Category: This Area should be a Koala National Park

This Area Should Be a Koala National Park

Can you help or know anybody who can help me? Please save me and all the other koalas. Here are some actions that you may be able to do.

The following is a copy of a letter from Steven Nowakowski

Dear all,

This is a call to action to STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CONNORS RANGE.

  • It’s disheartening to see conservation groups straying from their founding mission and neglecting the critical conservation values of our environment. Many seem unable to recognise the importance of maintaining our natural ecosystems and the vital role they play in climate action.
  • Additionally, we see environmental groups prioritise industrial interests over environmental protection.
  • Here is our latest film of Lotus Creek Destruction, a 48,000ha high altitude climate refugia for vulnerable and endangered wildlife being sacrificed in the name of green energy:

This project has just commenced and will consist of 46 x wind towers and will provide 0.47% of electricity generation for Queensland (based on 30% capacity factor when the wind blows). The images here show clearing for the first 4 wind towers. 

The project is situated on the magnificent Connors Range at 550m elevation directly west of the coastal community of St. Lawrence. The Connors Ranges are high elevation intact refugia forests containing some of the best koala and Greater Glider populations left in Queensland. This will adjoin the nearby Clarke Creek Wind Farm which stretches the full length of the Nebo-Connors Range with an additional 2,000ha being cleared there now.

  • 101 koalas and 138 Greater Gliders were found in project area. The koalas on the Connors Range were recently listed as having the best genetic diversity of koalas in Australia.
  • 957 Cycas terryana to be cleared (Cycad species only described in 2011 and only found at three locations along the Connors and Broadsound Ranges).
  • 48 Sannantha brachypoda to be cleared.

No sediment or erosion controls along ridge lines with boulders pushed over edges. No idea what impact will be on amphibians? Also, no idea what impact low frequency sound will play in masking mating calls of mammals such as koalas and amphibians? Early science is showing koalas being pushed away from low frequency sound.

The offsets are a scam. Two parcels of land either side of the haulage roads are the offsets.

This should be Queensland’s great Koala National Park. Instead, its being turned into an industrial energy production wasteland. 

Now is the time for action. We must call on the Crisafulli Government to halt this project and protect these critical areas. We cannot afford to sacrifice our high-altitude intact refugia forests on the Great Eastern Ranges. The Miles Government bought this project off Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in its dying days in office for a staggering $1.3 billion!

Please share this message widely and urge others to take action.

HANDS OFF OUR REFUGIA FORESTS NOW!

Send an urgent email to the following addresses, demanding a stop to this project:

Moreover, the State Government has indicated that they are currently investigating breaches and non-compliance issues at the Lotus Creek site. This necessitates an urgent stop-work order and a cease-and-desist action. Please write to the relevant department to cease destruction of this vital climate refugia for koalas, greater gliders, birdlife, bats, and countless wild animals and plants. 

For follow-up, here are contact details for the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA):

  • Steven Connor, Senior Planning: 0401 995 573
  • Geoff Broadbent, Senior Officer: 07 4616 7302

Kind regards,

Steven Nowakowski

Vice President Rainforest Reserves Australia

The bulldozers have been running for a while now.

As Australians we said we would protect

Labour promised to upgrade the EBPC Act. Instead they are turning this

into this: (photos by Steven Nowakowski)

A letter has been sent to the Minister listing all the breaches of the approval conditions for the project and of the EBPC Act itself. If you wish to receive information about the plight of the animals on the site and a pdf copy of the long letter sent to the minister, contact me on pameliza.jones@ gmail.com

Animals are being slaughtered! If you care, are you able to assist by direct action? Our Northern Koalas have the genetic diversity that may help them survive the future. Most Southern Koalas don’t. Save Refugia areas! When we lose our special mammals, they are lost forever!