MCU 14/0106 Appendix F - Ecological Assessment

State and Local Government Ecological Assessment
Noosa Civic Expansion



Items reviewed to inform field work in 2013          Items reviewed to inform 2014 reporting
                                                            regulated vegetation management map);
                                                         - Regional Plan (Urban footprint).
-                                                    SPP interest mapping (DSDIP, 2014a) (Appendix H)
                                                         - Biodiversity (Matters of State Environmental Significance
                                                            (MSES)) layers including MSES Wildlife Habitat and
                                                            MSES Regulated Vegetation; and
                                                         - Coastal Management District layer.



The literature and databases identified a number of species of conservation significance that may occur
within the Study Area. Based on a review of the habitat requirements of species, the likelihood that a
species will utilise the habitat of the Study Area was categorised according to the following definitions:
> Known - species positively recorded by this survey or other survey by qualified ecologists during past 30
  years;
> Likely - based on the presence of suitable habitat and proximate records;
> Possible - suitable habitat present for the species, but no recent records from the Study Area or
  proximate areas;
> Unlikely - based on a lack of suitable habitat and lack of proximate records; and
> Absence known or suspected: suitable habitat does not occur in the Study Area and/or species known
  distribution is well separated from the Study Area.
An index of confidence is applied to the assessment being:
> High – personal observations or records from other reputable sources (for example, 90% certainty);
> Medium – information from sources of reasonable/mixed reliability (location accuracy/taxa identification)
  (for example, 70% certainty); and
> Low – information from sources of unknown reliability (for example, 50% certainty).
Several databases and reports were reviewed to identify species scheduled under the NC(W)R that are
known to occur within or within the vicinity of the project area. Specifically these included:
> Herbrecs (Queensland Herbarium, 2012b). This is the State wide Queensland Herbarium database of all
  specimens held in their collection along with a location. Although some records have a low spatial
  precision (generally older records predating GPS technology) the dataset for a defined location provides
  assistance as to species potentially encountered during field work including threatened species;
> Wildnet (DEHP, 2014). This database incorporates information from a number of datasets held by the
  Queensland State Government. The reliability of some of the data is variable depending on the original
  source (e.g. Herbrecs data is more reliable than data collected from community based programs); and
> Queensland Museum Database (Queensland Museum, 2012). The Queensland Museum Zoological
  Database contains verified point records across Queensland and Indo-west Pacific. The database was
  searched for a 5km area and returned a number of known records of scheduled species around the study
  area (Appendix E). This database also provides known records of common fauna species on and
  around the Study Area.
Appendix I includes a summary of all species scheduled under the NC(W)R or the EPBC Act that were
identified as part of this literature/database review. For each species an assessment is made about its likely
use of the Study Area based on its known habitat preferences. Appendix I identifies those species that are
known, likely, possible or unlikely to utilise prevailing habitats. Species that were known or predicted to be
absent were excluded from further analysis. Those that were determined to be known, likely or possible
were targeted during Study Area surveys.




QIC Noosa Civic Pty Ltd                                  Version 1                                       5 December 2014
J13041_Ecological Assessment State Local_V1.docx   Commercial in Confidence                                      Page 4