2.2 Management Principles

City Values Description Connected Communities

Priorities that support and care for all and provide a sense of belonging.

Creativity Working together with creative processes and outcomes that bring together history, culture, knowledge, and expertise that supports new technologies and ways of thinking.

Shared DecisionMaking

Lake Macquarie communities continue shared responsibility for governance. The Management Plan draws on information from community, business and government stakeholders, through engagement activities associated with the Context, Values and Constraints Report (Umwelt 2021a) and Concept Plan (Umwelt 2021d). Section 4.1 of the Management Plan outlines how stakeholder engagement will continue during the delivery of the Management Plan, including with the Aboriginal community, local landholders and community users.

Munibung Hill Value and Potential Contribution

A number of local stakeholders have referred to this connection to Munibung Hill over a lifetime of accessing the slopes and ridge crest for informal recreation. Munibung Hill is a visual landmark, which can be seen for many parts of the City. The potential to provide access for all (i.e. suitable for all levels of ability) has been investigated. The slopes of Munibung Hill are very steep. There are two vehicle tracks which provide access to the ridge crest. These are also steep, narrow, unsealed tracks which are not suitable for general community access. Upgrading these tracks to allow two-way traffic and parking areas would be counter to protecting biodiversity and cultural values of the place. The Concept Plan and Management Plan do not propose provision of access for all abilities to the elevated land at Munibung Hill. All walking path approaches to Munibung Hill are steep and require a good level of agility – similar to bush tracks in national parks and on Crown land. The Context, Values and Constraints Report (Umwelt 2021a) highlights how the natural landscape features of Munibung Hill are connected to the history of its use and the cultural value of the place. Technology offers the potential of new ways of providing information and interpretation for visitors to Munibung Hill.

Table 2.2 lists the principles that guide the application of the Vision statement in the Management Plan. Council defined these principles to align with the four pillars of sustainability that are the basis of Council’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan (ESSAP) 2019. The ESSAP also maps the sustainability pillars and Council projects to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The management principles in Table 2.2 are organised in relation to the four Sustainability Pillars.