This article was updated: 04/09/2026
About 128 hectares of former Mapleton Forest Reserve has been incorporated into Mapleton Conservation Park, a move the State Government says strengthens protection of Mapleton’s natural environment. The land, however, was already held as forest reserve, raising a broader question about what governments mean when they count hectares as being “added” to protected areas.
The tenure change took effect on 14 January 2026, following the expiry of forest reserve tenures across Queensland at the end of the previous year. The Queensland Government has announced that the former Mapleton Forest Reserve, comprising Lots 1–7 on AP19232, is now part of Mapleton Conservation Park.
The Government describes the change as adding 128 hectares to the conservation park and says it will protect the area for future generations while maintaining established community uses including walking, dog walking, horse riding and access to the existing trail network.
The land itself is not a new acquisition. Under Queensland’s former forest reserve regulations, Lots 1–7 on AP19232 were recorded as covering approximately 127 hectares. The current Nature Conservation regulation lists the enlarged park, now including those same lots, at approximately 490.0088 hectares. That is a one-hectare gap between the Government’s rounded figure and its own legislative record for the same parcel of land, and it underscores that the “128 hectares added” is, on the Government’s own numbers, essentially the whole of the former reserve rather than new territory brought under protection.
According to information provided to Range Community News by the office of Member for Nicklin Marty Hunt, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service recommended transferring the Mapleton land to conservation park to better reflect its environmental values while recognising longstanding community uses. Mr Hunt’s office circulated the announcement to RCN in August, several months after the change took effect.
Mr Hunt welcomed the change.
“Mapleton is home to some incredibly special natural environments, and adding this 128 hectares to Mapleton Conservation Park ensures this land is protected for future generations,” he said. “Importantly, this transfer also recognises the longstanding community use of the area, including walking, horse riding and the existing trail network.”
Environment and Tourism Minister Andrew Powell said the Government was taking a practical approach to conservation. “This is about growing Queensland’s protected areas sensibly and strategically, while making sure we never lose sight of the job of caring for the places we already have,” Mr Powell said.
Forest Reserve Becomes Conservation Park
The distinction between forest reserve and conservation park matters. The Government has increased the area formally contained within Mapleton Conservation Park. But it has done so by changing the tenure of land already held as Mapleton Forest Reserve, rather than acquiring 128 hectares of previously unprotected land.
The Government says the Mapleton transfer forms part of a much larger expansion of Queensland’s protected area network, with more than 259,000 hectares added since November 2024. Its 2026–27 Budget also provides $111 million towards expanding and managing protected areas.
But the Mapleton announcement raises questions that cannot necessarily be answered by counting hectares alone. The Government’s information says much of the newly incorporated land consists of corridors following the existing trail network through the park.
Range Community News has therefore asked Sunshine Coast Council what the tenure change means in ecological terms. Among the questions put to Council is whether incorporating relatively small, already-used corridors into a conservation park meaningfully improves environmental protection, or whether its principal value is securing that land under conservation tenure.
RCN has also asked about the importance of habitat connectivity compared with total protected area, whether fragmentation from surrounding development can undermine the ecological value of protected areas, and whether comparing hectares placed under conservation tenure with hectares affected by development elsewhere is a meaningful measure of conservation performance.
A Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson provided the following statement to RCN, attributed to Council. “Council remains committed to caring for our local biodiversity and varied ecosystems,” the statement said. “In our Sunshine Coast Biosphere, our communities have a close connection with nature and understand its importance to our way of life.”
The statement said Council’s Environment and Liveability Strategy guides how the region protects and connects core habitat areas, with large, intact areas of native habitat, supported by smaller connecting habitats, providing what Council described as the strongest foundation for sustaining biodiversity across the region. The Strategy includes strategic corridors where planning prioritises habitat connectivity, and Council said smaller habitat areas can also be important in forming those corridors, allowing for species movement, reproduction and gene flow.
Council pointed to its Biodiversity Report 2024, which shows native vegetation covers 57 per cent of the Sunshine Coast local government area, a net increase on previous reporting years. Almost half of that vegetation, 47 per cent, is protected within the region’s 67,140-hectare conservation estate, spanning state national parks and conservation parks, Council environment reserves, nature refuges, statutory environmental covenants and Land for Wildlife properties.
The statement also noted the role private landowners play in supporting native plants and wildlife, pointing to Council’s landholder environment grants and Land for Wildlife program as avenues for further involvement.
The council’s response speaks to the principle behind RCN’s questions, namely that connectivity and corridors matter alongside total protected area. It does not, however, specifically address whether incorporating the Mapleton corridors adds meaningful ecological protection beyond securing their tenure, nor does it engage with RCN’s question about comparing hectares gained through tenure changes against hectares affected by development elsewhere in the region.
Protection and Development
Those questions have particular relevance on the Sunshine Coast. While promoting an expansion of protected areas, the State Government has also used its planning powers to facilitate major developments at Coochin Creek and Halls Creek/Aura South, both the subject of extensive previous reporting by RCN.
At Coochin Creek, Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie called in two proposed developments, taking sole decision-making authority over a 43-hectare tourist park and the 150-hectare Coochin Fields events development. Both were subsequently approved despite Sunshine Coast Council opposition and recommendations for refusal from the State Assessment and Referral Agency, the State Government’s own planning assessment body.
The Coochin Fields development can accommodate events of up to 35,000 people, while the tourist park provides for 75 cabins and 75 campsites. The sites are near Pumicestone Passage and within the Northern Inter-Urban Break. Council and environmental groups have raised concerns about the developments’ environmental, planning and cumulative impacts.
When RCN previously put specific questions about the environmental implications of the Coochin Creek developments to both Mr Powell and Mr Bleijie, the Environment Minister’s office directed the inquiry to the Planning Minister. Mr Bleijie’s office acknowledged the questions but no substantive response had been received by RCN at the time of publication.
Halls Creek and Aura South
A still larger planning decision followed at Halls Creek. On 17 July, the State Government declared approximately 1,231 hectares at Halls Creek a Priority Development Area, transferring primary planning responsibility from Sunshine Coast Council to Economic Development Queensland and advancing planning for Stockland’s proposed Aura South development. The project could ultimately accommodate up to 12,000 homes.
Sunshine Coast Council has opposed urban development at Halls Creek for more than a decade and maintains that Beerwah East should instead be prioritised for the region’s future growth. Environmental concerns centre particularly on the site’s relationship with the inter-urban break and the nearby internationally recognised Moreton Bay Ramsar wetlands and Pumicestone Passage.
Stockland disputes the suggestion that the development presents an unacceptable environmental risk. The company has previously told RCN that much of the site was cleared more than 50 years ago for exotic pine plantations and now has minimal environmental value. Economic Development Queensland figures show approximately 633 hectares of the site is designated for open space, recreation and environmental protection or enhancement, including the 517 hectares Stockland has set aside specifically for environmental and buffer areas.
The Commonwealth approved Aura South under national environmental law on 22 May 2026, subject to conditions addressing matters including water quality, stormwater and habitat for the threatened Wallum Sedge Frog.
What the Hectare Count Leaves Out
Mapleton, Coochin Creek and Halls Creek are very different cases. It would be misleading to simply subtract the area of a development from the number of hectares placed under protected tenure.
A hectare inside a development boundary does not automatically mean a hectare of native habitat will be destroyed. Equally, transferring a hectare from one form of public conservation tenure to another is different from acquiring or restoring a hectare of previously unprotected habitat. That makes habitat condition, connectivity, waterways, buffers and cumulative impacts important alongside the headline number of hectares.
The Government is entitled to count the former Mapleton Forest Reserve within the expanded conservation park estate. The transfer gives the land a different statutory status and secures its place within Mapleton Conservation Park. But when the Government presents the number of hectares added as evidence of its broader environmental performance, the condition and connection of those protected areas, and what is happening to environmentally significant land elsewhere, also become relevant.
For Mapleton, the immediate result is clear: land that was formerly Mapleton Forest Reserve is now part of a conservation park listed under current legislation at approximately 490 hectares. Council’s response confirms that connectivity and corridor planning sit at the centre of its broader biodiversity strategy, a principle consistent with the Mapleton transfer, though Council stopped short of saying whether this particular reclassification adds ecological protection beyond securing the land’s existing tenure. Council’s Biodiversity Report 2024 puts the region’s total conservation estate at 67,140 hectares, a figure against which Mapleton’s revised total of approximately 490 hectares represents a small fraction.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy and timeliness, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the article or the information contained within for any purpose.