Stockland starts early approvals for Aura South at Halls Creek

A major property developer and Sunshine Coast Council have clashed over where the region’s next thousands of homes should be built. Vote in our poll.

Early works have started to establish the Sunshine Coast’s next master planned community – Aura South – at a contentious land parcel near Caloundra South despite fierce opposition from the council.

Stockland has applied for independent environmental approval from the federal government for its 1230ha of former pine land at Halls Creek.

The mostly cleared land is adjacent to and about half the size of the developer’s Caloundra South community, which will eventually be home to 50,000 people.

However it sparked a fierce response from Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson who said the council and the community did not want Halls Creek developed.

Mr Jamieson wants the land included in the Regional Inter Urban Break which provides a green corridor between the Sunshine Coast and Caboolture.

Stockland senior environment and community development manager Mark Stephens at the site of the former cleared pine plantation which is being proposed for Aura South. Picture: Michael Hatcher.

He said its development would impact the Pumicestone Passage and Moreton Bay Ramsar wetlands.

Stockland senior environment and community development manager Mark Stephens said about 15 years of investigations had informed the company’s application to the federal government.

He said it was the first step in assessing the site’s “environmental merits and suitability” for future development.

But Mr Jamieson said state-government-owned land at Beerwah East was the was more appropriate site, with the capacity to build 20,000 homes.

Stockland has applied to the federal government for environmental approval to develop more than 1200 hectares near its major Caloundra South development.

“I would urge Stockland to be more focused on continuing the development at Aura … rather than looking to land that is not likely to be developed anytime soon,” Mr Jamieson said.

He said Beerwah East was in the town plan, a similar size to Halls Creek, and would benefit from transport links such as the CAMCOS corridor.

“Halls Creek doesn’t have those transport connections and we run the risk of eliminating what council believes is an important part of the Inter Urban Break,” Mr Jamieson said.

“Just because it’s there doesn’t mean it should be developed.”

Mr Stephens said if approved Aura South – about 1.5km north of the Inter-Urban Break – would not impact on the green buffer.

“Stockland’s application proposes to establish a regenerated natural buffer zone on the southern side, which has an ability to increase the Inter-Urban Break,” he said.

Mr Stephens said all options to accommodate the region’s future population growth needed to be considered given it was estimated an additional 70,00 homes were needed by 2041.

Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson wants the region’s next major housing development to be at Beerwah East, not Halls Creek.

“Both Beerwah East and Aura South will be required to accommodate future growth,” he said.

“Projects such as Aura South that are cleared, elevated with minimal environmental constraints, represent a unique opportunity to sustainably accommodate the growing needs of the region.”

Mr Stephens estimated the federal approval process would take between two to three years.

“In Queensland major developments in new growth areas can take many years to obtain approvals, in some cases, beyond a decade,” he said.