Following ABC radio interviews by Steve Austin with Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson and local resident Andy Morgan, it seems clear that the decision to plan for  the Park Ridge Connector (PRC) is squarely with Logan City Council. Responsibility for decision of Gateway Extension Extension motorway through Logan has been handed to council.

While the story in The Reporter October 30, 2012 announces that Deputy Mayor Cr Lutton said council would not say 'no' to the corridor as council wanted it, council has received a petition signed by many Logan residents requesting that council rescind their approval of cooridor.

Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson interview increases transparency of the process. However a road corridor and transport issues cross council boundaries. Devolution to local council does not resolve the complex issues. Read LACA transcript of interview here.

There are 3 audio files at Residents fear extension of the Gateway available and linked here.

There is no question that Logan City needs a transport plan however that must include other components for mobility. We need to consider mobility provision for non drivers as well as freight vehicles. Park Ridge Connector (PRC) is being planned to move freight and will join other motorways - all of which have a toll!

Over 30% Logan residents do not drive. How can we provide for their independant mobility?

An ALTERNATIVE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT PLAN is needed.

In addition values of environmentally significant areas must be considered - for their own values and also what they contribute to human health and wellbeing. Globally many countries are reframing policies to include The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. Various TEEB reports are available. Check here for more information.

SOME Logan libaries and the Logan administration centre have the forms - seeking your feedback. Following is a copy of text of form with comments in blue italics Copy-of-text-from-DTMR-PARK-RIDGE-CONNECTOR-PROPOSED-CORRIDOR-FEEDBACK-SHEET.doc67 KB

PARK RIDGE CONNECTOR PROPOSED CORRIDOR - FEEDBACK SHEET. Some may have a box to put your completed sheets in? You are asked to base your feedback on a map with little  cadastral marking. A digital version of same form calls it CONSULTATION ON THE PARK RIDGE CONNECTOR PROPOSED CORRIDOR.

There is also an information sheet stating that consultation is being undertaken during August and September. How and with whom is unclear. As both a participant in the CSRG process Community Stakeholder Reference Group and a submitter to the 2011 consultation LACA has not been invited to a consultation as yet?

 If you would like to contact the planning team please call 1800 799 824 - email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Presumably this is also where you email your response?

It is strange that anonymous feedback is "allowed"  -  form states Contact details (optional)

The usual protocol with submissions and feedback requires details of NAME and ADDRESS and usually a signature is also required. What weight will be given to them without? The genuineness of this consultation process is questionable in the writer's opinion. Where are we in the NEXT STEPS? inside cover REFO.

The REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS OVERVIEW available at Browns Plain Library is the same one as used last  year. It is available on DTMR website at http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/8c2d4e8a-469a-4948-984ceeb7d944cf93/prcreviewofenvironmentalfactorsoverview.pdf

Read about the fiasco of registered letters sent in error to be followed by a retraction for some. The NO PRC website http://www.noprc.org/ has details.

Consultation is not about individual property owners meeting - at Loganholme office for DTMR - with the public servants. People have a right to all the information they need to make INFORMED DECISIONS.  

To date we have not been provided with any information or criteria to establish the existence of a VIABLE CORRIDOR?

Perhaps we should all contact our local councillor and State member to ask for assistance with voicing our concerns in a meaningful way. Email  Michael Pucci   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone 07 3806 8513. Visit at Maxima House, 1/3 Helen Street, Hillcrest Qld 4118.

Full details of all candidates are available from Electoral Commission Queensland website here. For your convenience LACA has created this document LCC_Elections_2012_CANDIDATES.pdf

The divisions of 4, 7, 9 and 11 have large areas of undeveloped busland which are home to many native animals and remnant bushland with significant plant species. Division 9 seat is not contested. Division 8 is also not contested. It is home also to some large acreage - see image - which will be destroyed should PARK RIDGE CONNECTOR be approved by the new state government.

Logan Country Chamber of Commerce have arranged a meet the candidate night at PUB LANE TAVERN for Wednesday 18 April 2012 for Disision 11 candidates.

This was to have been our LACA JIMBOOMBA MEETING night. However the exec have decided to forgo that meeting to allow residents to access which candidate they will vote for. LACA exec members will be at the Pub Lane Tavern forum.

Think carefully what you value about living in a rural residential area and access how each candidate will take your voice to council. All councillors have opportunity to vote on all issues [unless there is a conflict of interests]. It is important that those who become a Chair of Committee are willing to listen to residents from all areas and it is also important that councillors are familiar with all areas and divsions across Logan City - a challenge for some who live in suburban built up areas.

In our choices we should be looking to the future. How will who we vote for and what we ask impact on the future. LACA is not anti development per se but continuing as we have done in the past will not provide safe healthy environment for our children - or native species.

The multitude of roads being planned is scary. Council is unable to maintain what we have, how can we build more? If we continue to make no provision for safe wildlife movements  - will we have any wildlife left? Already with the road maintenance and closures altering traffic wildlife carers are reporting more road trauma and death.

LACA is working with the NO PRC group to have Logan Council's decision to support this gateway extension tollway / mororway overturned. What candidates will assist us with this - understand the environmental consequences. You can follow group on Facebook as well.

We will hold our Beaudesert meeting as usual - see calendar. If you have any LOGAN issues you want to discuss please contact us - see contact page.

All are welcome to attend either or both monthly meetings and raise any issue that relates to any aspect of environmental protection and education.

SANTA'S COMING TO BROWNS PLAINS SOON

R.O.T.A. has asked Santa to reshedule his visit to

Sunday 18th December at 10:00am.

He will be giving out gifts to children and his elves and other helpers will be talking with parents about the proposed PARK RIDGE CONNECTOR PRC Motorway.

He is not happy that '292', one of his many community destinations is possibly going to be lost forever and he'll not be able to visit the many children who come here each year to see him. 

Address: 292 Browns Plains Road, Browns Plains

Time: Saturday December 10 2011 @ 10:00am postponed

Sunday 18 December - delayed by rain - sorry to disappoint - but mark your calendars to visit Santa

Sunday 18 December from 10 to 12

We also expect to a visit from a large KOALA!

The habitat at 292 Browns Plains Road, Browns Plains is loved by the resident koalas who usually sleep during the day but we expect that one will be keeping company with Santa to talk to all the children. Come along and see why the humans koalas and other wildlife are worried. Santa has bags of gifts for all well behaved children.

KOALAS are listed as  Vulnerable in Queensland.

Anyone who has koala sightings ( dead or alive) from their property or from any suburbs or roads along or around the proposed Park Ridge Connector Route could you please email these sightings to Anne Page This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please include -

1. the approximate date of sighting ( or time of year and year) if possible

2. how many koalas you saw

3. a specific location ( eg street address number, street name, suburb name with post code )

4. what was the koala doing at the time you observed it?

Why report dead animals?

This is positive evidence of presense of animals in area - and easier to photograph.

Please take photos if you can.

There are areas along the proposed Park Ridge Connector Route that are listed under DERM (Department od Environment and Resource Management) mapping as Essential Habitat for Koalas.

On the internet go to - http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/property/mapping/mapsonline.html#wildlife_online

then select the link to State Koala Habitat Maps and enter your Lot on Plan for your property ( you can get this from your rate's notice).

There is other online mapping that you can also access on this same link e.g. remnant vegetation mapping, regrowth mapping and wildlife online. Just click on those links and use your lot on plan to send a request for an electronic map.

Koala State Planning Maps identify certain areas as high koala bushland, medium koala bushland and low koala bushland as well as areas suitable for rehabilitation for koala habitat.

There are very few areas in the Park Ridge Connector Route that were visited by DERM officers to do field survey checks to confirm koala habitat values for the Koala State Planning Maps, but two of them are close to the proposed PRC route

(a) Jerry's Downfall Reserve - medium value bushland

(b) a large site at the end of Virgil Rd that extends east and meets at the end of Dandaraga Ct - high value koala habitat at the end of Virgil Rd ( on east side) and medium value habitat on rest of block.

(c) a property on Hawkins Road ( Stockleigh) - high habitat value and medium habitat value

Under the State Koala Planning Policy development in koala habitat must be mitigated first - that means the proposed road corridor must first demonstrate that every effort has been made to AVOID koala habitat. Offsets are only a last resort when all other avenues have been explored.

Has Main Roads done this for the Park Ridge Connector Route?

There are concerns about the accuracy of the State Koala Planning Maps generally as very few sites were ground truthed, and the Australian Koala Foundation has their own koala mapping that they use. You can access the Australian Koala Website and enter your own koala sightings online https://www.savethekoala.com/koalamap.html

The biggest threat to koalas is the loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation.

Record your formal objection to the Park Ridge Connector Road. The Connector Road Investigations that are currently being undertaken by Logan City Council and the Department of Main Road, are to determine if there is "a viable corridor". Many concerned citizens and local community do not believe there is a viable route because this road corridor is being proposed through existing residential and rural-residential communities and biodiverse environments that cannot be replaced.

The property with signs shown above at 292 Browns Plains Road ( 92 hectares) has great historical significance to family friends and the wider community. This property has been in family ownership since 1939 and every effort to conserve the environment has been made on this property. The family does not want to sell or develop this property wanting to preserve this for conservation purposes.

The 92 hectares [200 acres] represents an area that contains valuable remnant vegetation and biodversity that has not been surveyed since 1992 by the West Logan Environment Group. Because of its proximity to Karawatha it is logical to assume that this site will have high biodiversity values as well. The intact size of this property represents such valuable ecosystem service assets that they cannot be replaced or offset. Karawatha Forest has at least 27 frog species -  some likely to be on this bushland property as well as koalas, snakes, grey headed flying fox, owl species, gliders and other wildlife whose home range includes this area.

The property is critical in protecting the water quality of Scrubby Creek, and has critical connectivity to Berrinba Wetlands area. LACA Logan and Albert Conservation Association supports protecting with adequate buffering and connectivity of all waterways and wetlands. We do not support the degrading of waterways and water quality. Water quality is a critical issue for all rivers creeks and wetland areas in Logan - as recognized by council and community committment at the July Waterways Summit and LACAs campaign to Rebuild the Rivers.

All development and infrastructure to support an increasing population with its growing perceived need for more goods and commodities ie freight has a cost. This cost is not only the dollars needed to build these structures but also a cost to community wellbeing. We NEED CLEAN AIR CLEAN WATER and FOOD in that order so remain alive. We DO NOT NEED roads for freight.

VIABLE Park Ridge Connector (PRC)  arterial - or not???

What is The Park Ridge Connector (PRC)? See TMR  link here for an explanation

What is your vision for South East Queensland - specifically the new Logan area

 - listed in government documents as Mt  Lindesay North Beaudesert Study Area. It has been and will continue to be subject to processes called "investigation" in various South East Queensland Regional Plans. As a conservation group LACA's major concern is that the landscape is being fragmented into a patchwork mishmash of disconnected bits of bushland - without long term seasonal studies of flora and fauna.

Significant areas of wetlands and regional ecosystems are threathened by these processes and archaic planning processes. To their credit Logan City and Main Roads gathered a Community Stakeholder Reference Group to determine VIABILITY of a road corridor through the new urban area of Park Ridge.

Community feedback is now being sought - without there being any analysis or discussion of the real costs if intact areas of natural environment are destroyed by a clever piece of engineering.

Globally nations have been talking about TEEB  - THE ECONOMICS OF ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY and many nations are placing a value on the benefits we receive freely from nature. The loss of functioning biodiversity has not been included in the economic analysis!!

What does viable mean? The CSRG were told - as you are told - we need this motorway to move freight. There are other options - none of which were discussed at CSRG meetings - but should be discussed.

A timely article appears in the current issue of GMAGAZINE - How the Dutch got their cycle paths. Enjoy the video here 

Dutch cities could not cope with the traffic, recognized the peak oil situation and economic crisis. People power helped government to acquire A POLITICAL WILL TO CHANGE. Can we take some advise from Ablert Einstein who said

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them

Check out the refined area of interest for a major motorway at this link

If you are concerned about the nonviabilty of a six lane 100 metre freight road corridor please make that clear on your feedback form.

Consider coming along to a LACA meeting to discuss options and work towards creating a sustainable environment for future generations.

 Contact Anne Page President3297 0624 Kathy Faldt Vice President or Ted Fensom from BREC [Brisbane Regional Environment Council] 3801 1208 to discuss your concerns.

It is also important to discuss your concerns with both your local councillor and  Logan CEO. Contact also Minister for Roads and Minister for Environment.