Will digging frog ponds and installing nest boxes really make a difference to the damage that large-scale development will have on the rare and endangered Wallum heathland in Bruns?
Buckle in peeps – Clarence Property CEO, Simon Kennedy, answered Echo questions around contentious plans to construct 123 luxury home sites over an endangered frog area.
Q) As part of Mayor Michael Lyon’s Council motion when the works certificate was issued, he ‘invited’ you to explore further modifications. Have his negotiation efforts been persuasive – and what were they?
‘The mayor has extended this invitation and Clarence Property have responded in good faith and met on a number of occasions to consider options.
‘This is an approved development, so any modifications from here are not straightforward matters and positive discussions with the mayor are ongoing’.
Q) Your media release last week says you have amended the masterplan and engineering plans, etc. yet James Barrie who is leading the Save Wallum campaign, says these are not new amendments, and were part of the 2021 DA – is that correct?
‘That is not correct. There has been significant developer-led changes to the design of the development – from the concept approved layout through to the DA application, and then post-DA during the assessment process.
‘All of these changes have been driven by on-site ecologist observations and sensitivity to the most ecologically valuable areas of the site as a whole’.
Mr Kennedy referred to Annexure A, which highlights the changes that were made over time, ‘pre-and post-DA application’.
James Barrie replies: ‘From what I can tell, there’s been an amendment to create a very slight kink in the road in the west now, instead of slicing through the male wallum sedge frog swamp habitat in the west. I can’t see any other change since the 2021 DA’.
Q) Also Mr Barrie is critical of the proposal because the ‘protected areas’ are also earmarked for clearing for frog pond excavation – he says these have a very high failure rate. He estimates up to a third of the protected areas will be cut into. If correct, how much of the protected areas will be disturbed/cleared?
‘These statements are not correct. The proposed frog ponds have a demonstrated history of success and our consultants, Australian Wetlands Consulting (AWC), are leading experts in this field having worked with both councils and private landowners on a wide variety of such projects.
‘The most notable example is at the Aura estate on the Sunshine Coast, where AWC has worked on the creation of significant frog habitat that has been monitored and certified by University of the Sunshine Coast’.
James Barrie replies: ‘Aura was a massive site, with a massive population of wallum sedge frogs, translocated to a massive pond zone, very different situation to Wallum, and not the same coffee rock substrate. Longitudinal success of Aura is still to be proven as long-term monitoring hasn’t occurred yet’.
‘Local AWC ponds have failed to support threatened species and are the subject of critique by leading ecologists’.
Mr Kennedy continues, ‘The suggested estimates are also incorrect. No trees or existing habitats will be cleared for creation of the proposed frog ponds. This habitat will be created in the cleared and degraded tracks that have been formed over many years by walkers, 4x4s, motorbikes, etc’.
‘The drawings in the recently approved vegetation management plan show these in more detail and we have included extracts of these at Annexure B for easy reference.
‘The existing bare tracks are visible in the background images and these drawings clearly show that no clearing of habitat or trees is required for frog habitat creation’.
Mr Barrie says: ‘glossy black cockatoos (GBCs) are the major target species for the offset nest boxes and they are well documented to not take up artificial hollows on mainland Australia, and they won’t even take up natural ones at the height class these ones will be set at’.
‘No breeding habitat for GBCs will be impacted by the development. We are working with the leading Australian experts on GBC habitat as part of their ongoing efforts to assist GBC habitat creation.
‘Any new habitat created will be a significant ‘win’ for the future of GBCs in the Northern Rivers.
‘Clarence Property is committed to exceeding our consent condition obligations for hollow and nest box creation and will create at least 16 GBC breeding hollows/nest boxes at the site among at least 50 new breeding habitats to be created’.
James Barrie replies: ‘Obviously these will not be used by the target species, GBC’.
Mr Kennedy continues, ‘The hollow creation method we’re using is considered best-practice globally and has demonstrated that newly created hollows are investigated or used within hours of their creation’.
James Barrie replies: ‘That “investigation” was by common brushtail possums’.
‘Best practice globally, as reported by the hollow makers/installers themselves, is retention of living habitat’.
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