Koalas in Adare and Vinegar Hill - under serious threat

Koalas are probably the most environmentally significant species that would be impacted by the establishment and operation of a motocross track on the Adare property.   Impacts will come from noise, vehicle strike and possibly vegetation clearing in Stage 2 of the development.

The database

For the last few weeks our group has been collecting incidental records of koala sightings in the area of bushland which is contiguous with the vegetation in the vicinity of the proposed Adare motocross track.

We now have 66 records of koala sightings for this area.  It may not look like 66 "pins" on the map, but that's because at this scale many pins are hidden behind others.

These sightings are all within 5km of the motocross track, and almost all are within less than 4km.  The nearest is only 950 metres from the track.

All of these sightings are in vegetation types that occur on the motocross property and within 20-70 metres of the track.  These vegetation types are classified as Bushland Koala Habitat or as Essential Habitat for koalas.

Remember, these are incidental sightings. They are not the result of targeted surveys for koalas.  They are sightings that people happened to make while they were doing other things, and which they have some record of.  People don't tend to look up in trees when they are working on their land.  Even if they do, koalas are pretty cryptically marked.  They have colours which tend to blend with the bark of trees and the dark shadows in thick foliage, and they even have lighter patches around their rear ends, so that their silhouette is broken up when seen against the sky from below.  Most people never see a koala when they are walking through the bush.

Our data collection is not yet complete.  The properties where there are no koala records are almost all ones where we haven't yet tried to collect information or where we don't have access.

The Road-kill Threat

Death by vehicle strike is among the three greatest threats to koala populations in Southeast Queensland.

Adare Road runs from the big dam just to the right of bottom centre in the map vertically (north) to the entrance to the motocross track. There are more than 30 records of koalas within 250 metres of Adare Road (four of these are of koalas crossing the road, and one is of a dead koala on the road).

Koalas are active at night, and that's when they will be crossing the road.  Imagine the number of road-killed koalas there will be if there is motocross traffic on Adare Road four to six nights per week!

Comparison Between Our Data and the Government Database

The WildNet database has been built up by the State government over a number of years. It contains records of wildlife sightings and listings of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, freshwater fish, sharks and rays, butterflies and other priority invertebrates in Queensland.

The wildlife lists are based on collated species lists and wildlife records from Queensland Government departments and external organisations. The data sources include:

• specimen collections
• research and monitoring programs
• inventory programs including extension activities
• literature records
• wildlife permit returns
• community wildlife recording programs.

WildNet at present has 65 records of koalas within 10km of the motocross track.  In a few weeks members of our group, with the cooperation of the local community, have gathered 66 records within 5km of the track.  That's a fantastic effort.

It's not that the koalas weren't there before - just that this is a big State and there has never been sufficient resources to carry out the necessary surveys at the scale we need for dealing with local government planning applications.

Ultimately our records will go into the WildNet database and into the privately funded Koala Tracker database.

Why would anyone put this motocross track in a closely settled rural area?

Comment from a couple living in Adare - only 2.6km from the site of the proposed motocross track:

I can’t believe a council would put a motocross track in a rural residential area.  Rate payers have built their homes and settled into the local area never thinking Council would do this. Was Black Duck not enough!!!!!!! It seems to me they just want to move the problems and I guess that’s fine but without considering the local wildlife (we have many resident marsupials on our quiet 12 acres) and the residents who had faith in our local council that they would not approve things like this in these sorts of areas?

Is there nowhere else Motocross riders can enjoy their hobby?  How long have the applicants been paying rates?

It amounts to deception when you allow the sale of land to residents for the rates and then approve something like this.  Where will they rehouse the Koalas?

Is this a negative you want at next election?

Council has seen through these things in the past and supported the residents – I think this is another time for you to stand up and be counted.

Living near a motocross track

I doubt that many people know what it is really like to live near a motocross track.  From time to time I'll post verbatim descriptions from people who have, unfortunately, experienced this for themselves.

This is Nina's description of her family's experience - over a number of years:

I've experienced first hand the impact that persistent motocross noise and activities can have on a community. We had a family of motocross enthusiasts purchase the 40acre block next to ours and set up a motocross track, without Council permission. Every weekend saw up to 15 bikes continually buzzing around the track. The noise was insistent and unsettling for all neighbours, particularly as many had young families or had moved to the area for its' lifestyle value - quiet and peaceful. 

The end result was a lengthy (years) legal battle between Council, the Motocross enthusiasts and the surrounding landholders. Three families sold their properties and left the homes where they had intended to settle, including my own, because of the noise and disrespect of the motocross users and lack of action from Council. It is not a small issue that makes a family give up the home they have built and the place their children have grown up in. 

I would strongly advise Council to reconsider the application for the Motocross track at Adare and to listen to the concern of the local residents.

Bad noise isn't just loudness

I think most of us are aware that loud noises can harm our hearing and make it hard to concentrate on our work, even maybe that they can make us cranky.

Did you ever stop to think that there are noises that really upset you that aren't all that loud?

Think about "doof doof" music playing at a party three streets away.  (Apologies if you like that form of music).  It isn't actually the loudness that is disturbing.  It's that it goes on and on and on.  It's that we have no control over it.  We can't sleep while it is there.  Feels like someone is doing this to us and doesn't care a damn how it affects us.  You can't get away from it - it sort of seeps through the walls, under the doors, vibrates through the windows.  It happens every weekend.  It's not a sound that "belongs" in our environment - different to other sounds we are used to. We're convinced that the people who are playing this music aren't likely to be people we'd want as friends.  And it's really low frequency - which is why it is so hard to block out and why it travels so well; high and mid-frequencies get attenuated by distance, structures, etc. - low frequencies are much less attenuated.

But it's not just the low fequencies that get to us - it's all those other factors I put into the story above that stimulate and stress our systems and put it into the category of "offensive noise".

What's really dangerous about this kind of sound is that it is responsible for 75-90% of our reactions to noise (the other 10-25% is reaction to loudness).  And our reactions are things like annoyance, anger, disappointment, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, powerlessness, depression, anxiety, distraction, agitation and exhaustion.  You've probably recognised already that these are feelings and attitudes that we generally try to avoid, either because of the impacts that they have on our physical and psychologicial systems or because of how they affect our relationships with other people.

In total, what these effects of this kind of noise amounts to is impaired quality of life.  You can see an overview report I've prepared on research on these non-noise impacts here.

Guess what. The noise assessment in the application for the motocross track at Adare doesn't mention these things.  Not any of them.  Neither does it mention the impact of sound on our sleep patterns or on our children (including on their long-term study and academic futures).  Are you a shift-worker?  It doen't mention what motocross sounds will do to your sleep between 4pm and 9pm four to six nights per week, or to your ability to drive safely to and from your shift work.

But, even if you aren't under 14 years old or a shift-worker, how do you feel about knowing that the long-term disruption to sleep patterns from a motocross track could lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or depression? There's a range of research data to back up all of these possibilities.

To come back to my original point - the problems with noise are not just about loudness.  What do the environmental protection laws set as standards for noise?  Yep, loudness.

So, if you are somewhere within say four kilometres of the Adare property where it is proposed to put the motocross track (tracks!! it's planned there will eventually be five of them) then don't assume because someone tells you that the noise won't be "loud" where you live that you won't be able to hear it, or that it won't have significant impacts on your quality of life.  Don't forget that even if it isn't loud, it will be six days per week, four to six nights per week until 9.00pm, and up to 52 weeks per year.

If you want a more detailed account of the potential health impacts of motocross noise you can download it here.  Please use it to let the Lockyer Valley Region Councillors know that noise has significant health impacts that aren't necessarily related to loudness, and these need to be taken into account in making a decision about the application.  Tell them too that the potential noise impacts of the proposed motocross facility at Adare are unacceptable.

Zoning is good - it protects our rights and gives us planning certainty - right?

click on the map to enlarge

Town planning is a good thing - if there's a legislated planning scheme in place, it's going to protect you from nasty surprises, like having someone decide they want to put a motocross track a couple of kilometres from you.  Well, not really.

The red circle on the zoning map is around the applicant's property.  The red lines are each 4km long, to provide a scale.  Rather a lot of properties within 4km, especially when you include housing subdivisions, not all of which are easy to see on the plan above.  Click on the zoning map to enlarge it or look for the small subdivisions in the Google Earth shot in the blog header. There are around 900 people living within 4km of the proposed motocross track property.

You'd have to wonder why any developer would bother lodging an application for a motocross track on a property less than 5km from a regional centre (Gatton) on land that is zoned Rural Uplands, Rural Agricultural and Rural General.  Not something that any of us in this part of the Lockyer Valley would have expected could ever happen.

You'd think that if you lived in or near a Rural Agricultural Zone you'd be safe from this kind of nonsene.  This is the best agricultural land in the Lockyer Valley, one of the top agricultural areas in the world.  Rural Uplands is another zone you'd expect to be pretty secure.  That's where the "special" natural areas are that aren't in some kind of protected status.  Have a look at the map below and see the way they lie on the margins of the two national parks - Lockyer National Park in the northern part of the Valley, and Glen Rock National Park in the south.

If you are in any of the Rural Agricultural or Rural Uplands zones in the zoning map on the right - this could happen to you as easily as it has happened to us.  Or maybe more easily, considering that our area is within 5km of the Gatton CBD and is a logical area for expansion of closer subdivision as the other available suitable land is taken up (there's very little remaining around the margins of Gatton).

Between Gatton and the proposed motocross land is ideal subdivision country - rolling hills, views north to the forested slopes in the Lockyer NP, cooling breezes coming down off the hills.  We've already got a reasonable network of roads and the sewage treatment plant is on this side of town, so the infrastructre costs of subdivision be lower.

Allowing this motocross facility to go ahead would alienate all the land in the area from subdivision - thus removing an important town planning option for the Council.

If you're at all worried that this could happen to you, or even that the current motocross track proposal could relocate to your area if it is refused here, or you just want to help us keep this proposal at bay - phone, write to, or email the Councillors who have been elected to represent your interests and tell them that a motocross facility at Adare, or in any of these zone types in the Lockyer Valley, just isn't on.

Here are their contact details: Mayor Steve Jones (sjones@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0408 981736); Councillor Peter Friend (pfriend@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0488 235 403); Councillor Janice Holstein (jholstein@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0417 303 582); Councillor Jim McDonald (jmcdonald@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0403 044 157); Councillor Kathy McLean (kmclean@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0427 656 630); Deputy Mayor Tanya Milligan (tmilligan@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0402 241 760); Councillor Derek Pingel (dpingel@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0408 716 062).

The applicant's noise assessment - trust us, we're "professionals"

Just going through the application document preparing a summary overview of the problems with the proposed motocross "training facility" and had got to the Noise Assessment.

It's written mostly in technical jargon but occasionally they lapse into real English, particularly when they think they've got a statement to make that shows the motocross track in a good light.

I'd just got to the part where the Noise Assessment consultant is saying that the predicted noise levels are “considered conservative as noise sources adopted in the modelling are all of bikes assumed to be under acceleration but in real life the bikes will at times be off the throttle (i.e. braking as the bikes come into a corner), which would result in lower overall noise emissions.” 

Mmm ... maybe.

Then an email came in from a friend who is an "experienced dirt bike rider, having competed in motocross and ‘enduro’ at a national level.  I was also involved with Motorcycling Queensland in an organisational capacity for many years.  This experience gives me a greater understanding of the noise pollution generated by a facility like the MTF. "

His view is that " The style of riding is a significant contributor to the noise level generated i.e. using full throttle in an irregular manner, as compared to ‘smooth riding’, creates the largest impact.  This is an essential element of motocross riding."

Over the years I've come to the view that a basic principle in advertising and public relations is that if you want to sell a "product" which is actually pretty crappy, take its negative features and say that the exact opposite is true.  The same kind of thinking seems to have invaded professional fields, or are noise assessments being done by public relations consultants?

Nice idea - just in totally the WRONG PLACE

When I say "nice idea" I'm referring to the idea of a small, one MX track, training facility for anyone who wants to learn to ride an MX bike, or to improve their riding.  That's a good thing. BUT it's still incredibly noisy - not "ordinary" noisy. Very very noisy.  Have a look at the page above on what an MX bike is.

It still involves a lot of traffic to and from the track - in the case of this one, up to 150 vehicles coming and going each day it's in operation - on narrow country roads with unsealed shoulders and through local intersections not designed for this level of traffic.  Traffic after 9.00pm on four week nights and on an unspecified number of weekends.

You'd think that this would be the sort of activity that would be sited somewhere out in the countryside where there are big properties and few houses.  Not in this case.  We've calculated that there are about 900 people living within four kilometres of the property where the track is proposed to be constructed, and more than 300 of these are under 19 years old, so mostly likely to be in school or early childhood.
--> [1] --> [2]  Can you imaging getting young children to bed with an MX soundtrack going.  Or older children concentrating on their homework.  Or shiftworkers trying to get to sleep in the evening.  That's not MX track country - that's the outer edges of a country town.
In fact the property is less than five kilometres from the Gatton CBD.

It also involves the construction and maintenance of an MX track - if you don't have any experience of MX track maintenance I'd suggest going to the Qld Moto Park website and having a look for photos of work on their tracks.  Or better still, have a look at this video for a look at a variety of MX tracks and track construction.  An MX track is an ongoing earthworks project, requiring regular "dressing" of the surface so that it doesn't develop ruts and holes that are not only dangerous but prevent riders from reaching top speeds.  When an MX track is proposed to be put adjacent to one of the least developed creeks (Redbank Creek) where it flows out of the Lockyer National Park forests, then there's every likelihood that if large amounts of sediment and other pollution doesn't get into the creek on a regular basis, it surely will when we get one of the massive rainfall events that seem to be getting more and more common lately.

Redbank Creek already floods and there are businesses (employing more than 200 people) and housing estates, all within only a few kilometres downstream who already get affected by floods from Redbank Creek.  If sediment from this development raises the stream bed or otherwise stops floodwaters from getting away there will be much more severe flooding.

So, it's not an anti-bike thing.  Hell, I rode bikes for more than 20 years, probably about eight different bikes, everything from a step-through to trail bikes and high-speed touring bikes.

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[1] Sources: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/quickstats and Google Earth imagery and overlays to locate houses and properties within specified radii of the properties.

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[2] Compiled using the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census Data for the localities closest in proximity to the proposed development.  Where census data is not available at the necessary scale for a locality, extrapolations have been made from an adjacent locality close to the proposed development.