Appendix 4 - Flora Survey & Permit

The location of the proposed facility comprises an 8 m x 10 m lease area (NBN compound) situated
within the road reserve, east of the formed section of Davis Road. The road reserve (subject site) is
heavily vegetated and largely unimproved, a part from a few sections that have been previously
cleared for driveway access and aerial power lines. Figure 1 illustrates the subject site and location of
the proposed facility. The site surrounds are characterised by large rural residential and agricultural
grazing properties, and heavily vegetated hinterland and valley areas.
Nearby villages in the wider locality include Traveston (north west), Cootharaba and Pinbarren (north
east), Pomona (south east) and Federal (south). The wider locality also contains areas of
environmental and heritage significance, including:

ƒ Cooloothin Conservation Park, Noosa River, Lake Cooroibah (south east)
ƒ Lake Cootharaba (east)
ƒ Wahpunga Range (north west)
The construction timeframe for the proposed facility is expected to commence in February 2016 and
be completed by April 2016.
For the purpose of the flora survey report and associated survey method guidelines, a ‘clearing impact
area’ which includes a 100 m buffer from the proposed development is displayed in Figure 1, with the
methodology discussed in the following section.


1.3          Purpose of report
This report has been prepared as per the requirements of the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NC Act)
and Nature Conservation (Wildlife Management) Regulation 2006 (NC Reg). The Protected Plants
Legislative now applies a ‘risk-based’ approach to regulate the clearing of protected plants in
Queensland. As such, only clearing determined to be of a high risk requires field assessment.
The proposed development area, situated within a road reserve at Davis Road, Cootharaba, is within
a ‘High risk area’ identified on the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP)
Protected Plants Flora Survey Trigger Map (refer Appendix A). Consequently, a protected plant flora
survey is required under the provisions of the NC Act to identify any Endangered, Vulnerable, or Near
Threatened (EVNT) flora species that may be present within the area.
On the 23 March 2015 Aurecon conducted a protected plant flora survey of the proposed development
area in accordance with the Flora Survey Guidelines – Protected Plants (DEHP 2014) (herein referred
to as the Flora Survey Guidelines).This report presents the results of the protected plant survey.




                                                  Project 226420 File Davis Road Protected Plant Survey Report_CK 29 April 2015 Revision 0 Page 2