Over 2400 square meters of significant native vegetation has been purchased under our Bushland Acquisition program, expanding the Rikki Bailey Park to 5.35 hectares. The park, located at 224 Englefield Road, Oxley, is already home to native wildlife including kangaroos, squirrel gliders, Gould wattled bats and a variety of birds, reptiles, and insects.
Our city is the most biologically diverse capital in Australia and as we grow, it’s critical we continue to protect significant bushland and provide more places for our wildlife to flourish. This latest purchase has meant Council has preserved more than 4400 hectares of land since the program began in 1990 – equivalent to more than 590 Suncorp Stadiums.
I want to thank our dedicated Rikki Bailey Bushcare volunteers who have been working tirelessly to restore and nurture the parkland since 2010. They should be proud of the role they have played in preserving and enhancing the natural environment in the area. In a recent audit of the 7 nesting boxes within the park, we discovered a colony of squirrel gliders, microbats and scaly-breasted lorikeets, which further demonstrates the importance of acquiring additional bushland.