A development proposal for West Byron is being considered in a Land and Environment Court hearing this week

Will core koala habitat be impacted if a $40 million residential development goes ahead? This is a key factor being discussed in a three-day hearing this week.

The areas which relate to the Site R & D development application for a residential subdivision in the West Byron Urban Release Area along Ewingsdale Road.

Whether core koala habitat exists in the area that would be impacted by a planned West Byron development will be a key issue in determining the fate of the proposal, a court has heard.

Part of this debate hinges on when koala scats were found, or not found, at the property in question.

An appeal against the refusal of Site R & D’s development application for its development off Ewingsdale Road is set to be determined following a three day hearing before the Land and Environment Court.

The hearing, in which the developer and Byron Shire Council will dispute the matter, began on Monday.

The DA, originally for 387 lots, was refused by the Northern Regional Planning Panel in February 2019 and an amended proposal involving 162 lots was lodged in August of that year.

The court has heard koala scats were found at the site, which is within the West Byron Urban Release Area, during a study in 2015, but not in one undertaken in April 2021.

But before expert witnesses can consider that matter properly, a document confirming contractors’ ecological qualifications is expected to be tendered to the court.

Lawyer for the applicant, Clifford Ireland, and the council’s representative, Adam Seton, put a range of questions to ecological expert witnesses Dr David Robertson and Dr Mark Fitzgerald on the first day of the hearing.

Mr Ireland suggested the majority of “preferred koala food trees” in one area of the site were “not within the direct impact area” but Dr Fitzgerald disagreed, saying 265 of those 521 trees are proposed to be removed.

The court heard koalas were seen on the property between 2010 and 2017, including a female, and some record of koala scats, but no evidence of breeding females operating there.

Dr Robertson said he accepted the conclusion by Australian Wetlands Consulting that it didn’t involve core habitat because there were reports of some koalas but “relatively low koala activity” and the habitat present was “fragmented”.

He agreed there were signs koalas had historically used the area, but there was “no evidence of consistent high level usage of the site by koalas”.

Dr Fitzgerald said the potential for breeding females couldn't be ruled out.

“I think that the evidence is there of historical records and of recent sightings,” Dr Fitzgerald said.

“The fact koalas turn up on the site at all show reproduction is going on somewhere.

“They’re very cryptic. The absence of evidence of breeding females does not mean breeding females are not present. It just means they haven’t been detected.”

Mr Ireland said he would ask the Commissioner to be guided by State Environmental Planning Policy 44, rather than the council’s Byron Coast Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management in his ruling.

The hearing continues.