Also see this campaign summary(pdf) about how Pooh Corner's conservation values were protected.
After a two week intense public awareness campaign organised by Friends of Pooh Corner, the Federal Government announced at the end of April 2005 that the 1.4 sq km Pooh Corner bushland site (surplus Defence land) will no longer be sold off to developers.
Instead the federal Government gave Pooh Corner to the Brisbane City Council for $1 to be managed as a nature conservation reserve.
This is an outstanding "people power" victory for the people of Brisbane.
In late February 2005, two parcels of Defence land at Wacol were put up for sale by the Federal Government . One of these parcels of land is adjacent to the Ipswich Motorway, Sanananda Barracks (107 ha).
The other parcel of public land the Federal Government sell off is known as Pooh Corner (138 ha). Pooh Corner is very well known by people in south west Brisbane, as the home to the large population of eastern grey kangaroos that frequently eat and relax outside the jail on Wacol Station road. This is Brisbane's last viable population of eastern grey kangaroos, which is listed as a significant species by the Brisbane City Council.
The home of these kangaroos at Pooh Corner is a 1.4 sq kilometre tract of bush/forest, for which 80% is an endangered forest ecosystem. These endangered ecosystems are protected under State Government law meaning any developer who buys the land will not be able to get a permit to clear most if any of the vegetation at Pooh Corner.
Pooh Corner is home to 26 species of animals and 16 plant species which are significant at the Federal, State and/or Local level - ie. they are rare, or vulnerable. See more.
Pooh Corner is unique within the Brisbane metropolitan area and should be kept in public ownership as a public nature conservation reserve.
The Commonwealth's decision to sell off Pooh corner into private ownership, flies in the face of the Brisbane City Council's own development plan that nominates the area as a "parkland for conservation purposes".
In January 2001 former Brisbane City Mayor Jim Soorley slammed the way the Department of Defence was disposing of high conservation land at Wacol (Pooh corner) at a Senate inquiry in Brisbane. See more.
Teresa Gambaro (Federal Member
for the Brisbane seat of Petrie), in her position as Parliamentary Secretary
to the Minister for Defence made the decision to sell Pooh Corner without
public consultation despite the high nature conservation values.
See more.
Pooh Corner is almost entirely
protected from clearing and development by State and Local laws, because
of endangered forest ecosystems, creeks and wetlands cover the 1.4
sq km site. See more.
It is home to Brisbane's
last population of Eastern Grey kangaroos - these are seen by thousands
of people each day who drive along Wacol Station road. See
more.
See media page for newspaper articles and radio that occurred during the campaign to save Pooh Corner in 2005.
Developers Beware - an information page to warn off potential buyers of Pooh Corner.