Second M1 and koalas head-on in fight for corridor in Gold Coast’s fast growing north

THE biggest remaining koala population in the Gold Coast’s north is facing a head-on collision with the new proposed second Pacific Motorway.

THE largest remaining koala population in the city’s north is facing a head-on collision with a proposed second Pacific motorway.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington recently stood by her party’s election promise to build a duplicate $500 million six-lane highway from Staplyton to Nerang.

The Palaszczuk Government has not committed to building the road in the near term, but has gazetted the necessary land along the Intra-Regional Transport Corridor (IRTC).

The city council, in its future regional transport plan, also sees the alternative motorway as the key to solving the city’s gridlock.

Traffic on the M1 in the city’s north. Picture: Jerad Williams

But mapping obtained by the Gold Coast Bulletin shows the IRTC will pass through the major koala population east of the M1 in the city’s north.

Worse, it appears koalas moving out due to development like the Coomera Town Centre are settling in the protected corridor for the planned road.

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Koalas at Dreamworld’s breeding program. Photo by Richard Gosling

Recommendations from the East Coomera Koala Population Study call on the council to liaise with the Department of Transport and Main Roads to request “fauna connectivity structures be factored into the engineering designs” of the IRTC.

The report said the council should seek further advice on the sorts of structures that would prove most effective for the koalas.

At least two large sections of the planned alternative motorway west of Kerkin Road would need the structures and another west of Yawalpah Road in the north, the mapping shows.

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Traffic on the M1 in the city’s north. Picture: Jerad Williams

The crossings cover just less than one kilometre in length but it is not known whether the highway would be elevated or tunnels placed under it through those sections.

The report by consultant Biolink urged the council to meet with land owners to discuss installing one-way koala exclusion fencing in key strategic locations to prevent “dispersing aged koalas” from entering residential areas.

Planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell said the IRTC was a critical piece of transport infrastructure and the council was helping the Government deliver it “knowing it will impact on koala habitat.”

“It is important that the IRTC design is sensitive to the connectivity and safety of the existing and future population,” he said.

Planning chair Cameron Caldwell at council. Photo: David Clark

Koala searches conducted last year show the population remains much the same as that found in a 2007 survey, despite a third of its land being lost due to residential development in the city’s fast growing north.

The Biolink report concluded the development of the Coomera Town Centre would ultimately remove the majority of the koala habitat within the urban footprint at East Coomera.

A cute koala on the Gold Coast. Photo: Kristy Muir

The Coomera Conservation Group, which has welcomed the council’s decision to back the study, confirmed it had approached the State Government about the planning of the IRTC.

Coomera Conservation Group spokeswoman Nicole Taylor said the group spoke to Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey about koalas moving away from developments next to the IRTC and settling in the corridor.

The Commonwealth Games official mascot is a koala called Borobi.

“They didn’t have any other locations. If it goes ahead they will have to do their absolute best so they don’t end up on the road,” Ms Taylor said.

“There have been koalas from east Coomera, as far east to Coomera Waters, that can and will travel to the M1. They move that far.”

Biolink rates the koala population as the largest in the city east of the M1 and warns that the window for action to protect it is closing fast.

The Goss government before the 1995 announced a plan for a toll road between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, only to face defeat a year later after debate about the so-called “koala road’’ running through the State’s largest koala colony at Redlands.

An adorable koala. Photo: Kristy Muir