REDLAND City Council and the state government have made a pact to work together to protect the city's dwindling koala population.
The news came after Environment Minister Steven Miles announced a $12million "lifeline" over four years for koalas across the South East to be included in next week's state budget.
The agreement is less than a year since residents lobbied the state for action following the deaths of two koalas at an Ormiston residential development.
The additional money would be on top of an existing $2.6million a year to protect koalas in the south east and in particular along the Koala Coast, which covers Redlands.
Mr Miles said it was allocated after a University of Queensland report found the koala numbers in the south east were falling rapidly.
Some of the money will go to an expert panel to address the report's dismal findings and draw up a conservation plan for the species.
The UQ report found koala population densities in suburbs south east of Brisbane, emcompassing Redlands, dropped about 80 per cent between 1996 and 2014.
To Brisbane’s north, in the Pine Rivers region, koala population densities fell around 54per cent over the same period.
Each year, about 340 koalas are taken to koala hospitals in south-east Queensland after being it by cars and a further 100 after being attacked by dogs.
Last year, the Palaszczuk Government accepted a recommendation by an independent scientific panel to list the koala as vulnerable.
The listing followed a refusal by the LNP to do so.
Members of Redland organisation Koala Action Group will be invited to give advice.
Capalaba MP Don Brown said he was looking forward to working with the council and the Koala Action Group to find the best uses for the funding.
Mayor Karen Williams said the two levels of government would identify areas in Redlands for koala safe habitats.
She said North Stradbroke Island was on top of the list.
“The data provided by the recent government-commissioned report clearly showed that urban development and koalas don’t mix and Minister Miles and I agree that we need to look at other options," she said.
Mr Brown said next Tuesday's budget would continue the government's push to find new industries for Straddie after mining ended in 2019.
"(We will be) doing all this while maintaining the low per person tax rate of $766 which is less per head than the Australian average," he said.
Council has funded a trial of a vaccine for the deadly chlamydia virus and conducted heat mapping of wildlife corridors.
It also has plans to plant 1 million native plants over the next four years while launching an education program on dogs and koalas.
