Redland council $200m sports project under federal review as $61m contract awarded

A Redland sports complex project is being vetted by the federal government after a $61 million contract was signed and confidential documents about the site’s selection leaked. READ THE SECRET FILES

The property at Heinemann Rd, Mount Cotton, where the Redland council plans to spend $70 million to build a sports complex. Picture: JUDITH KERR

Plans for a controversial Redland sports complex on known koala habitat have been referred to the federal environment department.

Redland City Council said it sent the plans for stage one of the Redlands Coast Regional Sport and Recreation Precinct at Mount Cotton to the federal government for vetting before it had signed a $61million contract for the project with Gold Coast company Alder Constructions.

The $61,274,400 contract for stage one was signed on December 16 with news of the federal referral made public on the council’s website on January 30.

The public has until Tuesday, February 14 (tomorrow) to lodge submissions about the plans with the federal government.

Redland council awarded a contract for $61 million to Gold Coast company Alder Constructions with the plans now under federal government review.

In a statement, the council said: “Council’s role is to strategically plan for the needs of the Redlands Coast community, including suitable sport and recreation land to encourage an active and healthy community now and into the future. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) referral was made to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water prior to awarding the contract.”

The referral followed community pressure and two consultant reports.

The council received two impact reports from environmental consulting companies Cardno and Aurecon as far back as 2019, suggesting the plans to use the Heinemann Rd site be referred to the federal government for vetting.

The front of the Heinemann Rd site where Redland council plans to build the sports complex. Picture: Judith Kerr

A top-level document, which was kept confidential, showed the council dismissed 18 other sites with all except one listed as being of environmental significance.

All of the proposed sites, bar one, already have houses and dwellings on them or chicken farms.

Five were tagged with recommendations as “potential for further investigation” and sites at 1-21-105 Longland Rd, Redland Bay and 293 & 297-331 Rocky Passage Rd, Redland Bay, had no State Koala Habitat Values listed.

However, the Longland Rd site, which fronts the Logan River, has been earmarked for a sewerage treatment plant.

The document did not include data about the chosen site at Heinemann Rd.

The council also paid $7.3 million, including GST, for 159ha of land on Heinemann Rd at Mount Cotton in 2017, despite two independent valuations for less.

The confidential Redland council document, which detailed the 18 sites, was posted on the home page of the EPBC portal but was later removed.

Plans for the Heinemann Rd site include football fields and bike tracks. IMAGE: Contributed

Alder Constructions was approached for comment on the contract, the largest awarded in the city’s history for a sports complex.

A conservation group said the chosen site was inappropriate and the confidential council document showed others, which had been considered, were more suitable for the sports complex.

Koala Action Group president Debbie Pointing the unsuitability of the site now meant the plans had to be referred to the federal government.

Koala Action Group president Debbie Pointing claims the Heinemann Rd site is inappropriate and that there are better and cheaper options.

“An area in the report, at Taylor Rd, adjacent to Sheldon College, would have been a much more sensible choice as its locality is more central and the site is mostly flat and drains,” Ms Pointing said.

“Our group has long deemed the Heinemann Rd site unsuitable due to the significant amount of cut and fill required to level it for sporting fields and the 550 koala habitat trees that will have to be bulldozed in the process.

“Many of the trees earmarked for removal are centuries old and contain hollows and a wedgetail eagle family, whose nest is in the middle of the impact zone.”

Part of the documents uploaded to the EPBC site.

Ms Pointing, who has worked as a conservationist and koala protector in Redland for more than 20 years, said her group believed the project should be deemed a “controlled action” by the federal government.

She said the plans should be assessed using updated environmental laws that came into effect in February last year when Queensland’s koalas were listed as endangered.

The purpose of the referral process is to determine whether or not the project will need formal assessment and approval under the EPBC Act.

The project has attracted public attention after the council declared the new complex would house a number of well-established sporting groups which would move from the popular Pinklands complex at Thornlands.

It also garnered attention when it was a major winner in this financial year’s budget, taking a $15 million chunk out of council’s coffers.

When completed, the council envisages the complex will include 13 touch football fields, three rugby league ovals as well as two clubhouses, a state-level BMX track and multi-use trails.

Plans came under scrutiny last year after internal council estimates found developing the flood-prone parts of the site could jack up costs to as much as $200 million.

In its EPBC submission, the council said the site was expected to be a training venue for the 2032 Olympics.

The community has until Tuesday, February 14, to submit comments about the referral and whether it should be a controlled action under the EPBC Act.

■ The EPBC number is 2022/09420 and comments from the public can be made up until February 14 on the EPBC public portal: epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au