Tell the Olympics Minister: We want a Koala Positive Games!

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This week the State Government announced its new Olympics venue plan. This included making the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre (QSCAC) one of the main venues. QSAC is surrounded on two sides by important habitat, home to powerful owls, squirrel gliders and dozens of Koalas. We are concerned that the redevelopment will involve bulldozing adjacent bushland.

There are also plans to build a new whitewater paddling facility in the Redlands, on a property right next to core Koala habitat. Local conservation groups are strongly opposed, as they know this property is also a safe haven for koalas and range of other wildlife.

The Olympics should be a model of best practice development, not yet another threat to our iconic endangered species.

Can you take 1 minute to email Olympics Minister Grace Grace and ask her to commit to a "Koala positive Olympic Games?"

This could mean protecting and restoring koala habitat, and even celebrating the koala by making it a mascot of the Games.

What a legacy to leave, if our Olympics can be a climate, nature and koala positive games!

We have a huge opportunity to regenerate and showcase our green and wild cities to the world, and ensure the survival of our Koalas for generations to come.

Send an email to Olympics Minister Grace Grace

Dear Minister Grace Grace,
The Olympic Games in 2032 is an amazing opportunity to showcase what we love most about South East Queensland, its unique natural environment and iconic wildlife.
Yet I am worried about the Games. I am concerned that the development of the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre (QSAC) in Nathan could impact on the surrounding bushland, which is home to a thriving koala population.
Similarly, the whitewater facility proposed for Birkdale in Redlands adjoins core koala habitat. The proposed site itself is known by locals as a safe haven for koalas and other wildlife.
That is why I support making the Koala one of our Olympic mascots and ask that you please make this a "Koala-Positive Games?"
Koalas were uplisted to an endangered species in 2022, and while the South East Queensland (SEQ) Koala Conservation Strategy, and tireless work of local communities has done much to arrest the disastrous decline in koala numbers, it hasn't gone far enough!
We are still losing koala habitat year on year in SEQ, mostly to development and infrastructure to support it. We cannot afford to lose any more habitat trees. No amount of money or intervention will save our wild SEQ koala populations down the track, if we don't have enough habitat for them to feed and roam.
The Olympics should not come at the expense of our koalas. It needs to be a Koala-Positive Olympics.
There is a critical need to protect, reconnect and restore our cities' green spaces, as we develop and move towards greater density.
And this a huge opportunity for everyone in SEQ to showcase how lucky we are to live alongside our much loved wildlife. To have biodiverse, green spaces throughout our cities, providing fresh air, climate resilience and habitat for our endangered species like the powerful owls, gliders and koalas.
Yours,

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