GOVERNMENT FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR KOALA HABITAT PURCHASE

The State Government will make available up to $750,000 for joint purchase with Logan City Council of 127 hectares of bushland at Cornubia south of Brisbane.

In a joint announcement, Environment Minister Brian Littleproud and Member for Redlands John Hegarty said the State Government would meet half the expected $1.5 million cost of the acquisition with the council. This followed strong representations from Mr Hegarty and a submission from Logan City Council.

The private freehold land, Portion 238, is koala habitat and provides a link between Venman Bushland National Park and a lowland area around California Creek as well as nearby Daisy Hill State Forest.

Mr Hegarty said the land was of significant conservation value locally and had been under threat from a subdivision application.

Recently, Mr Littleproud opened a $365,000 Koala Research Centre at the Daisy Hill Koala Centre. It will be the base for the State Government's $1.1 million koala research program.

The research centre is part of a $1.657 million Koala Coast Protection Plan which also includes funding for koala relocation, the Koala Hospital at Moggill, a Koala Ambulance, operation of the Daisy Hill centre, a speed zone trial, a geographic information system, other capital improvements, and Koala Coast State Planning Policy (SPP) implementation.

The SPP was gazetted in October last year and replaced a controversial and unworkable policy introduced by the previous Labor Government. The Coalition Government's SPP protects koala habitat areas to allow for long-term survival of the koala population without affecting existing uses and development rights. The Koala Coast takes in Redland Shire and parts of neighbouring Brisbane and Logan cities.

The Coalition Government is also involved in a $2.4 million purchase with Redland Shire Council of 200 hectares of the Bayview Estate for koala conservation purposes.

Local Government and Planning Minister Di McCauley announced earlier this year that four blocks of Crown land in the region with a development value of nearly $14 million would be retained for conservation.