Wallaby plan has all-clear

DEVELOPERS of a housing estate at Trinity Beach have “ticked all the boxes” for wallaby management set by Cairns Regional Council.

Division 9 councillor Brett Olds took a tour of the burgeoning Bluewater estate yesterday, giving the developers the all-clear upon his return.

He said exclusion fencing had been installed in an effort to direct the colonies, which have been increasingly straying into urban areas, into nearby Moores Gully.

“The council checks before, during and after the development to make sure they’re complying with the (development approval),” he said.

“As far as I can see, they are squeaky clean.”

Cr Olds said he was surprised by the amount of available grassland in the Moores Valley area and was shown a culvert the developers kept open as a wallaby crossing.

“There’s actually more land there than there is up towards the highway,” he said. “The fences are all there. “They told me that any wallabies killed on this section of road were either finding a way around (the fences) or were coming from a different section.”

Regardless of the measures being taken, Cr Olds said the wallaby populations were causing problems and were a danger to motorists.

He said getting the public, different tiers of government and wildlife groups into the same room was crucial to finding a solution.

“I still think having an advisory committee is the answer,” he said.

“That way we have the professionals telling us all what’s going on and we can make decisions. Otherwise, people go off with half-cocked ideas.”