Save Wallum campaigners call on federal government to intervene in development

By Sarah Waters

The Save Wallum campaign continues to be fought on two fronts.

A large group of campaigners are maintaining a 24-hour presence in front of the gates at the Wallum heathland site on Torakina Rd in Brunswick Heads.

Another group is working behind the scenes to challenge what they claim to be inadequacies in various reports put forward in the development application.

The developer, Clarence Property, has stated all the necessary environmental assessments have been carried out rigorously.

The Northern Rivers Planning Panel approved the DA in May last year.

But the fight to protect the environmentally sensitive coastal heathland continues.

Local ecologist James Barrie and fellow Save Wallum campaigners have called for the federal government to intervene.

They are supporting the community to lobby Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek to call Wallum in as a controlled action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC).

The EPBC Act protects certain plants, habitats, places and nationally threatened species, as they are considered as Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) or protected matters.

Ecologists have identified nine EPBC listed species at Wallum, including the Wallum Sedge Frog and the south-eastern Glossy

Black-Cockatoo.

According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) a person must not take an action that has, will have, or is likely to have, a significant impact on protected matters - without approval from the environment minister.

To obtain approval, an action must undergo an environmental assessment and approval process.

But it is up to an individual/developer to refer their project to the DCCEEW if they believe any action they undertake, such as construction, will

Continued page 3 significantly impact any protected matters.

Mr Barrie said the developer is refusing to honour their legal obligation to self-refer the federally listed threatened species and their habitats (MNES) despite their documented presence.

He said multiple experts have identified that the development will have a significant impact on the protected species.

The Federal Environment Department have previously said Clarence Property has been notified of its obligations under the EPBC Act.

The developer has all the required local and state environmental approvals.

Questions were also put forward to Minister Plibersek asking if an environmental assessment of the Wallum development will be undertaken by the DCCEEW.

She is yet to respond.

Byron Shire Councillor Asren Pugh said process of bringing in a new set of environmental protection laws.

Mr Pugh said the problem with the Wallum development has always been the fact that the original concept plan was approved in 2013 and it only had to abide by the environmental regulations that were in place prior to that.