Environmental Offsets Program & partnerships

This page provides details about our Environmental Offsets Program and how to partner with us to enhance our natural city.

For information on how to apply for a local government offset under the City Plan visit Environmental offsets.

Established in 2012, the program supports the delivery of State and Commonwealth environmental offsets in partnership with government agencies, businesses, and landholders to deliver long-term, high-quality environmental outcomes. Our program ensures offsets are not just a tick-box exercise, but are carefully planned, strategically located, and actively managed to provide real and lasting benefits to the city’s environment.

Every offset project partnership contributes directly to achieving the actions in the Our Natural City Strategy 2032 and wider conservation outcomes by:

maintaining and improving critical corridors and ecological pinch points
supporting the city’s target of 51% native vegetation cover
enhancing fauna habitat and connectivity across the Gold Coast
improving water quality, stormwater management and climate resilience
reducing costs for ratepayers by funding ongoing land management
protecting native vegetation and threatened species
restoring habitats for threatened species and communities such as koalas
supporting nature-based recreation and healthy, attractive green spaces.

Our achievements (2012 to 2025)

The Environmental Offsets Program has:

attracted over $19 million in direct restoration funding
created 20 state-approved advanced offsets
delivered 196 hectares of ecological restoration
planted 434,916 native trees and shrubs
helped establish the Northern Koala Corridor and strengthened the city’s other critical corridors.

Partnering with us

The advantages of partnering with us to fulfil offset obligations are:

support from expert restoration and offset officers with experience in offset legislation, restoration techniques and mechanisms for legal security of sites
access to GIS capabilities for projects
delivery of high-quality offset, using biodiverse planting principles in the restoration of cleared regional ecosystems
local knowledge of site conditions and strategic locations within the natural environment network
allowing replacement of the impact within the local government boundary
opportunities to use registered advanced offset sites for impacts to State South-East QLD koala habitat
access to pre-prepared City of Gold Coast offset agreement templates, available for partners to use to progress negotiations
access to detailed offset management plans in line with both state and federal requirements to streamline project approvals
economic viability and competitiveness, due to our ownership of offset receiving sites.

Offset projects within our city

We deliver these projects using funds from government and industry partnerships.

We pride ourselves on our high-quality approach to ecological restoration outcomes. Ongoing monitoring of these environmental offset projects showcases the success of the program. Reported observations include:

increased vegetation cover and condition
habitat utilisation by many species including the koala.

Delivered offset sites

Site name	Matter replaced	Total trees planted	Koala trees planted
McCoys Creek Reserve City Plan Offset Project 1	Koala habitat (State)	35,000	12,960
Pimpama River Conservation Area City Plan Offset Project 2	Koala habitat (State)	23,000	10,000
Hinterland Regional Park City Plan Offset Project 3a	Koala habitat (State)	8300	6640
Hinterland Regional Park City Plan Offset Project 3b	Medium Priority Vegetation (Local)	11,526	8998
Coogera South Conservation Area City Plan Offset Project 4	Koala habitat (State)	17,500	6683
Pimpama River Parklands City Plan Offset Project 5	Koala habitat (State)	26,900	5443
Coogera South Conservation Area City Plan Offset Project 6	Medium Priority Vegetation (Local)	38,636	10,775
Wonga Park City Plan Offset Project 7	Koala habitat (State)	6673	1759
Pimpama Rivers Conservation Area Department of Education	Koala habitat (State)	31,000	19,536
Eddie Kornhauser Reserve Department of Transport and Main Roads	Koala habitat (State)	14,000	10,080
Lower Beechmont Conservation Area Department of Transport and Main Roads	Koala habitat (Federal)	24,000	12,955
Pimpama Rivers Conservation Area Energex	Koala habitat (State)	96,000	56,000
Pimpama Rivers Conservation Area Gold Coast Waterways Authority	Koala habitat (State)	5000	2400
Numinbah Conservation Area City of Gold Coast Parks & Recreation	Koala habitat (Voluntary)	11,000	7000
Stage Coach Reserve VISY Glass Operations (Australia) Pty Ltd	Koala habitat (Federal)	22,509	7038
Coombabah Conservation Area City of Gold Coast Water & Waste	Koala habitat (State)	6880	4220
PRCA West Paddock	Koala habitat (State)	8530	2712
PRCA East Paddock	Koala habitat (State)	29,196	10,809
Woonoongoora Numinbah Valley	Koala habitat (State)	9122	8268
Coombabah Shelter Road	Koala habitat (State)	Planning	Planning
Tea Trees Offset	Voluntary	145	145
Greenview Coombabah CA	Koala habitat (State)	1000	1023

Advanced offset sites

Site name	Area (hectares)	Non-juvenile Koala habitat tree capacity (stems)
Austinville Conservation Area	6.42	3402
Enkleman Road Farm Reserve A	9.37	6744
Enkleman Road Farm Reserve B	9.32	6400
King Parrot Reserve A	11.5	7535
King Parrot Reserve B	3.32	1825
Lower Beechmont Conservation Area	4.15	2224
Lower Beechmont Conservation Area A	3.99	2339
Lower Beechmont Conservation Area B	1.68	934
Lower Beechmont Conservation Area C	1.89	1018
Mirambeena Drive Parklands – Creek Street	9.15	10,718
Numinbah Conservation Area	1.58	1732
Numinbah Conservation Area	8.61	9293
Pocket Road Conservation Area	4.02	3851
Upper Coomera Conservation Area – Breamlea Terrace	1.8	1461
Wongawallan Conservation Area – Cedar Creek Road	6.8	5516
Wongawallan Conservation Area – Lanes Road	13.67	10,659