Redland’s Koala Coast identity under threat as housing eats into core habitat

Once known as the ‘Koala Coast’, Redland City will be home to an 8000-lot housing estate which conservationists claim will affect the city’s dwindling koala population.

Conservationists protest outside Parliament House about the loss of koala habitat due to poor planning and design. Picture: QCC

A city, once dubbed the “Koala Coast” and still branded with a koala logo, is now to be home to an 8000-lot housing estate on the very habitat that could drive its iconic marsupial to extinction.

Redland City Council, once home to 6000 koalas, will soon be home to a state government Priority Development Area, known as a PDA, that will allow core habitat to be bulldozed to address Queensland’s housing crisis.

About 20 per cent of the 900-hectare site — 185 hectares — is officially mapped as essential koala habitat and is set to be cleared for homes, roads, and infrastructure.

Another 40 per cent is designated for restoration under the South East Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy, which is yet to start planting trees.

The estate, planned for southern Thornlands, will house more than 20,000 people using koala habitat.

Queensland Conservation Council nature campaigner and ecologist Natalie Frost. Picture: Contributed

The Queensland Conservation Council nature campaigner and ecologist Natalie Frost warns the move could push the local koala population, estimated at under 1000, closer to extinction.

“This isn’t a distant issue, it’s happening now,” Ms Frost said.

“We have to decide whether we’ll be remembered as the generation that let koalas vanish or the one that turned things around.

“This should be a sanctuary but instead, we’re clearing it for development that brings more car strikes, more dog attacks, and fragments what little habitat remains.”

Ms Frost said 40 per cent of the PDA was zoned for restoration but remained untouched, and said without urgent intervention, the opportunity to rebuild habitat corridors could be lost forever.

“If this project goes ahead unchecked, we’re not just risking individual animals, we’re risking the future of the entire local koala population,” she said.

“What’s the point of having a koala on the council logo if we’re not willing to protect the animal in real life?”

Redland City Council mayor Jos Mitchell with a map of the southern Thornlands PDA.

Despite previously opposing new greenfield developments, Redland City Council was overruled by the state, even though the council claims the region already has enough zoned land to meet housing targets under its existing City Plan.

The PDA is scattered with confirmed koala sightings and sits within a vital biodiversity corridor.

Under current planning laws, even land mapped as core habitat can be legally cleared through exemptions, which Ms Frost said was dangerous and undermined the state’s entire koala strategy.

“If Redland’s koalas disappear, maybe it’s time the council considered changing its logo,” she said.