A fragile bushland site in Brunswick Heads that is slated for imminent development has received an eleventh-hour reprieve from Byron Council.
The Wallum site next to the Bayside housing estate is home to multiple threatened species, including the Wallum froglet and the Wallum sedge frog.
But developer Clarence Property has development consent to build a large housing estate on the site featuring 124 residential lots, three medium density lots, and a series of roads and supporting infrastructure.
The matter came before last week’s Council meeting, with staff recommending that the developer be issued with a Subdivision Works Certificate for the ecological rehabilitation works in relation to the development.
The issuing of this certificate would have allowed the developer to immediately commence preliminary building works.
But councillors voted to defer the matter until its first meeting in February, putting the imminent development of the site on hold.
‘I don’t believe going ahead with this is in anyone’s interests,’ said Deputy Mayor Sarah Ndiaye (Greens), who moved the first of two motions to defer the matter.
‘It’s not in the interests of the applicant who prides itself on its ecologically sustainable developments, and I don’t think it’s in the best interests of Council staff and resources.
‘We have a very vocal collective of local people, very well-researched and knowledgeable on this, who are adamant that they don’t want it to go ahead in its current form.
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‘If this goes ahead, we are looking at a summer of a lot of [protest] activity that is not going to serve anyone. It will clog up our courts… which is not in anyone’s best interests.’
The fight to save Wallum has attracted a large and growing collection of locals, and is being fought on multiple fronts.
A key focus of the campaign is the effort to have the matter referred for consideration under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC).
This could lead to the site being permanently protected.
Cr Ndiaye initially moved that the Council defer approving the subdivision certificate until this possible referral process had played out.
However, the meeting heard that it was not lawful for Council to defer the matter for this reason.
‘The legal advice is, and it’s supported by Land & Environment Court cases, that the EPBC Act is not relevant to the development assessment or compliance functions of Council,’ Council’s legal counsel, Ralph James said.
500 page document
With Cr Ndiaye’s motion unsuccessful, councillors instead voted to defer the matter on the grounds that they needed to ‘fully engage with and understand the late report that has been provided’.
This was a reference to the more than 500 pages of documents provided to Council by the developer at Council’s request.
Earlier, during the public access section of the meeting, members of the Save Wallum campaign addressed Council.
Speakers included First Nations representatives, expert ecologist, Dr David Newell from Southern Cross University and one of the leaders of the campaign, James Barrie.
‘We hope councillors are able to support the EPBC process, as it would be unfortunate for Council to act in opposition both to the community and the feds,’ Mr Barrie said.
‘I’ve been in contact with Tanya Plibersek’s office who says they expect the developer to self-refer.
‘We know that the first act of the development action would be ecological restoration works, which is an unfortunately misleading title for bulldozing threatened species’ habitat in order to build experimental frog ponds which are well documented locally to have failed in their intended function.’
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