Response to Info Request - Attachment 6a - Ecological Assessment Part 1 MCU18-0015 & RAL18-0015 · MCU18/0015

                           Ecological Assessment – Attunga Heights



with the Queensland vegetation management state code, Tables 16.2.2 and 16.2.3 of the
SDAP.

The development application will include reconfiguring a lot and therefore Table 16.2.2 –
Performance Outcomes (PO) 1 – 4, and Table 16.2.3 – PO7, PO11, PO16, PO20, PO22 – PO24
and PO27 are applicable.

An assessment of compliance with the relevant PO and Acceptable Outcomes (AO) is
provided in APPENDIX 3. Additional details in relation to Essential Habitat and vegetation
clearing to maintain connectivity are provided in the following sections.


7.4.2.3 Essential Habitat
Essential Habitat for the Glossy black-cockkatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami), Wallum rocket
frog (Litoria freycineti), Wallum sedgefrog (Litoria olongburensis) and the Wallum froglet
(Crinia tinnula) is mapped on-site concurrent with remnant vegetation (FIGURE 5).
However, it is considered that site conditions are not suitable as habitat for the above
Wallum frog species, which require a wallum environment.

Development within the subject site will need to meet Essential Habitat performance
requirements for the Glossy black cockatoo by adopting the relevant acceptable solution
in State Code 16 Table 16.2.3, or by providing another solution that meets the performance
requirement.

An assessment of compliance with the relevant PO and AO is provided in APPENDIX 3 and
has determined that the proposed development is in compliance.


7.4.2.4 Vegetation Clearing to Maintain Connectivity
The subject site is approximately 1.805 ha in area and is shaped as a long thin rectangle
less than 100 m wide. The site is also surrounded by existing approved development to the
east, west and south. While continuous vegetation greater than 10 ha occurs in the locality,
connection to this vegetation from the site is limited to thin vegetated corridors less than
100 m wide that contain roads and other impediments.

In addition to being separated from continuous vegetation regionally, the site also shows a
considerable degree of fragmentation evident. Areas of exposed sand dominated by Ground
asparagus* (Asparagus aethiopicus) regularly intersected areas of Callitris forest where a
more protective understorey and layer of leaf litter is present. The long and narrow shape
of the site has meant that it has been prone to a range of detrimental edge effects. This
has resulted in a high level of degradation including the presence of a high proportion of
weeds in both vegetation communities recorded on the site. These edge effects are likely
to have considerably reduced the corridor value of the site. As such, the vegetation
communities identified on the site do not have high connective values.

An assessment of compliance with the relevant PO and AO is provided in APPENDIX 3 and
has determined that the proposed development can be completed in general accordance
with the requirements of the Code. An Alternate Solution is proposed in relation to PO 16


Job No: Q12038/RW3                       JWA Pty Ltd                                     54