Logan City Councillor Tony Hall has held community consultations and assured locals the Wuraga Bahrs Scrub road proposal hasn’t been approved, but locals behind the community campaign to stop Council from destroying koala inhabited bushland said they wanted more transparency.
Jodie Batten and Briony Banks, behind a community campaign to stop Council from destroying koala inhabited bushland, said they wished there was more transparency from Council regarding the proposed road.
Mrs Batten said it was an issue very close to her heart.
“Gary the koala and the other koalas who live here are important too,” she said.
“And they can’t just be moved. Koalas will always return to where they live. Even if there’s a road there.
“On the Gold Coast, council moved a colony of koalas and less than 2% of them survived that move.”
Mrs Banks said where her home is, was purchased by her mother back in the early nineties, when they were under the impression it was land to be conserved.
“It borders on Bahrs Scrub where there are so many species of native Australian wildlife and native plants. Lots are also endangered,” she said.
“We built our forever home here five years ago. It’s just so beautiful. We love being able to see koalas most days and having wallabies on our lawn every morning.”
Mrs Banks said two weeks before receiving a letter from Logan City Council about the proposed road to run through her land, she received a letter from another department of council about land conservation.
Gary the koala.
“It was a letter identifying our place as being on rare land with unique flora and fauna and how important it was to be conserved,” she said.
“Then just two weeks later I got a letter from Council warning me of the road proposal which would run through my property.
“It just seemed really odd and like they must not have had a great deal of communication going on for that to happen.”
The community-minded pair also commented on how nothing regarding the Wuraga Bahrs Scrub road proposal was made publicly available online.
“If you google the Wuraga Bahrs Scrub road proposal all that comes up is news articles, our petition, and our Facebook page,” Mrs Batten said.
“And everything we’ve been told has been really difficult to understand.
“We initially made contact with Council about this back in February 2019 and were told it was just a proposal and we would be contacted if it progressed at all.
“A year passed and we heard nothing. So then this year we called Council and a council officer told me the proposal had been approved.
“So of course we took that to mean the road was going ahead. We were outraged and really upset. One of our community members even had a heart attack from all of the stress.
“Since meeting with Councillor Hall and Councillor Murphy we’ve found out that only the second stage had been approved.”
Jodie Batten had taken it upon herself to create a petition against the road on change.org. However, after collecting close to 900 signatures she was informed her petition ‘didn’t fit Logan City Council’s guidelines’.
“Councillor Murphy helped us create a petition that could be tabled at a Council meeting,” she said.
“That petition has 15 signatures and our other petition has 874 signatures.
“Since having the new petition tabled at Council and our meeting with Cr Hall and Cr Murphy we haven’t heard anything on the matter or whether our petition has made a difference.”
Cr Hall said, in a statement that was not reflective of or endorsed by Logan City Council, he was doing his best to keep the community informed.
“Usually a letter wouldn’t go out to residents this early on,” he said.
“But I made the effort to send letters out and I held a community consultation meeting where residents were able to question the council officers directly involved.
“I don’t want to see a road through Bahrs Scrub either. The local wildlife have nowhere else to go.”
It is understood that Cr Hall is doing all he can as one councillor, but ultimately the proposal has to go through council processes before a final decision can be made.
“I’d encourage locals to sign the petition if they don’t want the road,” he said.
“Council officers have to take that seriously.
“I’d also like to ask residents not to bother any of the koalas living in Bahrs Scrub. They just want to be left alone in their homes.”
