Clive Palmer’s Coolum resort: Calls grow to open gates for Yaroomba kangaroo mob’s safety

Calls are mounting for gates to be reopened at Clive Palmer’s sprawling Sunshine Coast resort amid fears the construction site is affecting a local kangaroo mob.

Calls are mounting for the gates to be thrown open at Clive Palmer's Coolum resort to ensure the safety of a local kangaroo mob.

Calls are growing for mining magnate Clive Palmer to reopen the gates of his Sunshine Coast resort property to help a local kangaroo population.

Palmer Coolum Resort at Yaroomba could soon become a ‘roo-sort’, after the gates to the property were closed as a major refurbishment of 116 units was carried out at the resort.

The former PGA host venue had been mothballed for several years until the billionaire businessman brokered a deal late last year for a settlement worth more than $20m with 310 unit owners to deliver Mr Palmer total control of the resort he bought back in 2011.

Nearby resident and writer Erika Arndt said the gates to the underpass allowing access between the resort and the Sekisui House site on the eastern side of David Low Way had been closed when the upgrade works began on Mr Palmer’s property.

She said the kangaroo mob living in the area had previously been able to move freely from the iconic golf course to the undeveloped Sekisui House site without having to negotiate David Low Way traffic.

But since the gates had been closed off and the fences brought back to proper repair she said the mob had struggled to move safely between the sites.

Yaroomba resident Erika Arndt.

Ms Arndt said she’d found several roos dead on David Low Way after being struck by cars as they tried to get across and she feared the mob may struggle to survive if the separation caused mating issues.

A spokesman for Mr Palmer explained the reason for the closure.

“The resort is a building site — gates to the private property have to be closed,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman confirmed more than $100m was being spent on the refurbishment but he wouldn’t reveal what Mr Palmer’s plans were for the resort once the upgrades were finished.

The golf course was understood to still be in mint condition with course renovations undertaken in early-October.

“It would be great to see the animals given back the freedom to come and go safely,” Ms Arndt said.

Roos on Palmer Coolum Resort grounds, looking west from the underpass between the iconic property and the Sekisui House site at Yaroomba.

“I imagine there is probably a need to control access from one side to the other whether for security or safety — but maybe they could consider a boom gate-style to allow these animals the freedom to come and go safely?”

Ms Arndt said the David Low Way continued to get busier in the 5.5 years she’d live in Yaroomba, having owned a home there for more than a decade and she hoped a solution could be met to protect the popular local mob.

University of the Sunshine Coast research fellow and wildlife ecologist Dr Elizabeth Brunton said kangaroos had been in decline from Twin Waters to Coolum in recent decades, reduced to living in small mobs in remaining patches of bush, parks and on golf courses.

Dr Brunton said the genetic diversity of the population could decline over time if the kangaroo mob on the Palmer Coolum Resort site remained fenced in.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“It is important for the safety and longevity of this kangaroo population for the underpass to be reopened as soon as possible,” she said.

She said roo deaths on local roads had increased significantly and several mobs were facing extinction in the area.

Dr Brunton said the current issue at Yaroomba highlighted the “ongoing problem” of urban planning on the Sunshine Coast that didn’t allow for habitat and safe movement for wildlife.

Ms Arndt said she’d been advised Sunshine Coast Council was working with Palmer Coolum Resort on an access solution.

It comes as Mr Palmer docked his recently-bought $40m superyacht ‘Australia’ in the Brisbane River.