Boral’s Environmental Mitigation Strategy 

Boral’s Environmental Mitigation Strategy for RCKRA Project and WBCWRR Project

Boral is committed to protecting and enhancing the environment surrounding its project sites. Our strategy focuses on the Burleigh to Springbrook – Hinterland to Coast Critical Corridor (HCC Corridor), an area that is currently fragmented and disturbed. Our goal is simple: deliver a better environmental outcome than what exists today—even with development. 

Key environmental considerations in siting and design of the Project sites 

To deliver the most environmentally, socially and economically sensible approach to unlock the identified State significant resource, considerable time and effort has been invested to improve the design and layout of the RCKRA Project. This work has focused on the RCKRA Project avoiding or minimising impacts to identified Matters of Environmental Significance (MES) through the following actions:  

1. siting the RCKRA Project disturbance footprint in the least environmentally valuable part of the RCKRA Project site. 

2. siting the RCKRA Project disturbance footprint to: 

a. Avoid mapped endangered regulated vegetation within Lot 105 on SP144215 

b. Avoid development in the southern portion of the RCKRA Project site, which contains the most significant environmental values identified terrestrial and aquatic ecology surveys 

c. Avoid the mapped 30m waterway buffer associated with Oyster Creek’s main tributary to provide additional buffering to identified protected plant specimens along this waterway and mapped endangered regulated vegetation 

d. Avoid discharging directly into Oyster Creek and Stony Creek 

3. The RCKRA Project disturbance footprint is approximately 56.4ha, which represents a 20% reduction of the 70.5 ha previously sought for approval as part of the development application made by Boral in 2014.  

The scale of this reduction is only possible due to: 

a. a 40% reduction in production output from 2Mtpa to 1.2Mtpa 

b. the WBCWRR Project providing a unique solution to the management of overburden material generated by the RCKRA Project. 

What does this Mitigation Strategy do? 

Having regard to the above avoidance and minimisation actions, Boral’s Environmental Mitigation Strategy takes a holistic approach to the mitigation of the remaining direct environmental impacts on identified MES by: 

  • Protecting and improving ecological corridors. 

  • Managing threats to native vegetation and wildlife. 

  • Enhancing habitats for threatened species. 

  • Restoring riparian areas and improving waterway health. 

Role and relationship of this Mitigation Strategy 

Key Mitigation Actions 

To secure a localised net environmental benefit, Boral is committing to the following environmental mitigation actions: 

  1. Protect and conserve 168.4ha of Boral’s land held for environmental purposes, which is to be enshrined in a registered environmental covenant. 

  1. Protect and conserve ecological movement corridors through the RCKRA & WBCWRR Project sites. 

  1. Progressive weed management and rubbish removal to enhance the environmental quality of Boral’s land held for environmental purposes and land for vegetated buffers. 

  1. Actively enhance and manage the southern ecological movement corridor within the RCKRA Project site to specifically support the local koala population. 

  1. Progressive restoration within Boral’s land held for environmental purposes targeted towards koala. 

  1. Progressive regional ecosystem rehabilitation within Boral’s land held for environmental purposes (not targeted towards koala). 

  1. Progressive riparian area rehabilitation within Boral’s land held for environmental purposes. 

  1. Maintain adequate environmental flows to Oyster Creek and Stony Creek. 

  1. Relocate tree hollows and install nesting boxes within Boral’s land held for environmental purposes. 

  1. Enhance the long-term management of the Glossy Black Cockatoo / Powerful Owl species through Boral’s Environmental Enhancement Fund. 

  1. Rehabilitate terminal quarry benches with native vegetation. 

  1. Rehabilitate the cap of the landfill with native vegetation that will positively contribute to the local expansion of the HCC  

  1. Improve corridor connectivity under Old Coach Road through Boral’s Environmental Enhancement Fund  

  1. Improve functionality of the external lands linking the Project sites through Boral’s Environmental Enhancement Fund. 

  1. Improve the condition of Stony Creek downstream of the WBCWRR Project site through Boral’s Environmental Enhancement Fund. 

These actions focus on using best practice measures to directly protect, conserve, enhance and manage the environmental quality and functionality of the land identified for environmental purposes on both Project sites and intervening public lands within the mapped HCC Corridor. 

Why Is This Important? 

This strategy not only meets but exceeds best-practice environmental standards. It ensures that the proposed development will deliver a much better outcome when compared to the existing state and condition of both Project sites and their surrounds, because: 

  1. 168.4 ha of land will be protected and conserved under an environmental covenant, which includes the most ecologically valuable parts of the Project sites (i.e. southern portion of the RCKRA Project site). 

  1. Ecological movement corridors are accommodated and strengthened.  

  1. Existing key threatening processes to the ecological value and function of local terrestrial and riparian communities and associated significant flora and fauna species will be actively managed via weed control, supplementary planting, management of unauthorised public access, management of feral animals, and removal of dumped refuse. 

  1. The proposed threatened species habitat enhancement exceeds statutory requirements through extensive KHT plantings to increase the local abundance of feed resources for koalas and Tusked Frog habitat rehabilitation. Approval of the proposed development will deliver benefits for both of these species compared to the present situation. 

  1. The proposed rehabilitation includes a commitment to undertake an early planting regime once the approval is issued to minimise ‘time lag’ impacts between clearing and establishment of NJKHT plantings. 

  1. The proposed RCKRA disturbance footprint will be fenced to as soon as practicable to ensure that koala activity and movement can be better managed prior to the clearing of any vegetation within the RCKRA disturbance footprint. 

  1. The proposed environmental mitigation actions include the relocation of existing hollows, installation of additional nest boxes and investment into academic research on Glossy Black Cockatoo uptake of artificial breeding places. 

  1. The proposed rehabilitation includes planting of threatened flora in the land identified for environmental purposes to extend local distribution and abundance.  

  1. Contributions are proposed to resolving fragmentation between the RCKRA and WBCWRR Project sites including mitigation of movement barriers/bottlenecks on intervening public lands. 

  1. Contributions are proposed to creek restoration to improve riparian vegetation and communities within Oyster Creek and Stony Creek located outside Boral’s landholdings. 

  1. The HCC Corridor can expand to include at least 19ha of the rehabilitated landform within the WBCWRR Project site once landfilling activities have concluded. 

Further details about Boral’s proposal 

The DA is viewable on Council's PD Online ref. COM/2025/101 here:  

https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Planning-building/PD-Online  

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