Photo Jeff ‘More trees, please’ Dawson
The campaign to preserve rare environmentally sensitive land in Brunswick Heads from becoming urban development is stepping up, after a big community event was held on Sunday at Paddock Project in Mullum.
The day of art, culture, live music and workshops saw more than 300 locals gather to unify in the movement, organisers told The Echo.
The Save Wallum group is calling on Byron Shire councillors to vote ‘Yes’ to an upcoming Notice of Motion by Cr Duncan Dey requiring scrutiny into the conditions of the DA, and referring it to NSW and federal governments over serious ecological concerns.
The 30-hectare site at 15 Torakina Road, next to the Bayside housing estate, is home to scores of native trees and flowers, which provide food and shelter to koalas, black cockatoos, gliders and the ‘vulnerable’ Wallum froglet.
With public consultation for the development taking place during the worst of the Covid pandemic, Save Wallum say the public were denied the right to have their say.
The DA is proposed by Clarence Property and was decided by an unelected body, the Northern Regional Planning Panel, in May.
The panel determines large developments deemed ‘significant’, and as such, bypasses the due processes of locally-elected councils.
‘Wallum Estate’ features 124 residential lots, three medium density lots and a series of roads and supporting infrastructure.
Save Wallum’s James Barrie told The Echo, ‘There has been a 25-year history of ecologist opposition to this development that has been ignored and even extinguished in the name of developer rights’.
‘It’s only that the community has now coordinated significant vocal opposition to this development, after learning about what they stand to lose at the eleventh hour, that this is getting the attention it deserves’.
Veteran environmentalist, Nan Nicholson, said, ‘This place is extraordinarily valuable as part of the state’s coastal ecosystems’.
‘These systems have dwindled so rapidly in the past 20 years, that any further encroachment has to be seen as “extremism”.
‘As habitats collapse and species extinctions accelerate, it is not unreasonable to say “not one hectare more can be lost”.
‘If any councillors believe that one should pick one’s battles and fight only when assured of winning, then remember that we were told exactly that when we started campaigning to save the Terania Creek rainforest 50 years ago.
‘Not only was Terania Creek rescued but 120,000 ha of rainforest in NSW were saved as well’.
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