TO: Mareeba Shire Council
FROM: Jax Bergersen, Kuranda Conservation Community Nursery
DATE: 9 MAY 2017

For the attention of Mayor Tom Gilmore and Councillors, please

Over the last couple of years, Kuranda Conservation (KCons) has been collecting data relating to cassowaries in the Kuranda region.  This data is currently being uploaded to the national Wildnet database. This concentrated effort has revealed that Kuranda supports twice as many cassowaries than previously estimated. There may be a couple of reasons why this is so.  One is that, for the first time, there has been a point of contact, widely publicised, to which sightings are able to be reported.  Secondly, control of dogs is having a positive effect on the safety of all wildlife, including cassowaries.  For this, we acknowledge the success of Council’s Local Laws and policies and prompt efforts in responding to reports of straying dogs.

KCons believes this new data is of local environmental significance and therefore contributes to the environmental significance overlay of the Mareeba Shire Planning Scheme.

As a member of the community network, Kuranda Region Planning Group (KRPG), we understand Council has appointed consultants to update the environmental significance overlay and we ask that we be included in your list of stakeholders to be consulted with.

Thank you in anticipation,

Jax Bergersen
Secretary
Kuranda Conservation Community Nursery