Secluded Carmelite nuns, koalas at risk as Ormiston housing plan stirs outrage
A planned 14-lot subdivision in Brisbane’s bayside has triggered fierce opposition, with residents rallying to protect cloistered Carmelite nuns, local koalas and fragile heritage zones.
QLD News
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A proposal to carve up a serene pocket of Ormiston for a 14-lot housing subdivision has ignited fierce community debate — but not just for the usual environmental or heritage reasons.
At the heart of this storm is one of Ormiston’s most quietly enigmatic institutions: a Carmelite monastery, home to a small group of cloistered nuns who have lived in silent, contemplative seclusion on McCartney Street for more than 70 years.
The monastery, invisible to most and unknown to many, sits in walking distance to the heavily treed block at 17 McCartney St, land now earmarked for residential development, in line with the area’s existing low-density residential zoning.
The developer wants to reconfigure a single 13,160 sqm lot at 17 McCartney Street into 14 smaller residential blocks, along with a new road, drainage reserve, and land dedication to the council.
The site borders Hilliards Creek and lies within walking distance of the historic Ormiston House, one of the most significant heritage-listed homes in the region.
In the 1860s, the house was home to Captain Louis Hope, a Scottish aristocrat and agriculturalist often referred to as the father of the Queensland sugar industry.
But it’s the threat to the monastery’s solitude that has gripped much of the local concern.
The Carmelite monastery, one of only a handful of such institutions in Queensland, is home to nuns who live largely out of public view, rarely speaking, and never leaving the grounds except in cases of emergency.
Their spiritual discipline centres around maintaining a tranquil environment for prayer, meditation, and separation from the outside world a lifestyle now at risk, residents say.
A petition lodged with Redland City Council, led by local Hayden Walker, argues that the development would not only increase noise, traffic and tree loss but shatter the spiritual sanctuary of the nuns next door.
Mr Walker said the site was sacred for the women who have chosen lives of prayer and stillness and to force a modern suburban estate on them was bad planning and unfair.
“Ormiston House and the Carmelite Monastery are more than historical sites; they are part of the community’s cultural fabric,” he said.
“Development of this intensity threatens their peace, setting, and long-term integrity.
“The community is not opposed to growth.
“We support development that is measured, respectful, and sensitive to its context.
“Unfortunately, this proposal falls short. It disregards ecological protections, heritage context, and community expectations.”
In addition to the religious significance, residents have raised environmental alarms.
The land is home to koalas and native species protected under both state and local environmental overlays.
Clearing it for a subdivision would mean the removal of established canopy and fragmentation of habitat in an already pressured corridor that feeds into Moreton Bay’s Ramsar wetlands.
Redland historian Pam Spence said the area was a major koala habitat.
“It’s just disappointing to see more development going on in Ormiston, an area that can support a lot of koalas,” she said.
“The trees will be cut down and their environment will be disappearing.
“The council says they’re doing as much as they possibly can to protect koalas, but habitat destruction is what they need to be protecting.
“Redlands was once the heart of the koala coast so the council needs to make that heart a beating heart for koalas,” she said.
Former Redland councillor Adelia Berridge who lives in the area said a 2015 petition attracted more than 20,000 signatures to save the koala connection corridor in the local area including Wellington St, where the monastery is.
“This creek habitat is one of only very few that provides essential pathways for koala breeding, finding food, and accessing other resources, which is crucial for the survival of many species,” she said.
“The Spangled Drongo bird was once a regular sighting in Ormiston, but now a very rare sighting and this bird also needs protection.”
Council has yet to make a decision on the application, lodged in May by Tenjune Property Group and prepared by JFP Urban Consultants.
Redland City Council officers raised several issues in pre-lodgement meetings, including the environmental sensitivity of the site, which is affected by a series of overlays such as bushfire hazard, coastal erosion, flooding risk, and most notably, core koala habitat.
Council’s environmental assessment team was particularly critical of the proposal to clear vegetation for a stormwater bioretention basin and proposed Lot 14, warning that it would fragment an east-west koala movement corridor.
Officers said the koala corridor was used by the endangered koala species and linked with adjacent old-growth blue gums on neighbouring properties.
“The Ormiston koala population is arguably the most significant urban koala population in the Redlands, and it was the first ‘koala safe neighbourhood’,” council officers noted in meeting records.
Council officers recommended revising the layout to remove Lot 14 and reposition the bioretention basin to avoid interfering with koala habitat.
They also raised concerns that development in the area could compromise the tranquillity of the Carmelite monastery and the adjoining heritage-listed Ormiston House estate.
Although the development application is subject to code assessment and requires no public notification, planning officers cautioned that the proposed road layout could impede future access to neighbouring land and urged further traffic engineering input.
Other technical issues flagged by the council included the need to demonstrate how the subdivision would manage stormwater without adversely affecting the environment.
As part of the proposal, the developer has offered to dedicate a portion of the land near the creekline to the council as open space, aiming to preserve environmental values.”
The development would also involve demolishing an existing house and clearing several eucalyptus and native tree species.
To date, the Carmelite Monastery has not issued a public statement regarding the proposed development.
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Originally published as Secluded Carmelite nuns, koalas at risk as Ormiston housing plan stirs outrage
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