Last week the Kuranda Region Planning Group issued a media release complaining that once again Owen and Warrill Creeks are running turbid.

These two watercourses flow through the large property in the Myola Valley recently acquired by developer Ken Lee. Both creeks are known habitat for the Kuranda Tree Frog – an extremely rare, endemic and critically endangered frog species found in only a few creeks along the Myola Valley

Mr Lee has proposed the property is developed as a massive new tourist resort and residential development. He says his vision is for an ‘Eco-Resort’. Yet damage his site-works have already caused to the habitat of endangered species throw a question mark over his ‘ecotourism’ credentials.

In response to the media release, Mr Lee’s latest environmental manager, Neil Boland, was quoted by the Cairns Post saying that his agency undertook testing earlier this week during the first major rainfall of the season.

“We actually found the water leaving the site was cleaner than the water entering the site,” he said. “That’s because controls that have been going on, on site.”

Kuranda Region Planning Group calls on Mr Boland to make his data public, so we can share his confidence that the land Mr Lee proposes for a ‘Kur-World’ eco-resort is now being managed responsibly.

His data should also establish which other adjacent landowners, if any, contribute significantly to pollution of these important creeks.

KRPG also calls for adequate governmental oversight. The Kuranda Tree Frog is not the only endangered and rare species in the Myola Valley, but it is iconic and with co-ordinated action it may be possible to save the species. Unfortunately, to date, there has been inter-governmental buck-passing and a lack of effective action by any level of government.

More than a decade has elapsed since the Kuranda Tree Frog was identified as one of Australia’s rarest frog species. Where is the Threatened Species Recovery Program?

For further information contact:- Steven Nowakowski