Environmental and conservation reserves in Moreton Bay

Council manages and maintains more than 10,000 hectares of natural areas. These reserves consist of diverse habitats, including:

• wet and dry eucalypt forest
• mountain and lowland rainforest
• forested creek systems
• coastal heath ecosystems
• wetland ecosystems.

Around half of our reserves are on registered land parcels. The remaining land form vegetation links along creeks and road reserves.

Importance of our natural areas

The variety of native plants and animals determines the importance of a natural area. How the community uses the area and its size and location also contribute to its value.

Much of our reserves have untouched native vegetation or at least 15 years of regrowth. They contain priority species of plants and animals. These species may be key to the ecosystem, endangered or threatened.

Conservation legislation and agreements protect these natural areas. This includes nature refuges and conservation parks.

Nature refuges

A nature refuge is land voluntarily protected for conservation. Landowners enter an agreement with the State Government. Agreements are under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. They commit to managing, preserving, and protecting the land.

Council maintains three nature refuges to protect local koala populations:

• Whiteside Road Park, Whiteside
• Kurwongbah Park, Petrie
• Brian Burke Reserve, Samford Valley.

How you can get involved

If your property is one hectare or more with diverse native plants, you could join Land for Wildlife. Find out more about Council's voluntary conservation programs.

Conservation parks

Council manages and protects conservation parks as directed by the Act. These parks are under trustee arrangements between Council and the State Government. Our conservation parks are:

• Buckley's Hole Conservation Park
• Sheep Station Creek Conservation Park
• Neurum Creek Conservation Park
• Beachmere Conservation Park
• Byron Creek Conservation Park
• Wararba Creek Conservation Park.