Article: Freight rail corridor puts koalas at risk

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Freight rail corridor puts koalas at risk

Freight rail corridor puts koalas at risk
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Tuck Thompson and Michael Crutcher

March 12, 2009 11:00pm

THE Bligh Government is poised to run a freight rail corridor through three essential koala habitats at the same time it admits the iconic marsupial is fighting for survival.
The Government is finalising the route for the Southern Freight Rail Corridor, which has already been moved away from four state Labor electorates and largely into the LNP seat of Lockyer.

The unfunded freight line - which may not be built for at least another decade - would link Rosewood, near Ipswich, to the interstate standard gauge line at Kagaru, near Beaudesert.

The preferred route runs through three separate areas identified by Government consultants as "essential koala habitats" and one as a "koala conservation area".

Landholders were asked to submit their thoughts on the 55km rail corridor at the same time that the Bligh Government was admitting southeast Queensland's koala population was in "crisis".

Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara issued a statement in December claiming the Bligh Government was taking "drastic action" to "develop solutions to the koala crisis".

But hundreds of residents in the path of the rail corridor accuse the Government of environmental and ecological vandalism by proposing to run the rail corridor through areas regarded as vital for flora and fauna.

The preferred route also passes through more than 100 properties, including some farming land used by generations of families.

Action group Fair Go, which more than 300 residents have joined, has attacked the Government over its consultation and planning for the corridor.

"This corridor is environmental and ecological madness," Fair Go chairman David Stephen said. The group has also slammed "gutless, faceless bureaucrats" who did not "know when or if this is going to happen".

The Courier-Mail has obtained ministerial briefing notes detailing how the preferred route - which was not among eight initial options - was signed off by former transport minister, now Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas.

Mr Lucas signed a ministerial briefing note dated March 14, 2006, in which a so-called N1 northern route was recommended as "one of the most feasible and viable".

The N1 route cut through the Labor electorates of Ipswich West, Ipswich, Bundamba and Algester.

On December 28, 2006, Mr Lucas signed another ministerial briefing note that said the N1 route was "now considered undesirable" for environmental and logistical reasons. He signed off on further investigation of a southern or "C3" route - about 10km to the south - which became the preferred route sent to landholders in September 2007.

The five ministerial briefing notes seen by The Courier-Mail make no reference to environmental concerns along the preferred route, which largely affects the Lockyer electorate of the LNP's Ian Rickuss.

"There would have been a backlash from Labor electorates about the route going there," Mr Rickuss said. "It's not good governance. It's not good management. There is no economic plan for the rail line and there is no logic to it."

Mr Lucas's office refused to make the minister available for an interview.

A spokesman for Transport Minister John Mickel said no timetable could be given on a final route but "every effort" would be made to minimise the environmental impact.

Mr McNamara's office did not take questions from The Courier-Mail. Instead, it sent an Environmental Protection Agency statement that said koala mapping was being done in the area.

Government appointed consultant Maunsell has already produced a map detailing essential koala habitat and conservation areas.

[ozbob]

The article above is an extremely unbalanced point of view, something that goes against objective journalism.  It is nothing more than an attempt to gain political mileage for the election campaign.  There is no attempt to balance the cases for constructing the line.

Unless the Government looks at expanding rail freight and taking it out of the greater metropolitan area we are doomed as a society to failing transportation and overwhelming environmental impacts.

[Dean Quick]

This is just another example of the kind of biased and uninformed rubbish we can always expect from the courier mail. It always amazes me that their is no obstacle or opposition to any freeway or road building project however that all changes when it is an important rail project being planned. Obviously we are still living in the age where the road lobby far outweighs the rail lobby..

[haakon]

Somehow I think the koalas would be better off with a couple of 1500m long freight trains a day compared to hundreds of B-Doubles.....

[Matt]

The koalas are on the way out anyway and one day the only ones we'll see are those in wildlife refuges, this sadly is a fact of life, one that not building essential rail routes will make an iota of difference.

[tomato]

The Qld Govt is continuing work on this project

Southern Freight Rail Corridor

Project update
A section of the proposed Southern Freight Rail Corridor alignment has been relocated after the Department of Transport and Main Roads received new information about koala habitat in the Ebenezer/Willowbank area.

The department has been undertaking detailed assessment on a section of the alignment following community feedback and new koala habitat mapping information from the Department of Environment and Resource Management. ...........

Approximately 12 km of the alignment in the Ebenezer/Willowbank area has been relocated to significantly reduce potential impacts on important koala habitat.

View a map of the revised section (PDF**, 2.07MB) of the alignment.

Further details about the revised alignment will be included in the Revised Assessment Report expected to be released for public consultation in early 2010. ..............

The Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study is a long term planning study. Any decision regarding the future construction of the Southern Freight Rail line will ultimately depend on a range of factors, including whether or not the proposed Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail line goes ahead...............

Community consultation is an important part of the Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study and is helping to shape analysis and inform reports. Once the study is completed it is proposed that the corridor will be designated by the Minister for Transport as community infrastructure.

Community Infrastructure Designation is defined under the Integrated Planning Act 1997 and allows land, such as land for future railways, to be reserved for community infrastructure purposes. This means the land for the rail alignment would be included in local government planning schemes, to protect it for the future and provide certainty to the community about its location.

Last updated 08 December 2009


http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/Home/Projects_and_initiatives/Projects/Southern_freight_rail_corridor_study/

In what other rail alignments has land been reserved " for community infrastructure purposes " ?