Wildlife zones and habitats

Queensland is home to many unique animals. With the ongoing expansion of our towns and road networks people are coming into contact with these animals more often.

How you can protect our wildlife.

• Keep dogs and cats under control at night—most attacks on native wildlife happen at night.
• Keep dogs away from koalas—if a dog is disturbing a koala in a tree, remove the dog from the area so that the koala can come down from the tree and leave unharmed.
• Train your dog to stop chasing other animals—if you are concerned that your dog may chase a koala, consider obedience training.
• Follow recommended speed limits when driving through areas known for active wildlife—these speed limits are set to give you time to react if an animal is crossing the road.

Flinders Karawatha Corridor

To connect known wildlife habitats, we keep ‘corridors’ of unbroken bushland to allow animals to move safely from one area to another.

In partnership with local government and the community, we are committed to maintaining and enhancing the Flinders Karawatha Corridor.

The corridor is the largest remaining continuous stretch of open eucalypt bushland in South East Queensland and is a significant landscape feature for the region.

It extends from Karawatha Forest in Brisbane’s southern suburbs to Flinders Peak, onto the south side of Ipswich and down to the Wyaralong Dam near Boonah.

The corridor is about 563.5km² (or 56,350ha) and about 60km long.

In comparison:

• Brisbane Forest Park (now officially the southern part of D'Aguilar National Park) is about 25,000ha
• North Stradbroke Island is about 285km² (or 28,500ha) and 38km long.

The corridor includes a range of distinctive habitats including rocky hills, wetlands and eucalypt forest. Abundant plant and animal life depends on these habitats, including several rare and threatened flora and fauna, such as:

• powerful owl
• brush-tailed rock wallaby
• koala
• wallum froglet 
• Lloyd’s native olive—one of the rarest plants in Queensland
• Flinders plum—a rare Australian rainforest tree.

Funding

Funding is available for people who would like to maintain protected wildlife habitat on their own properties.

Koala Habitat Program

The Koala Habitat Program is part of our actions to address the declining koala population in Queensland.

We will invest up to $22.5 million between 2012 and 2015 to strategically acquire land in South East Queensland to:

• create new koala habitat
• connect South East Queensland’s mature koala habitat
• provide additional recreational opportunities for the community.

Funding will be distributed over the life of the project.

Each year, we will collect expressions of interest (EOI) from the public to identify suitable properties.

EOIs for round 1 closed on 31 October 2012. 

Details of further rounds will be available in 2013.

Find out how to apply for a grant.

NatureAssist

NatureAssist is a grants program where money is paid to landholders who are williong to sign a nature refuge agreement over part or all of the property, conserving it as a habitat for wildlife.

Not all applications are accepted. NatureAssist is a competitive tender process and only the tenders that offer the best value for money in protecting and managing conservation values are chosen.

More information on the NatureAssist funding program is available on the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection website.