Group upset over lack of wildlife crossing for pipeline
By Kirra Livingstone
THE extent of vegetation removal required for a new pipeline from Ewen Maddock Dam to Aura has caught critics by surprise and renewed calls for authorities to build a wildlife crossing corridor over the increasingly busy Steve Irwin Way.
Members of the Save Protect Connect (SPC) Community Group (formerly Save Ferny Forest) said they were shocked to see the amount of logging undertaken for the 12km Unitywater pipeline.
The pipeline was announced in 2022 with calls for a wildlife corridor dismissed by council and Unitywater. Meetings with stakeholders to consider alternate routes were also unsuccessful.
“Unitywater advised us that the planning of the pipeline was already well advanced. Stockland advised us they had no obligations or responsibility for the habitat loss, and DTMR advised us they had no funding for wildlife crossing infrastructure,” an SPC Community Group spokesperson said.
The group suggested the wildlife crossing infrastructure could have been funded by compensation offsets paid by Unitywater to the Sunshine Coast Council.
However, council advised offsets couldn’t be used for that purpose.
The group is now focused on collecting scrap wood to build nest boxes.
“Unitywater and McConnell Dowell, in collaboration with Sunshine Coast Regional Council’s Natural Areas Officer, promised SPC Community Group to salvage some hardwood saw logs to make nest boxes and use some of the coarse woody debris to create terrestrial habitat stacks at the existing Mellum Creek Environmental Reserve and Racecourse Road Environmental Reserve,” SPC said.
The spokesperson said they would still like a wildlife bridge built, especially now the Fauna Sensitive Transport Infrastructure Delivery Manual has been released by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR).
“The SPC Community Group is currently waiting for further information from TMR on how the Fauna Sensitive Transport Infrastructure Delivery Manual will be incorporated in the planned upgrades of (parts of) Steve Irwin Way in relation to the Beerwah East Major Housing Development Area,” they said.
“This important corridor is intersected by the busy Steve Irwin Way, which has minimal wildlife crossing infrastructure in place to mitigate the impact this road has on landscape connectivity.”
The SPC Community Group spokesperson said the nation’s nature protection laws were weak and broken, and are not protecting the region’s unique flora and fauna.
“As long as this is the case, large groups of local people will need to fight, again and again, to stop the ongoing development and destruction of our big, beautiful backyard.”
Unitywater strategic engagement executive manager, Joshua Zugajev, said significant stakeholder engagement helped them select a pipeline route and construction methodology.
“We sought to minimise the impacts of constructing this new essential infrastructure on the natural environment and local communities,” he said.
“Reinstatement work will include weed management to prevent invasive species, returning verges, tracks and swales to pre-existing conditions and covering disturbed surfaces with turf, seed or mulch.”
