Joy over victory on cassowary reserve

THE Mission Beach community will celebrate next week when a long- running campaign to save a critical patch of cassowary habitat culminates in a new nature refuge.

Community members are gathering on Tuesday at Lot 66, a section of remnant rainforest that grabbed national headlines 10 years ago when former federal environment minister Peter Garrett preempted state and local government decision- making processes to rule out plans for a subdivision.

Queensland Trust for Nature and local conservation group C4 will unveil the nature refuge sign at the event, which is open to the public. The two organisations bought Lot 66 in 2011 after a major fundraising effort.

Queensland Trust for Nature’s Tanya Pritchard said the recent change in tenure, to a nature refuge, meant the Mission Beach community’s campaign to protect the 24ha site was now complete.

“It’s great to see Lot 66 join the 500 other nature refuges that have been gazetted in Queensland,” she said.

C4 president Peter Rowles said ongoing protection on strategic private land was critical to connecting large areas of publicly- owned habitat. He said Lot 66 gave cassowaries access to seasonal coastal food supplies.

Mission Beach Cassowaries’ Liz Gallie paid tribute to decades of community commitment and cassowary- focused partnerships. She said other important cassowary corridors at Mission Beach also needed protection.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said Lot 66 was a critical link in the longest and widest east- west rainforest corridor in Australia.