Questions continue to mount over the sudden disappearance of a photograph showing Redland City Mayor Jos Mitchell next to a koala, after Redland City Council failed to respond to detailed media questions by deadline today.
The image, originally published alongside a council media release on the Redlands Coast Today website announcing the stabilisation of the city’s koala population, was quietly removed from Council’s website and replaced with a standalone koala image, without public explanation.
The unexplained change has sparked online discussion, with Thornlands resident Thea Hunter raising questions about the source of the original image and the reasons for its removal.
“Notice how council have removed the image of Mayor Jos and now have just an image of the koala?” Ms Hunter wrote on social media.
“I wonder where council got that photo from and I wonder why it’s been taken away.”
Ms Hunter said she recognised the Mayor’s clothing in the image and believed it matched photos taken during a visit to IndigiScapes in September 2025.
“When I saw the post shared in Wild Redlands last night with the photo of Jos in that beautiful top I knew she wore that top when she went to Indigiscapes,” she wrote.
“I scrolled through Jos’ Facebook photos and can see the pictures of her wearing that top back in September 2025. I was right.”
She noted the image did not appear to have been posted by the Mayor herself and questioned how Council obtained it.
“Anyway, Jos didn’t post the photo council used, so I wonder where they got it,” Ms Hunter wrote.
“More oddly, why did they switch it. Anyone else find it odd?”
When queried by this publication, Council initially said the image had been “published in error” because “the correct permissions were not in place”.
In subsequent emails, Council’s Acting Service Manager Media Services Michelle Smith repeated that explanation but did not clarify what permissions were missing or why the image was removed.
“The photo was published in error,” Ms Smith said.
“We didn’t have the correct permissions in place to use it.”
Council later advised the image was not a “media-issued photo” despite it appearing on its news site and offered to supply an alternative koala image if required.
That explanation prompted further questions after advice received by this publication indicated the image was taken by council staff using a council-owned device — circumstances under which copyright would ordinarily rest with Council.
Specific questions put to Council included whether it owns the copyright to the image, what permissions were allegedly missing, whether the Mayor initially approved the image’s use, and whether that consent was later withdrawn.
Council was also asked directly whether the image was removed at the Mayor’s request or for another reason.
Despite being advised the issue was attracting public interest and being offered the opportunity to provide a full response, Council did not reply by today’s deadline.
The image controversy has emerged alongside Council’s high-profile announcement last week that Redland City had become the first local government in south-east Queensland to report stabilisation of its city-wide koala population.
While the scientific findings outlined in the release have not been challenged, the lack of clarity surrounding the removal of the Mayor’s image has raised fresh questions about transparency and media handling within Council.
As of publication, Redland City Council has provided no further explanation for the image’s disappearance.
