In The Echo online (8 September) a story titled ‘Wallum judgment – devastated, but not giving up!’ appeared.
This article referred to a final decision in the matter of Save Wallum Inc vs Clarence Property & Anor.
In this final decision Her Honour Justice Perry of the Federal Court ruled to ‘dismiss the community’s application for a permanent injunction on development work at the site known locally as “Wallum”.’
An excellent analysis of the decision of Justice Perry can be had at: www.lindsaytaylorlawyers.com.au/in_focus/historical-development-consents.
The Wallum saga has been long, detailed and expensive for locals opposed to this historical development but this specific development is but one of many such ‘zombie’ approved developments across NSW.
Community and Council concerns regarding these developments (which were approved long ago) range back years but came to a head in the early 2020s.
As a result in 2023 the NSW government set up an enquiry titled ‘Historical Development Consents in NSW’, chaired by Clayton Barr MP.
In late 2023 I made a submission to this committee in which I recommended that all such development approvals that had relied on then best known scientific data to assist with development consent and where the current state of scientific knowledge had altered to the extent that if the development application was presented in late 2023 it would fail to meet the test for approval and thus should have either development approval terminated or modified in the light of current (2023) scientific data.
My overall intent was then, and is now, not to prevent developments but to allow approval of developments, but only if they meet standards of development that do not destroy or inhibit the natural functioning of rare and sensitive biomes such as the Wallum biome in Brunswick Heads.
The committee delivered its report on Thursday, 30 July 2026.
The report in full can be obtained at: www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/parliamentary-business/committees/inquiry-details?committeeInquiryId=3037.
This report makes several findings and recommendations for future action but the question of how to deal with the existing ‘zombie’ development approvals from ages past, some known and others as yet unknown has no exact answer, at least from my reading of the report.
An excellent overview of the whole issue can be had by a careful read of the chair’s forward.
The government response to the report is due Saturday, 30 January, 2027. I await the response of the NSW government regarding this vital issue to us all.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
