2014-05-20 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                       20 MAY 2014


2.    Background
The filling activities were brought to Council attention as part of a complaint received on 29 July
2013. The complaint was regarding the “fill and rubbish pushed in creek”. It was apparent during
a site inspection on the 29 July 2013 that some filling had occurred and some of the fill material
included building, vegetation and other general waste. Council’s Compliance Officer
subsequently advised the Noosa AH&I Society that an application was required. Council’s Senior
Engineering Officer placed a call to the Noosa AH&I Society on the 13 August 2013 and
discussed the process with the then Secretary and another representative. The issue of
unsuitable waste materials in the fill was discussed and the Noosa AH&I Society representative
said that it had been dumped without their approval and would be removed.
The application was received on the 23 October 2013. The plans submitted with the application
were hand drawn additions to a “Noosa Country Show” handout and did not indicate the full
extent of the filling. An Information Request was issued by Council on 5 November 2013
requesting additional detail on the extent and depth of the fill and the location of the proposed
stockpile. The applicant responded to the information request on the 26 February 2014. The
response included annotations on an aerial photo and a letter describing the various notations.

3.    Assessment
The works have taken place within a part of the site mapped as Biodiversity Overlay
(Environmental Protection and Riparian Buffer Area). Although the site is not mapped as a
“Flood Hazard Area” it is commonly known that the land is part of the flood plain through the
Pomona township.
The filling has occurred within the riparian buffer area of the Biodiversity Overlay. The Noosa
Plan seeks to avoid new development within the riparian buffer area and to provide buffer zones
to prevent the degradation of wetlands. The 6 Mile Creek system forms the western boundary of
the lot. The filling has impacted on vegetation within this overlay area. Evidence of impacts is the
die back of mature eucalypts as a result of fill being placed around the trunks and within the root
zone area of these trees.
Most of the filling has occurred at the edge of the existing canopy, thus potentially impacting on
the linear extent of the riparian vegetation. It appears the batter of the fill platforms has extended
into areas previously unmodified.
The riparian vegetation is mapped as an Endangered Regional Ecosystem (12.3.1/12.3.2) and
has been identified as habitat for the Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iteratus), listed as
Endangered under the Nature Conservation Act and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act. The Tusked Frog (Adelotus brevis) has also been found in the area and this
frog is declared Vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act. Clearing of riparian vegetation is
a key factor in population decline for both frogs.
Over the last decade restoration and fauna survey works, targeting the threatened frogs, has
occurred upstream in Cooroora Park and in the lot immediately west of the subject site. This work
has been undertaken by local conservation groups, partly sponsored by Council.
Due to the significance of the riparian remnant vegetation and habitat functions it provides for
threatened species, the filling within riparian buffer areas and environmental protection areas is
not consistent with the Noosa Plan.
In regard to the potential off-site flooding effects of the filling, Council sought advice from
Council’s consultant Hydrologist involved with the recent flood modelling of Pomona township.
The Hydrologist advised that the levels of the fill would need to be provided in order to accurately
determine the off-site effects or in the absence of these levels that it could be assumed that the
filled areas are entirely above the 1:100 Annual Exceedance Probability (1%AEP) design flood
level and that “this approach would provide a level of conservatism that is appropriate given the
lack of engineering/survey plans”.



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