The property developer Walker Group says its proposed Toondah Harbour improvement is unlikely to have a big influence on the dimensions of jap curlew populations as a result of a considerable decline within the variety of birds migrating to Australia.
The evaluation is contained in a long-awaited draft environmental influence assertion (EIS) for the condo and retail venture, which might see as much as 3,600 dwellings constructed on the Ramsar-listed Moreton Bay wetlands in Queensland.
The corporate stated on Wednesday its EIS was primarily based on the “indeniable proof of 11 unbiased scientists” and the event can be a “main financial and life-style enhance” that additionally protected the atmosphere.
“Crucially, scaremongering about destructive environmental impacts to hen life, marine ecology and koalas has been confirmed incorrect by the very best, unbiased science,” Toondah Harbour spokesperson Dolan Hayes stated.
Kelly O’Shanassy, the chief government of the Australian Conservation Basis, stated the EIS was “fantasy”.
“The concept the birds will merely discover someplace else to go doesn’t cross the sniff check. This isn’t how nature works,” she stated.
“BirdLife Australia says the worldwide inhabitants of jap curlews has declined by 80% up to now 30 years, largely as a result of related industrial initiatives have been constructed throughout their vary.”
Birdlife Australia, which has steadfastly opposed the event, stated it was “completely stunning” that considerations raised by scientists had been described as scaremongering.
The organisation’s chief government, Paul Sullivan, stated that if authorised, the venture wouldn't solely have an effect on habitat for wildlife in Australia however would even have “international ramifications by undermining the Ramsar treaty”.
The venture proposes as much as 3,600 dwellings, together with residences, retailers and a lodge in addition to a 200-berth marina.
About 42ha of the event can be inside the boundaries of the Moreton Bay Ramsar web site, a wetland of worldwide significance that gives habitat for migratory birds, together with the critically endangered jap curlew and nice knot and the endangered lesser sand plover.
Final week the federal atmosphere minister, Tanya Plibersek, included the jap curlew on a listing of 110 precedence species in a revamped threatened species motion plan.
In its evaluation, Walker Group stated the venture would in all probability have a big influence on the curlew as a result of it will clear 28.9ha of tidal flat feeding habitat, about 0.29% of the obtainable feeding habitat.
Nevertheless, the corporate assessed this was unlikely to result in a long-term lower within the dimension of jap curlew populations as a result of there had already been an 81% decline within the dimension of populations migrating to Australia up to now 30 years.
They stated this meant Moreton Bay would nonetheless retain vital carrying capability in obtainable foraging habitat and it may very well be “fairly anticipated” the curlews and three different affected migratory birds – the good knot, the lesser sand plover and the bar-tailed godwit – would use different foraging habitat close by.
“Consequently, the lack of 0.29% of tidal flat feeding habitat in Moreton Bay is unlikely to result in a long-term lower within the dimension of the jap curlew inhabitants,” the evaluation states.
O’Shanassy stated the mud flats at Toondah Harbour had been an important recuperation web site when the birds touched down after their annual migration to the northern hemisphere and again.
“It needs to be out of the query for an enormous industrial venture to be authorised on the feeding grounds of a threatened migratory hen that has simply been confirmed as a precedence species,” she stated.
Sean Dooley, of Birdlife Australia, stated the notion that the world was not price defending as a result of there have been so few jap curlews left “exposes the brutal nihilism of the event at any value mindset”.
“Any risk of the species recovering sooner or later is dismissed, so that they ask us to simply accept the destruction of habitat that will likely be important if the inhabitants of jap curlews was to bounce again,” Dooley stated.
Walker Group’s evaluation finds the location can be vital for Cleveland’s city koala inhabitants however says the venture won't have a big influence on the endangered species.
The corporate stated an underpass can be constructed to take away the best menace of elevated visitors and 1,000 new koala feed bushes can be planted.
The Toondah Harbour venture has had a controversial historical past. In 2020, Guardian Australia revealed Walker Group lobbied the earlier federal authorities to take away protections from an space of the wetlands as a matter of “pressing nationwide curiosity”.
The draft EIS has been printed for public session and submissions till 6 December.
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