Queensland koala funding diverted to rollercoaster could be much better spent, experts say

The Queensland government diverted $2.7m in funding for Dreamworld koala research facility to build a new rollercoaster. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

The Queensland government’s decision to quietly divert $2.7m from what it had previously promised would be a state-of-the-art koala research facility to build a rollercoaster instead was a public relations disaster.

But the Queensland Conservation Council director, Dave Copeman, is not mourning the loss of the jettisoned Future Lab wildlife research centre at Dreamworld, nor its impact on marsupials recently declared endangered.