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2:16PM Saturday 04 July, 2009

Bell tolls for quolls

30 June 2008

| By Grant Reynolds

Chances are, the great majority of us have never laid eyes on the mysterious creature know as the quoll.

The quoll’s habitat include the Noosa hinterland and the large tracts of land around Eerwah Vale dedicated to conservation, but the area will soon to be home to 45m-high pylons for a new powerline.

Resident of the area for more than 30 years and horticulturalist Annette House has been fighting to have the area protected for a long time and she said Powerlink’s decision to construct a new powerline through the area had made the case for conservation all the more urgent.

“Conservation should be the first consideration because there’s so little of it left,” Mrs House said.

Mrs House said a number of residents had tried to negotiate nature refuge agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency but were knocked back “because of the risks associated” with the powerline.

Under a nature refuge agreement, the land is voluntarily entered by the owner and becomes a class of protected area under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.

Numerous residents had signed up for Land for Wildlife, an arrangement with the former Noosa Council to protect the environmental values of the surrounding land, but it does not contain any statutory protection.

Mrs House said there were biodiversity “hot spots” through the region that could be joined up through Land for Wildlife to create one large conservation area and the area was also home to healthy koala population due to its undisturbed state.

“The biodiversity is such that we have to do it regionally, if the powerline goes ahead or not,” she said.

“There are mosaics of remnant vegetation everywhere.”

Recent Comments

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Posted by jackc from Eerwah Vale
on 1 July, 2008 at 10:04 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I totally agree with Ms House! Not only is our pristine land under threat from enviromental vandels such as Powerlink, but the threat of fragmentation emerges as a side event. Clearing our native vegetation for 19th century technologies such as powerlines and their pylons will open up the forest to exotic weeds. How can the endangered quoll have any chance of survival when its enviroment and range are decimated?

Ms House and her neighbours have freely given part of their land over to the environment without asking anything in return - in an effort to provide a refuge or natural environment, which should be respected by anyone or any government body. How dare these people push the way onto people's properties and demand its resumption. It is not as if the government itself is doing the right thing to protect our environment. When all these beautiful creatures have gone, future generations will look back at these vandalistic actions and ask 'Why?'
I understand there are sensible alternatives. Mr Powerlink - listen to these arguments...Please?

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