Queensland Ecological News and Insights

Type a Queensland address into biodiversitychecker.au and get a free report on koala habitat, threatened species, weeds and waterways. Built by seven students at Peachester State School, with the technology donated by Queensland Ecologists.

If your Queensland approval conditions an ESCP, or you will disturb more than 2,500 square metres, you need a certified erosion and sediment control plan before earthworks. Who signs it, what each SEQ council asks for, and the fines if you skip it.

Queensland’s regulated vegetation management map was re-certified on 3 September 2026, and clearing from now is assessed against that version. Check your lot, and lock the categories in with a PMAV before you clear, sell, subdivide or lodge.

Somerset Region Planning Scheme Version 5.0 has applied since 4 June 2026. Council’s own koala habitat map and koala outcomes are gone, the clearing exemptions were rewritten as locally accepted vegetation clearing, and the catchment table now points to the Biodiversity overlay code. What to check, and the one-year section 29 window.

H5 bird flu is confirmed in Queensland: a petrel on Moreton Island (25 July 2026) and a shearwater at Castaways Beach (25 August). What landholders, developers and survey crews must report, what changes on site, and what does not.

Land mapped high risk on the flora survey trigger map may require a flora survey before clearing. What the trigger map requires, where category X and a development approval leave you short, and what to do when the clearing has already happened.

Council previously indicated Logan Plan would commence in late 2026, but after more than 4,000 submissions and ongoing flood mapping work it is reviewing the timeline. What the current overlays control, what a council scheme does not change, and the one year superseded scheme window.

Fraser Coast Regional Council has proposed Amendment Package 1, re-cutting biodiversity, waterways and wetlands mapping to align with State MSES, adding a new environmental assessments policy and removing the standalone Vegetation Management Code. Consultation closed 1 May 2026 and submissions are under review.

Gympie Regional Council has a biodiversity TLPI in force from 23 February 2026. What developers and landowners need to know about the overlay, the Rural Zone, and vegetation clearing while the new planning scheme is prepared.

Gladstone is tightening controls on clearing in its Biodiversity Overlay and progressing a full code amendment. Here is what developers, landowners and planners need to prepare in 2026.