The property developer Walker Group says its proposed Toondah Harbour development is unlikely to have a significant impact on the size of eastern curlew populations due to a substantial decline in the number of birds migrating to Australia.
The analysis is contained in a long-awaited draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the apartment and retail project, which would see up to 3,600 dwellings constructed at the Ramsar-listed Moreton Bay wetlands in Queensland.
The company said on Wednesday its EIS was based on the “indisputable evidence of 11 independent scientists” and the development would be a “major economic and lifestyle boost” that also protected the environment.
“Crucially, scaremongering about negative environmental impacts to bird life, marine ecology and koalas has been proven wrong by the best, independent science,” Toondah Harbour spokesperson Dolan Hayes said.
Kelly O’Shanassy, the chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the EIS was “fantasy”.
“The idea that the birds will simply find somewhere else to go doesn’t pass the sniff test. This isn’t how nature works,” she said.
“BirdLife Australia says the global population of eastern curlews has declined by 80% in the past 30 years, largely because similar commercial projects have been built across their range.”
Birdlife Australia, which has steadfastly opposed the development, said it was “absolutely shocking” that concerns raised by scientists had been described as scaremongering.
The organisation’s chief executive, Paul Sullivan, said that if approved, the project would not only affect habitat for wildlife in Australia but would also have “global ramifications by undermining the Ramsar treaty”.
The project proposes up to 3,600 dwellings, including apartments, shops and a hotel as well as a 200-berth marina.
About 42ha of the development would be within the boundaries of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site, a wetland of international significance that provides habitat for migratory birds, including the critically endangered eastern curlew and great knot and the endangered lesser sand plover.
Last week the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, included the eastern curlew on a list of 110 priority species in a revamped threatened species action plan.
In its assessment, Walker Group said the project would probably have a significant impact on the curlew because it would clear 28.9ha of tidal flat feeding habitat, about 0.29% of the available feeding habitat.
However, the company assessed this was unlikely to lead to a long-term decrease in the size of eastern curlew populations because there had already been an 81% decline in the size of populations migrating to Australia in the past 30 years.
They said this meant Moreton Bay would still retain significant carrying capacity in available foraging habitat and it could be “reasonably expected” the curlews and three other affected migratory birds – the great knot, the lesser sand plover and the bar-tailed godwit – would use other foraging habitat nearby.
“Consequently, the loss of 0.29% of tidal flat feeding habitat in Moreton Bay is unlikely to lead to a long-term decrease in the size of the eastern curlew population,” the assessment states.
O’Shanassy said the mud flats at Toondah Harbour were an essential recuperation site when the birds touched down after their annual migration to the northern hemisphere and back.
“It should be out of the question for a massive commercial project to be approved on the feeding grounds of a threatened migratory bird that has just been confirmed as a priority species,” she said.
Sean Dooley, of Birdlife Australia, said the notion that the area was not worth protecting because there were so few eastern curlews left “exposes the brutal nihilism of the development at any cost mindset”.
“Any possibility of the species recovering in the future is dismissed, so they ask us to accept the destruction of habitat that will be essential if the population of eastern curlews was to bounce back,” Dooley said.
Walker Group’s assessment finds the site is also important for Cleveland’s urban koala population but says the project will not have a significant impact on the endangered species.
The company said an underpass would be built to remove the greatest threat of increased traffic and 1,000 new koala feed trees would be planted.
The Toondah Harbour project has had a controversial history. In 2020, Guardian Australia revealed Walker Group lobbied the previous federal government to remove protections from an area of the wetlands as a matter of “urgent national interest”.
The draft EIS has been published for public consultation and submissions until 6 December.
