Fighting for Ballina's Koalas

Letter to the editor in The Northern Star on 12 June 2014:

Koalas at risk

Yesterday on the ABC, Mr Bob Higgins, Pacific Highway upgrade manager for the RMS, said about the proposed Broadwater to Ballina deviation: "The route that was selected is on mostly cleared land."

His statement is not correct. The reality is that the proposed route will clear and sever intact corridors of forest and wetland that connect the Wardell heathland (part of the National Reserve system called the Ngunya-Jargoon Indigenous Protected Area) with the nationally significant forests (and koala habitats) of the Blackwall Range. Indeed, these areas are recognised as some of the most important wildlife corridors in Ballina Shire.

What Mr Higgins has repeatedly failed to address is that the proposed route is several kilometres longer than the existing highway.

It will require clearing large tracts of nationally important koala habitat and result in the isolation and permanent degradation of hundreds of hectares of adjacent koala habitat. It will clear and fragment the largest and most significant tracts of native vegetation in Ballina Shire.

The RMS policy about biodiversity states:

"When managing biodiversity, RMS aims to: 1. Avoid and minimise impacts first. 2. Mitigate impacts where avoidance is not possible. 3. Offset where residual impacts cannot be avoided".

There are numerous options available for building a highway between Broadwater and Ballina that won't have any impacts on biodiversity (including koalas).

Mr Higgins has been informed (in person and in writing) since 2005 that building a highway along the proposed route will cause local extinctions of nationally protected species, such as the koala and long-nosed potoroo. He knows there is no native vegetation, protected areas or culturally significant features along the existing highway between Broadwater and Ballina. He also knows that avoiding any impacts on biodiversity is readily achievable.

Mr Higgins, you have no excuse for killing Ballina's koalas.

Mark Graham

Coffs Harbour (formerly Meerschaum Vale)