11/09/2026
“Progress” comes with a body count.
Despite the often brutal and soul-crushing reality we face as rescuers every day, I like to think I've done my best to keep my content light and even-tempered which is rarely easy to do.
I try to remain respectful with the content I post because what we do is very emotionally charged, and I don't want that to affect the stories I am trying to share — especially those which draw out so much hurt and anger. But, after our recent tragedy, I'm not in the mood to overly cushion and sugar-coat things, so I'm going to rant a little.
What Ipswich City Council is allowing to happen to our bushland is far from a joke.
When I think about the posts I still have yet to share from just our western corridor — the rescues we’ve done, the koalas we’ve lost — it's blood-boiling.
On Tuesday, the 8th of September, we received a call from the RSPCA for a koala hit by car in Rosewood. Before they even finished giving the location, I could guess where we’d be heading and I was right. Karrabin Rosewood Road, behind Rosewood Green.
Lamar, as our callers named him, was noticed by chance by a passing motorist on the roadside. He had sustained serious injuries to his lower body, including a visibly broken hind leg, and yet he persisted in trying to flee the road and seek comfort in the bushland he called home.
Thankfully, members of the public were able to contain him beneath a tub until rescue could arrive. We were onsite and had him loaded into the Ambo within 10 minutes of receiving the call.
Seeing him was heartbreaking. To think of the pain he was in, and to wonder how long he had been suffering because whoever hit him didn’t bother to call him in. But right at the forefront of all those emotions was anger at Council, and at the State Government.
Anger at every person responsible for giving the green light for this beautiful boy’s home to be cleared because evidently, to them, he doesn’t matter. His whole colony ‘doesn’t matter’.
At the original planning of Stage One of the Rosewood Green Estate, the land surrounding the proposed site was deemed essential habitat and afforded some level of protection for our local wildlife in accordance with the 2007 Koala Mapping Regime.
So, when ground broke, the development was to include a designated koala corridor to offset the damage caused by its construction. Now, as the newest stage of the development gets underway, that ‘u-beaut koala café’ they planted alongside the Rosewood Golf Course boundary fence has been mulched in half.
Right as those young trees had become an active and essential part of the local koala population’s daily lives, they were wiped out.
Thanks to a change in State mapping for koala habitat, the area is no longer considered a significant enough environment to warrant the necessary level of protection. So not only can they knock down what they want — there’s no need to offset what they’ve destroyed.
This information was brought to the public’s attention by Councillor Jim Madden back in April, when clearing commenced.
The corridor still had the protective shrouds around the bases of the trees when they were destroyed. They couldn’t even be bothered to collect their rubbish before shredding everything into several massive piles of “not my problem”.
Yet, in the Rosewood Green Masterplan, they boast of “stunning views… and koala corridors”. If they are such an attractive selling point to your development, how ‘bout you try to actually give a s**t about them rather than tearing down their lives at the first opportunity.
Lamar was hit in the very place Stanley, a koala collected by Kirsty’s Bird Sanctuary, was hit on the 7th of August 2025.
After a miraculous recovery, Stanley was released back into his home range on the 10th of September that same year, only to be hit and killed attempting to cross this same stretch of road on the 20th of November.
We have responded to several sightings of koalas crossing there. We have made posts in an effort to create public awareness.
We have staked out signs in every hotspot after sightings, as have other community members, only for Council to remove all of them — as well as their flashing Variable Message Signs — in the days before the annihilation of that koala corridor.
Now, we have Lamar.
We had him into Wacol and seen by the vets immediately.
He was three years old, 7 kilos, and a body score of 8/10. He had sustained horrific injuries, including a compound fracture of his left femur. He had cuts and abrasions across his beautiful little face, as well as further internal damage.
His injuries were too severe to recover from, so he was euthanised to prevent any further pain and suffering.
He was absolutely robbed of a life. He was hit and left behind like trash.
This is what “progress” looks like when wildlife is treated as an inconvenience. A bulldozed corridor. A road with no safe passage. A koala trying to survive the only way he knows how, only to end up another body to the count.
What is it going to take for Council to start caring about our local biodiversity?
How many koalas is the Queensland Government going to allow to be sacrificed before they start listening?
This is the second koala hit and killed on Karrabin Rosewood Road — that we know of — in 3 weeks. What’s worse is that this is only the beginning. We work through the western corridor and everywhere we go, we are being told is now sold or pending sale for more housing developments.
Girral Road, Yarrow Road, Dawn Phase 3, Taylor's Road, O'Shea's Gully, the Rosewood Green expansion, the list goes on. Everywhere across Walloon to Rosewood is being bought up by developers — the majority of which is koala habitat — with surveys suggesting the impact would be minimal or that there's "a chance" that land is being used by koalas but there's "no evidence" to support that claim. 🙄
We are not against development. But we ARE against unsustainable, ecologically devastating urban expansion. The blatant disregard for our wild spaces despite the KNOWN presence of several threatened and endangered species is past alarming — it's downright scary.
The longer they ignore the pleas and knowledge of residents, the higher the death toll will grow until they are locally extinct. By the way they are acting, that seems to be exactly what they want.
I'll leave off with a final, gentle reminder to the residents, of the importance of being vigilant while driving.
Koalas move through their home range at any time of day, and that home is endlessly shrinking thanks to stupidity such as this. Please slow down, and above all, please please PLEASE if you hit an animal, call. them. in.
You won’t be met with blame or hate — rescuers just want what’s best for the animal. Even if they run away or climb a tree, they are not okay, they still need help.
We are available 24/7 for koala rescue in the area — we live here, and we will respond. Don’t think it won’t happen to you. Be prepared for the worst-case scenario and save our number.
☎️ 0400 256 656
If we can’t rely on Council or State Gov to protect our drop bears, we'll have to work together and do it ourselves.
Rest in peace, Lamar. You deserved so much more from life. 💔
