Give our Koalas a Fair Go

Chart depicting the rapid fall in koala numbers

Redland City has been well known as a part of the Queensland "Koala Coast".
Until a few years ago, koalas wandering the streets of Cleveland was accepted by locals as the norm. The koala was an emblem of Redland City Council.
More recently, the stress of food and habitat loss, and injury and death caused by vehicle strikes and dog attacks has reduced the population to a critically low level.

Now, the Queensland Government has announced its Draft 2026 SEQ Koala Conservation, Strategy, with maps showing no protection for large areas of the Redlands formerly protected, and known to contain ...

Redland City has been well known as a part of the Queensland "Koala Coast".
Until a few years ago, koalas wandering the streets of Cleveland was accepted by locals as the norm. The koala was an emblem of Redland City Council.
More recently, the stress of food and habitat loss, and injury and death caused by vehicle strikes and dog attacks has reduced the population to a critically low level.

Now, the Queensland Government has announced its Draft 2026 SEQ Koala Conservation, Strategy, with maps showing no protection for large areas of the Redlands formerly protected, and known to contain koalas.
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We are in danger of having no koalas in mainland Redland City.
Our koalas deserve a fair go - it's their Redlands too!

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2026 SEQ Koala Strategy - Make your submission now

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The Queensland Government is inviting input to the development of a new SEQ Koala conservation Strategy. Submissions close on Sunday 15 March 2026, that's this Sunday!. If you want information about the strategy, you can read about it here.

It's not too late to express your views by way of a submission.

To assist, and make it quick, we have prepared a draft submission which can be modified or replaced with your own points. At Redlands2030 we are developing our own submission built around the points in this draft.

To make your submission, just click on the button below, then personalise with your changes and additions. This will carry more weight. If you're short on time, the draft as is will be fine.

Please add your submission to get the message across to the Queensland government..

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Strategy Timeframe
The new SEQ Koala Strategy should cover a period of 15 years, with the expectation that there will be mid-term strategy reviews and resets every 3-5 years based on assessment of performance measures.

Strategy Foundation
The Government should adopt as the foundation for its strategy the Final Report of the Expert Panel published in 2017. Careful consideration should be given to gaps between what the Expert Panel recommended, and what was included in the Government’s Southeast Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy 2020–2025.

Protecting Koala Habitat
The Government must tighten up regulations for protection of known and mapped koala habitat. Development should be allowed only in places which are not mapped koala habitat. Here are some examples of loopholes which should be closed;
The use of ministerial infrastructures designations to avoid normal koala habitat protection regulations under the Planning Act (currently being attempted by Ormiston College) should be outlawed.
Priority Development Areas (PDAs) should not be declared in areas which have koala habitat. In existing PDAs, the Government should adopt planning rules to protect koala habitat which are no less onerous than the laws and regulations which would apply if a PDA had not been declared.
Currently, it’s possible to obtain exemptions from koala habitat regulations for a significant community project being undertaken by a public sector entity. This is what Redland City Council sought for its ill-fated Heinemann Road Sports Fields project. The process took place without any public consultation. This exemption pathway should be closed.
The principles identified in the Department’s review of exemptions are generally supported, particularly the closure of loopholes where landowners/developers can ‘stack’ exemptions.

Increasing koala habitat
The new strategy should include a focus on increasing the area, quality, and connectedness of koala habitat in SEQ. This should include koala habitat in rural areas, peri-urban areas and urban areas. The strategy should include measurable targets such as number of hectares (in each of rural, peri-urban and urban areas) to be added to connected mapped koala habitat over the strategy timeframe.

Improved mapping of koala habitat
Current mapping doesn’t capture smaller urban patches of habitat (wildlife corridors, creek lines, parks etc) and single trees (footpath, paddock), when these are important ‘stepping stones’ that aid all-important connectivity. The strategy should include actions to map and protect such koala habitat, even single tree areas in the urban areas which provide essential movement opportunities between areas of koala habitat.

Land for housing
Housing should be developed in existing urban footprint areas through increased density. Brisbane City Council in particular could deliver a significant increase in housing through rezoning more areas to medium density. Greenfield development in areas which contain koala habitat should not be allowed.

Local Government
Local Governments have a key role in ensuring a good future for koalas in SEQ. They should be supported by the State Government with incentives to maintain and expand areas of koala habitat. Local Governments can play a key role in integrating community effort with other stakeholders such as, traditional Owners,  other levels of government and property owners. The State Government’s Koala conservation strategy should consider how encourage and support Local Governments in doing this work.

Offsets
The community does not believe that offsets are adequate compensation for loss of koala habitat. The circumstances where offsets can be used in allowing loss of koala habitat should be tightly restricted. Consideration should be given to closely aligning any State Government offsets regime with Federal Government EPBC offset rules. Offsets should be delivered close to where the impact occurred e.g. in the same local government area. Offsets should have a high level of transparency including annual statutory reporting on offset delivery and compliance, and occasional access with notice by interested environment groups should be allowed. The Government should produce a communication strategy to explain the usefulness of its offset regime.

Monitoring
Given the small size of the current koala population in southeast Queensland we need a fully integrated and transparent process for managing interactions with koalas including sightings, rescues, treatments in wildlife hospitals, euthanizing of rescued koalas, returns to the wild or elsewhere. This integrated and transparent process should be freely available to community and environment groups and the public. The government should provide the community with clear explanations and instructions on how to use this integrated and transparent koala management system.

Focus on wild koalas for the 2032 Olympics
At present, when VIPs are in town (e.g. G20 in 2014) there’s too much emphasis on cuddling captive koalas. A different approach should be adopted, with VIPs given options to view koalas in the wild. Given the number of koalas being satellite tracked, this shouldn’t be too hard to arrange - so long as we still have plenty of wild koalas.

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