2016-12-12 General Committee - Attachment 1 to Item 6 - Biodiversity Assessment Report

                                                 Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report




Historically, land clearing in Noosa was undertaken to support initial European settlement in the 1853,
which was closely followed by the establishment of the timber industry and further agricultural
development, particularly dairy farming. Land clearing increased during this period as the industries grew,
which further facilitated settlement and ongoing land clearing (Lewis et al., 2007).

In more modern times during the 1970’s to 1990’s land clearing in Noosa occurred predominantly (86%)
within freehold tenure to cater for the continuation of urban settlement (Burrows, 2003). With the majority
of productive agricultural land already cleared, clearing activities in rural areas were predominantly
associated with maintenance clearing of regrowth vegetation. This particularly occurred in areas west of
Cooroy and in the Kin Kin district were substantial areas of rainforest regrowth was regenerating (Burrows,
2003). Nonetheless, extensive clearing of heathland, Melaleuca and Eucalypt forest still occurred across
the shire for cattle grazing and sugar cane production (Burrows, 2003).

With the introduction of State and Local vegetation clearing laws in the late 1990’s, land clearing of
remnant vegetation over the last 20 years has reduced within the shire with a total of 584 ha of remnant
vegetation cleared post 1997 or 1% of the remnant vegetation extent. A further reduction has also
occurred in recent years with clearing rates of remnant vegetation decreasing by 48.7% post 2006.
Similar reductions have occurred across the greater SEQ bioregion and surrounding LGAs (Table 5). As
expected by the introduction of clearing laws, remnant vegetation communities with an endangered status
have undergone less clearing since 2006; however clearing rate reductions in the order of 22% have still
occurred for remnant vegetation communities with an of concern and least concern status within the shire
(Table 6).

To date 40,701 ha of Noosa’s remnant vegetation has been cleared following European settlement, which
accounts for approximately 50% of the original cover. Whilst land clearing has been extensive across the
shire since European settlement, the rate of land clearance compared to the greater SEQ bioregion and
surrounding LGAs is lower. This places Noosa in a unique position of containing a larger proportion of
existing remnant vegetation compared to other areas in SEQ (Table 6).

Table 6: Comparison of Noosa shire’s clearing statistics with SEQ bioregion and neighbouring LGAs

                                                                                             Sunshine
                                                                             Gympie
                                                              SEQ                              Coast
         Clearing statistic             Noosa Shire                         Regional
                                                            bioregion                        Regional
                                                                             Council
                                                                                              Council

 Remnant cleared post European
                                            50%               56%              58%             59%
 settlement

 Remnant cleared post 1997                  1%                 2%              1%               1%

 Clearing rate reduction since 2006        48.7%             45.6%            45.8%            49.7%

 Remnant cleared 2006 - 2013

 Endangered                                0.19%

 Of Concern                                0.31%

 Least Concern                             0.31%

 Clearing rate reduction 2006 - 2013

 Endangered                                 15%

 Of Concern                                 22%



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