Your Development

Development Type: Development of previous commercially farmed area with beef and dairy cattle
Housing Style: semi rural – parkland residential development is a mix of allotments ranging in size from around 3000m² with others larger than 20 ha, with BLEs and WWDAs comprising 3.2% of the site
Development Size: Stages 4-12 –  76 allotments.
Climate Zone: sub-tropical
Year Completed:  under development
Developer:   Greg Holdings Pty Ltd

The property consists of a relatively small, steep-sided valley characterised by a narrow creek, which is an unnamed tributary of the Coomera River. Although grazed for most of the last century, after extensive clearing, the remaining open forest and woodland clumps, regrowth forest and creek and gully lines, provide habitat refuge for a diverse group of species. It is the habitat complexity persisting, the geomorphic elements, and links with regional environments adjoining, which make a Site Biodiversity Management Plan (SBMP) a significant and essential environmental planning initiative for this site, at the outset of master layout planning.

This SBMP had as its objectives:

• The identification of existing habitat on the Property, its conservation, rehabilitation and management;
• Determination of existing habitats or regional significance and functionality, and opportunities for improved linkages with its surrounds; and
• The provision of habitat for significant species as identified on the site and on a regional basis, this being achieved through specific conservation and rehabilitation planning/programmes for the site.

This SBMP had to consider therefore:

• Previous land use, the history of agricultural exploitation and any ongoing impacts eg weeds and erosion patterns;
• Pre-agricultural habitats, the possibility of their re-creation within the subject site;
• Existing habitats, their rehabilitation and management;
• Other site management needs which will have some impact on the character of the estate eg. bushfire management; and
• Existing habitats contiguous with the estate and linkages where possible movement corridors have facilitated movement of species onto the site.

It was fundamental to the SBMP that habitat was conserved and rehabilitated to protect onsite species, and link habitats to facilitate movement corridors, as it is the inherent nature of animals to move. Determination of habitat and functional linkages (corridors) was therefore central to the SBMP.

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Overview

Owing to this property being the subject of a negotiated decision (between Gold Coast City Council & Greg Holdings) directed by the Planning and Environment Court (Qld), sustainability principles focussed almost exclusively on ‘significant’ species (Development Ecology, 2007).

‘Significant’ being defined as:

‘… ecologically significant or important native flora and fauna with high conservation values, including those listed under the  Nature Conservation Act 1992 (Qld), the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth), and the Gold Coast City Council Nature and Conservation Strategy (1998) as rare, threatened, regionally vulnerable, of cultural significance and/or migratory.’

At the time, it was considered that providing habitat for just ‘significant’ species was a fundamentally flawed argument in ecological theory and practice. Therefore the approach was modified by way of explanation that for considered strategies to evolve with the most chance of success, and with the greatest application to the widest range of species possible, corridors should be considered as habitat to most species, including those few of ‘significant value’.

The property is essentially a valley with a central watercourse ie. Riparian Corridor. The central watercourse flows through six identifiable sub-catchments, exiting the proposed development site between Stages 3 and 6 in the north-east  (Refer masterplan), and is associated with definable riparian vegetation for most of its length.

As the site is dominated by hilly terrain mostly on the boundaries, so the sub-catchments and their system of gullies orient with the centre of the site forming a dendritic pattern of drainage which contains remnant and regrowth vegetation, along with the Riparian Corridor on the valley floor. These drainage systems with their associated vegetation are of critical importance if a functional habitat for species residing in the area, or opportunistically entering/foraging over the site, are to be maintained.

Existing situation: eco-regions

Several distinct eco-regions were identified within the property and different priorities and procedures were determined to be appropriate within these.

The property was then divided into three edaphic zones, and one resultant from the interface with the built environment, these being :
 

• Permanent stream bed (Riparian Zone) in the valley bottom;
• Shallow poor soils on the western and southern slopes (Open Dry Slope Zone);
• Deeper more fertile red soils on the eastern slopes (Red Soil Slope Zone).

The property having been divided into three edaphic zones, with one resultant from the interface with the built environment, this was then the basis for determining more refined zones with consideration of habitats as they existed across the site and determination of rehabilitation/management strategies.

Categories of Public Open Space with reference to revegetation needs, and forming the basis for determination of habitat matrix with associated corridors.

Supporting this structural arrangement for the built environment to conserve whole-of-estate environs, was conservation covenants specific to Private Open Space. Covenants on Private Open Space have the advantage of devolving responsibility for day-to-day weed management, for example, to the land owner after initial clearing at the time of development. Lantana re-infestation was considered to be of major concern.

A Weed Management Plan was an integral part of the Open Space Management Plan (OSMP) and in most part determined the outcomes for public open space vegetation communities. Removal of weeds such as lantana does however create space for some replanting of significant species and was considered together, the replanting providing part of a longer-term management strategy.

Supporting these initiatives, roadways design and control, bridge construction and gully crossings were designed to be ‘fauna friendly’ and be ‘non-barrier’ (elevated or largely fauna transparent) and non-threatening (low speed limits).

Key Issues

• Site vegetation mapping to determine conservation areas across the site ie. conservation of Indigenous Flora and Fauna values remaining, and to then plan development which optimises the semi-rural and parkland residential theme for the estate.
   
• At the time of site investigations including vegetation mapping, a regional perspective of the significance of this site and determination of any functional corridors which could facilitate animal movement on/off-site, and any sites significant to wide ranging species to exploit within the development.
   
• Restoration of the riparian vegetation in the un-named stream that flows through Nathan Vale was determined as an important part of the proposed development. The expected outcome of such restoration was to be a fully vegetated catchment on the northern slopes of Mt Nathan and for most of the length of Nathan Vale.

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