A FEUD has erupted between neighbours in a jointly owned enclave at Myola as bulldozers rolled in to clear an area claimed to be a cassowary sanctuary.
The "tenants in common" property, where more than a dozen people own sections of a 36ha plot, are fighting over one owner's decision to develop her 3ha section.
Angry co-owner John Willerton, who lives next door to the disputed section, said its owner, Mehery Vudrag, had called in bulldozers to knock down a stand of rare licuala fan palm forest.
"They are at least 10m tall and home to two cassowaries," he said.
"She (Ms Vudrag) just wants to rip through there to make it more attractive to buy."
Ms Vudrag said the other owners' concerns were "a nonsense" and they were complaining because she had declined to sell her land to them.
"I have done everything by the book and have council and Department of Natural Resources approval," she said.
"We have surveyed the area and not one licuala tree will be lost."
Ms Vudrag questioned the motives of her neighbours saying that if they believed it was cassowary habitat why did her neighbours allow their "savage dogs" to roam free?
Mr Willerton conceded Ms Vudrag had the correct development approvals but could not understand how she had obtained them.
"The council has been duck-shoving it and DNR say it is not their responsibility," he said.
Mr Willerton said all of the 14 other tenants had signed a letter saying they wished to buy the land.
But Ms Vudrag said her neighbours did not have the money and that their offer for her to finance the sale was
unacceptable.
"The offer they made was ridiculous," she said.
"If they are not happy I will buy the properties of the three main protagonists if they get them properly valued."
Neither Kuranda councillor Jenny Jensen nor the Department of Natural Resources could be contacted for comment.
