokesperson Debbie Pointing said the college should reduce the scale of the expansion plans to one junior sports field instead of three.
The group argues that 31 per cent of on-site koala habitat would be removed under the proposal, much of it for a new oval, and that replanting cannot replace decades-old trees in a core habitat zone.
It’s not the first time the expansion has faced scrutiny.
In 2023, Redland City Council rejected a similar proposal due to its impact on protected koala corridors.
The MID process allows state Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie to override that decision.
It also removes council oversight and although the public can comment on the project until August 11, the process does not allow for third-party appeals once a decision is made, unlike a typical development application through council.
Conservationists say that means locals may have a voice but not the power to stop bulldozers if the project is approved.
The issue has also reignited public concern over declining koala numbers in Redland after the recent road death of beloved local koala Jacki, struck and killed on Collingwood Rd near Birkdale, just kilometres from the Ormiston site.
“This isn’t just about one school,” Ms Pointing said.
“It’s about whether koala laws mean anything when big institutions want to build.”
■ Submissions on the Ormiston College MID can be made until August 11 via the Ministerial Designation website.
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