Plans have been submitted to Council for a 75 unit development at Birkdale Fair. Additional shops and restaurants will be included. The development will be built around the existing Woolworths complex with units along the wall facing Mary Pleasant Drive and units/shops/restaurants built above the existing car park. Parking will be provided at basement level.

The development does not have to be publicly advertised and it fails to meet Council Planning requirements on many levels.
If you would like to organise/attend a public meeting please email admin@savemaryst.com

UPDATE – March 2011

Council has assesed the initial application and requested...

With construction of the Mary St social housing units nearing completion now is
the time to review our local koala corridor.

Mary St itself appears intact with koalas moving from the scout den towards the
Thorne Rd trees. The conservation area appears intact but the management plan
has yet to be implemented. But the two are now separated by 16 housing units.

Koalas can no longer access the trees or conservation area through the...

After months of mesh fencing around the site, Workplace Health & Safety ordered sheet fencing to be erected – not very koala friendly! After another round of emails, the Dept. of Housing have provided escape poles to ensure safe passage of our local koalas. Permanent fencing for the units will, apparently,  also be koala friendly. We shall wait and see.

Before and after images

After the damage done by the demolition on the 17th of June (see post below), the site arborist arrived to mark the tree protection zones on the 22nd of June. Too little, too late. The photos below show the orange line of the tree protection zone and within this are the damaged roots of the eucalypts along Thorne Road. Another State Government failure.

Below is a series of images of damage done to the tree roots of the eucalypts along Thorne Road. During the demolition (17/06/10) of the existing house, no tree protection zones were marked and as a result considerable damage was done to the tree roots. Despite the arborist report stating that the areas must be defined before machinery is on site, this did not happen.

Thanks for your further email this morning which I received whilst preparing this response.

Following DERMs on site visit and discussions with the arborist and DoC last week, a further inspection was carried out by officers of the Queensland Herbarium, which is part of DERM. The Herbarium also reviewed both reports.  We considered this important in view of the concerns you have raised and DERM’s interest in having strong independent advice when forming a view on this matter.  The Herbarium’s inspection indicated that the planned excavations are expected to have minimal impact on the trees outside the northern property boundary.  Consequently, DERM is confident that the excavation will have minimal impact on the trees provided it is conducted as planned.

On both occasions the opportunity was taken to consider how to further minimise these impacts as well as to the retained trees in the south west corner of the site.

If I can provide a specific respond to each of your concerns:

“we consider that having the consultant...

The letter below is the response to the many letters that the community sent to the QLD Premier requesting her to intervene. Rather than reply herself, she had Karen Struthers respond on her behalf.

Letter to the Save Mary St Group

Come along to the protest rally at the Mary St scout den on Saturday 05 June at 10:15am to get the details on why this letter fails to address the concerns of the community.

The plans for the proposed development at 2-6 Mary St have been sent to Redland City Council for further consideration. The plans were accompanied by an arborist report commissioned by the QLD State Government.

On Friday afternoon (28/05/10) we received a threatening phone call to a private number regarding the posting of information on this website. The caller refused to identify himself other than his first name despite repeated requests. When asked who he worked for he replied ‘himself’. All information on this website has either been written by us or has been released to us with the QLD State Government’s permission.

Our arborbist also received an abusive anonymous phonecall when his report was first released.

Until we receive a request from the QLD State Government to remove the infomation that they provided, it will remain.

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The...

Today the QLD State Government locked in a koala on land at 2-6 Mary St, Birkdale after it erected construction fencing around the block. Rather than following the actual boundary of the block, the State Government placed the fence on council-owned land and fenced in several gum trees, one of which was home to a koala.

The fence came as a surprise to local residents who have been waiting for the State Government and the Redland City Council to release details of the State’s arborist report and revised plans for the development. Despite council having these details for at least 2 weeks and submitting a response to the State Government, local residents have been left in the dark by councillors and council officers regarding the protection of the koala feed trees along the Thorne Road boundary.

Today’s...

This morning the resident koala of 2-6 Mary St was allowed to exit after the safety construction fencing was partially dismantled. However the koala was still obstructed by a section of fencing when it moved towards another gum tree and only the actions of local residents kept it from running on to the road into heavy school traffic.

Still no information has been provided by the State Government or Redland City Council on any revisions to the plans and vegetation management.

Council laws ignored as housing project begins

Minister checks on new housing project