Margie Maccoll
Despite a 76,000 signature petition, countless letters to politicians and years of campaigning to protect a wallum habitat identified as a priority feed area for endangered Glossy Black Cockatoos, BlueCare this week informed Sunrise Beach residents they would begin clearing the site for development on Monday 5 June – World Environment Day.
Clinging to hope of a last-minute reprieve young activist Spencer Hitchen and his mum Maxine, who with Glossy Team Sunrise members have led the community campaign, have called on government ministers to intervene.
“Minister Plibersek and Minister Linard, we are asking you to reassess this development that will impact our protected areas and the irreplaceable species that live in this wallum ecosystem. This is an endangered ecosystem that is critical habitat for the Glossies and many other threatened species.
“The wallum woodland acts as a buffer to the wallum heathland protecting it from run off and pollutants. Threatened species including the vulnerable Eastern Ground Parrot, vulnerable Wallum Sedge Frog and the vulnerable Swamp Yabby live in the wallum heathland at the back of Grasstree Court,“ they said.
BlueCare said it had approval from Noosa Council and State and Commonwealth governments to start construction of a retirement village, comprised of 122 independent living retirement homes on the site at Lot 9, Grasstree Court.
“This forms part of the Sunrise Beach Village by BlueCare precinct, combining aged care (currently under construction on Lot 6 on the opposite side of the road) and retirement living, providing much needed accommodation for the growing local population,“ Uniting Care property project lead Michael Jorgensen told residents.
“Preparations to make the retirement village site suitable for construction will include removal of vegetation not identified for retention in the approved Ecological Management Plan. Salvaged grass trees, habitat logs, live soil and mulch will also be transported to the nearby rehabilitation site.“
Noosa retired barrister Barry Cotterell has slammed Noosa Council staff for “waving through” an offset approval for the BlueCare development without a public vote by councillors, paving the way for its progress.
Mr Cotterell said council staff used their delegated authority in May to approve the offset site, a nearby former dump, as “suitable” despite what he says is significant contrary evidence.
“The offset deal was approved as a “minor change” but without it the development could not proceed,“ he said.
Mr Cotterell said the evidence shows that in five years the seedlings would still only be two metres tall and many years away from being a possible food source for the endangered Glossy Black cockatoos that will be deprived of the trees they currently live off.
“When the bulldozers flatten their habitat on Lot 9 at Sunrise Beach, these birds can’t eat from the promise of a future tree that has not yet been planted” he said.
The so-called ’offset site’ is a degraded former dump which Mr Cotterell said it was agreed needs to be capped to contain unknown contaminants.
He said the evidence provided does not look at the impact of the trees being planted above the capping with their roots possibly breaching the cap, impacting on the nutrients for the birds and also threatening contamination of Burgess Creek down to the ocean.
Mr Cotterell said the Development Approval (DA) has always required BlueCare to “re-establish the habitat” of the Glossy Black Cockatoos it proposed to destroy at the development site (Lot 9) at a suitable offset site.
“To give the tick to this highly questionable old dump site and an offset of seedlings that are many years from being a potential food source makes a mockery of the term ‘offset’.”
He said BlueCare was proposing to remove all of the feed trees from Lot 9 except for four isolated trees which locals say clearly did not constitute “a habitat”.
Noosa Council said a recent minor change to one of the operational works approvals was approved under delegation by council officers to incorporate remediation works to the landfill cap and an updated offset methodology for this area.
Development assessment manager Patrick Murphy said the application was assessed under delegation due to the minor nature of the change noting that approval had already been granted for the vegetation clearing on Lot 9 back in 2019.
“We consider the former landfill site provides a suitable land area within proximity of Lot 9 that offers secured space for long-term environmental compensation of environmental offsets in accordance with the relevant approvals,” he said.
Mr Murphy said Stage 1 of the rehabilitation at the site was showing positive revegetation growth and seed bank recruitment.
“The rehabilitation works within stage 2 utilises a similar methodology which includes the transferring live topsoil and seed bank from Lot 9. The area is then revegetated with supplementary glossy black cockatoo and koala feed trees,” Mr Murphy said.
“The consulting engineer responsible for the design of the cap rectification has taken into consideration councils requirements for revegetation.“
Mr Murphy said the final design requires no less than 1.5m depth of soil, on the area where the cap is to be rectified and trees are to be planted to ensure the longevity and stability of the cap.
Mr Cotterell said BlueCare failed to act on implementing the offset aspect of the 2011 approval until 2021 when they finally started collecting the seeds for germination.
In 2017, staff approved a four-year extension of the Development Approval when BlueCare had, at that stage, failed to act on it for six years.
He says if this extension had been referred to councillors it may have been refused as there was no evidence presented to prove that the development was still justified on the basis of need, and also there was no justification for the long delay in failing to act on the approval which was about to expire.
Mr Cotterell says Council have always had a conflict of interest with this development since 2006/7 when the then Sunshine Coast Regional Council sold the land to BlueCare on condition that BlueCare could obtain all the necessary approvals – from council.
In April 2022, the month after BlueCare cleared Lot 6 to construct a 102-bed residential aged care home, Noosa councillor Brian Stockwell proposed planning scheme amendments that would impact the development, in response to community concerns over the environmental value of the land, the survival of Glossy Black Cockatoos, bushfire threats and a shortage of social housing.
His proposal followed Uniting Care’s submission of a Material Change of Use application for an extension on the construction of the development, years of local protests, as well as a refusal by BlueCare of a land swap offer from council for an alternate development site.
At the time Cr Stockwell proposed council consider zoning map changes, removing the listing of residential care facility on Lot 9 and adding social housing use to the listing of residential care facility on Lot 6.
In his proposal, Cr Stockwell said there had been no formal opportunity for public comment since the initial development application had been approved 10 years earlier and there was growing concern in regard to the threats to the Glossy Black Cockatoo which was listed as vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act (and has since been listed endangered) under the Australian Government Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act because the threatening processes (fire, climate change and habitat loss) have resulted in alarming species decline nationally.
In 2007-2011 when the ecological assessments and approval for the aged care and retirement village was given, the site was not mapped by the state as Essential Habitat for species of conservation significance, but it was now, Cr Stockwell said.
Previous ecological assessment has identified 71 feed trees of the Glossy Black Cockatoo (Allocasuarina littoralis) on Lot 9 with records of up to 40 birds coming to feed, drink and rear their young in the locality and glossies using Lot 6 and Lot 9 for more than 20 years with its significance increasing as other habitat has been cleared for urban development.
Cr Stockwell said Noosa Council’s Environment Strategy had a clear target that “by 2030, populations of key threatened indicator species remain viable,” and specifically commits us to act through the planning scheme to achieve this aim.
Since the 2019-2020 bushfire season there is also heightened community concerns about the bushfire hazards to communities adjoining the Noosa National Park as a result of our changing climate creating conditions that are forecast to lead to more frequent extreme hazards.
“Council’s Bushfire Hazard Mapping rates a large portion of Lot 9 on Grasstree Court as having a high bushfire hazard and it is contiguous with the Girraween section of the Noosa National Park which has a history of human induced wildfires,“ he said.
Council’s Climate Response Plan commits us to taking measures to “be a well informed and prepared community that considers climate change in making day-to-day and business decisions” and clearly identifies the increased risk from bushfires, he said.
“I believe it is important that Council ensures the Planning Scheme adequately reflects the community’s aspirations for the future, their desire for involvement in the development application process and the current ‘planning need’ for social housing in the area,“ he said.
“While there are potential sites within the locality to accommodate new aged care facilities, there is very limited supply of Glossy Black Cockatoo habitat.
“Considering the high conservation value and bushfire hazard ratings on Lot 9 on the south side of the street it is proposed that the current scheduled use be removed. This would mean that future applications for the vast majority of community uses would require Impact Assessment which triggers the advertising for public comment and appeal rights for submitters.“
BlueCare say they have invested heavily in the local environment, gifting 108 hectares to Noosa Council when the site was purchased.
“We are investing more than $1million in a three hectare rehabilitation site at the Girraween Nature Reserve, and propagating and gifting at least 7500 she oaks and other Australian native plants to the local community,“ Mr Jorgensen said.
At the GBC count in September 2021, there were only 164 of the area’s subspecies observed across SEQ and northern NSW, with 25 per cent of those birds occurring at one site in Noosa – Grass Tree Court, Sunrise Beach.
