Noosa Council Planning Report - 26 Sallwood Ct, Pinbarren. (3)

The Vegetation Removal is considered exempt under the Planning Regulation 2017 and the
Vegetation Management Act 1999. (List of exempt clearing, DNRME, Qld Gov, 2019). However,
the clearing work is an assessable development under the Landslide Hazard Overlay of the Noosa
Plan.

Biocondition of vegetation
The condition of the vegetation within areas of the proposed clearing was assessed through a
Biocondition assessment. BioCondition is a condition assessment framework for Queensland that
provides a measure of how well a terrestrial ecosystem is functioning for biodiversity values. It is a
site-based, quantitative and therefore repeatable assessment procedure that can be used in any
vegetative state, and provides a numeric score that can be summarised as a condition rating of 1,
2, 3 or 4, or functional through to dysfunctional condition for biodiversity. In BioCondition,
‘condition’ refers to the degree to which the attributes of a patch of vegetation differ from the
attributes of the same vegetation in its reference state.
The habitat quality score of the cleared would have been biocondition rating of Condition Class 4.




Table 1: Ecological Condition Profile for Regional Ecosystem 12.11.10 (Queensland
Herbarium

2.4.2 Fauna
Essential habitat mapping
No essential habitat has been mapped within the clearing area, however essential habitat for
koalas (EPBC Act and NC Act – vulnerable) has been mapped in the surrounding area. No Koala
Habitat trees were removed.
Habitat for threatened species (Southern Snapping Turtle, Lung Fish, Mary River Cod) have been
mapped within Pinbarren Creek downstream.

Site observations
The property is surrounded by rural pasture lots and has connectivity habitat values especially
along the creeks. Site evaluations has identified past disturbance such as clearing, grazing and
weed infestations are likely to have reduced the availability of fauna habitat values and limited the
availability of older hollow-bearing trees, which are important for arboreal mammals.
There was two broad terrestrial habitat types on the property, including; pasture – covering most of
the property and riparian vegetation along the drainage line. The riparian vegetation was
considered a low value habitat. The habitat generally had moderate structural complexity with a
dense canopy layer of Camphor Laurels and a sparse shrub and understorey layer. Weeds
dominated, providing fewer resources for wildlife and acting as a barrier to the movement of many
animals. While this vegetation type has low value as habitat, it can be important for regional
movement of animals. This area may have provided habitat for shrub-nesting birds, water dragons
and some common frog species. Flows in the drainage line are very ephemeral and have been




Ecological Assessment Report 26 Sallwood Court, Pinbarren                                  Page 8 of 11