Photo © Luke Jackson

Local residents of the Elbow Valley in south east Queensland have alerted Wildlife Queensland to a proposed mega-resort development at Cherrabah near Warwick. They fear this development will have local environmental implications including a serious impact on the spotted-tailed quoll population and other threatened species such as the grey-headed flying fox and Melaleuca williamsii.

The Cherrabah Resort was established in 1975 and is located 30 kilometres south of Warwick, in the Southern Downs region. In 2005, ownership changed and now the owners propose to develop 491 hectares of land with a mix of permanent resident and resort-style accommodation for up to 4000 people, possibly resulting in a mini-city two-thirds the size of Stanthorpe. The Southern Downs Regional Council has given planning approval for the development subject to a contribution from the developer of $2 million for local road upgrades.

However, a referral for the Cherrabah Resort to the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has been declared a ‘controlled action’ under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The proponent is required to address matters revised under the controlled action and if accepted, this preliminary documentation will be available for public comment for a minimum period of 20 business days.

Details of the development application are available on the Commonwealth Government website.

Wildlife Queensland will announce on our website, and through our ebulletin as soon as we hear that public comments are invited.

In the meantime, local residents have started an online petition requesting the Federal government to reject the proposed redevelopment. You can add your name to this petition.

Spotted Tailed Quolls in South East Queensland.

The spotted-tailed quoll is the largest marsupial carnivore currently living on the mainland of Australia. Once widely distributed throughout the continent they have seen a 50 to 90% reduction in range since European settlement, with the current population being estimated at between 5,500 and 10,000. Both male and females have large home ranges of up to 1750 hectares, this coupled with widespread distribution and cryptic habits have made the species notoriously difficult to observe in the wild.

In 2002 Stephanie Meyer-Gleaves of Griffith University, started collecting data for her PhD thesis on the ecology and conservation of quolls¹ with the aim of further adding to the bank of scientific knowledge. Meyer-Gleaves began by surveying ten sites in Southern Queensland and four in New South Wales between 2002 and 2006. The aim was to identify a viable population so that long term study could be undertaken. After much research it was decided that the principal study site was to be 'Cullendore,' a semi-rural location consisting of two adjacent private properties; one a working cattle farm, the other a tourism resort known as Cherrabah.

Read a summary of the Meyer-Gleaves research and, in light of the proposed Cherrabah development reported above, what the future prospects may be for the Cullendore quoll population.

¹ Meyer-Gleaves, S. (2008). Ecology and Conservation of the Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) in Southern Queensland. PhD thesis, Griffith University.

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