Environment minister rejects Queensland wind farm project to save old-growth forest

Conservationists welcome ruling to protect koalas and greater gliders but point to approved coalmine that required destruction of habitat

The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has rejected a $100m wind farm proposal in central Queensland on the grounds it would clear old-growth forest important to vulnerable and threatened species, including the koala and greater glider.

Ley ruled the Lotus Creek wind farm, nearly 200km north-west of Rockhampton, was clearly unacceptable" under national environment laws, in part because the site was home to species that were badly affected in other parts of the country during last summer's catastrophic bushfires.