The Federal Government authorised the clearing of north Queensland woodland despite its own environment department finding it was likely to destroy habitat critical to the vulnerable greater glider.

Key points: The clearing proposal was supported by former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce in a 2017 letter to then environment minister Josh Frydenberg

The clearing proposal was supported by former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce in a 2017 letter to then environment minister Josh Frydenberg Neither the State nor the Federal Government conducted any on-site wildlife surveys prior to the clearing approval in 2018

Neither the State nor the Federal Government conducted any on-site wildlife surveys prior to the clearing approval in 2018 Greater Gliders eat eucalyptus leaves and used tree hollows to raise their young

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says it has satellite photographs and aerial footage showing that hundreds of hectares of the proposed clearing site on Meadowbank Station have recently been burnt off.

The ACF claims some of the burning has cleared part of a parcel that was supposed to be set aside as dedicated habitat for the greater glider.

But the cattle station's owner, Glen Cameron, told the ABC the burn-off is part of fire hazard reduction and is not in the area slated for clearing.

The largest of the gliding possums, the greater glider eats eucalyptus leaves almost exclusively and uses tree hollows to raise its young.

Greater gliders are listed as a vulnerable species by the Federal Government. ( Supplied: ACF )

"There are trees that would be there when the first World War was happening. And those trees are really important because they have hollows in them which support nationally threatened species like the greater glider," the ACF's James Trezise said.

"The approval itself is potentially going to destroy an area five times the size of the Sydney CBD of woodland."

A map showing where the greater glider habitat should be protected. ( Supplied )

Governments did not survey site

Woodland at Meadowbank in northern Queensland. ( Supplied: Australian Conservation Foundation )

The ABC can also reveal that neither the state nor federal governments conducted any onsite wildlife surveys prior to the clearing being approved last year.

The federal environment department said surveys by the station owners in 2017 did sight two greater gliders in eucalypt woodland on the property.

But the ACF said that during a survey it conducted from public land over two nights in June, it spotted seven greater gliders in the proposed clearing area and on adjacent land.

"There's no way they've seen them at our place because they will be trespassing if they have and their drones won't go the distance they'd have to go to get to this particular block of country," Meadowbank's owner Glen Cameron said.

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Joyce asked for 'no unnecessary intervention'

With the clearing not requiring state approval, the owners of Meadowbank Station applied to the Commonwealth in 2016 to clear nearly 1,500 hectares of native vegetation for "high value agriculture" such as grain crops.

Barnaby Joyce supported the land clearing in a letter to Josh Frydenberg in 2017. ( ABC News: Matt Roberts )

The proposal was supported by the then deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who wrote in 2017 to environment minister Josh Frydenberg that he "would appreciate no unnecessary intervention under the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act".

Last year approval was given under the Act to clear 1,365 hectares of mainly eucalypt vegetation on Meadowbank, with a condition that required the station owners to set aside 106 hectares for "greater glider habitat".

But federal environment department briefing notes obtained by the ABC under freedom of information reveal that a departmental official was warned there "are likely to be significant impacts on listed threatened species" caused by the clearing.

"The proposal site comprises eucalypt woodlands to open woodlands containing multiple eucalypt species," the 2017 briefing note states.

"No on-ground surveys have been undertaken to determine species presence or absence or to undertake a detailed habitat assessment … the department considers that there is a real chance or possibility that the proposed action will significantly impact on the vulnerable koala and greater glider through the removal of critical habitat."

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"It does suggest that the assessment on this project was either rushed or flawed, that they didn't have adequate data or information available to them when they made that approval decision," Mr Trezise said.

"Because quite clearly, that there are numbers of these species in areas and big old trees and hollows in areas of that that is slated for destruction, despite the department's assurance that they're not meant to be there."

'It's just grass we burn off around our buildings'

The ACF said satellite images and aerial footage show that about 400 hectares of the proposed clearing area had been burnt off.

It said the burned land includes some of the 106 hectares ordered to be set aside by the environment department as greater glider habitat.

"It's just fire hazard reduction, it's just grass around our house mate," Mr Cameron told the ABC.

"It's just grass we burn off around our buildings."

Queensland's Department of Natural Resources confirmed that nearly 400 hectares was burnt on Meadowbank Station "to reduce hazardous fuel loads".

The Australian Conservation Foundation alleges part of this burnt out area was a designated habitat for great gliders. ( Supplied: Australian Conservation Council )

Asked if any wildlife surveys of the property or region had been conducted, Queensland's Department of Environment and Science (DES) told the ABC said that "native wildlife surveys have been undertaken on the lot and plan numbers that encompass Meadowbank Station".

"However, there are no records of greater gliders or koalas being observed on the property," the department said.

Pressed for more detail about the surveys, a spokeswoman for DES admitted the department had "never done any surveys" on or near the property and that surveys were a matter for the Federal Government.

The federal environment department confirmed its recommendation 106 hectares of woodland be spared in the proposed clearing site as dedicated habitat for the greater glider.