Repeated protests have been held over the clearing for a co-located retirement living and aged care home on a five-hectare wallum habitat in Sunset Beach, about 3km from Noosa, identified as a priority feed area for the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoos.
The development went ahead and the 102-bed two-storey aged care facility for UnitingCare's residential care provider BlueCare opened last month. Keyton's 122 one-, two- and three-bedroom independent living retirement facility is being built.
Keyton and BlueCare have undertaken a rehabilitation program focusing specifically on the planting of she-oaks - the preferred feed trees of glossy black cockatoos.
It has converted three hectares of degraded land on a site at nearby Girraween Nature Refuge into what will be protected, high-quality bushland.
"We’ve planted one thousand she-oaks and hundreds of other native plants that will be proactively cared for into the future,” a Keyton spokesman said.
"During this process, we actually used live soil that was moved quickly from the original site and spread immediately. This step was key to us achieving excellent natural germination and minimising the loss of seed viability that often comes with the considerable handling and stockpiling of more traditional methods."
