Northside Chronicle.

Quest Newspaper Group

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 Page 1.

Gliders lose home

By John Smith

A squirrel glider colony will be sacrificed to make way for an expanding housing estate in Boondall's Holme Ave.

Brisbane City Council is expected to give formal approval to Villaworld developers within a week to build the latest stage of College Green.

Urban planning committee chairman Tim Quinn said the glider colony was small, isolated and could not be moved.

"We're advised that to retain this habitat, virtually the whole of this land would have to be kept free of development - even then, the medium-term survival of this group is doubtful," Cr Quinn said.

He said Villaworld would be asked to fund glider habitat protection elsewhere in Brisbane.

"It could be in the order of $30,000", Cr Quinn said.

Queensland Greens spokesman Drew Hutton said council had ignored an ecological survey on the bushland which revealed a thriving colony of gliders.

Mr Hutton said squirrel gliders were endangered in Victoria and New South Wales due to forest clearing, and in south-east Queensland most forests would disappear within 30 years.

"The Soorley administration claims to have strong green credentials and yet this approval shows it is an integral part of the problem of disappearing habitat in the south-east," Mr Hutton said.

Villaworld chief executive officer Doug Merritt said he was still negotiating with council and had no comment.

Environmental activist and Save Our Squirrel Gliders member Barry Wilson said the animals were restricted to older forests because they lived in tree hollows.

"Without the hollows, magpies, crows, goannas and carpet snakes will kill them," Mr Wilson said.

"If council is approving development on land with squirrel glider habitat, then those actions are of a Lord Mayor whose thumb is gangrene, not green."

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