DA court battle drags on as koala inquiry comes to Coffs

A healthy koala snapped napping in a tree by a local photographer was a timely reminder of the animal’s fragile beauty.

TIMELY REMINDER: Dave Wood took this photo of a healthy koala napping in a property on Sawtell Road near the Linden Avenue intersection last Thursday.

A HEALTHY koala snapped napping in a tree by a local photographer was a timely reminder of the animal's fragile beauty.

Dave Wood has been a driving force behind a community campaign fighting a development application at Lot 2 Sawtell Rd.

The application for a 57-lot subdivision was first submitted to Coffs Harbour City Council in April 2018 but is still with the Land and Environment Court.

"This sighting offers a glimmer of hope for our local koala population, especially after the recent devastating bushfires which have destroyed thousands of hectares of valuable wildlife habitat and are believed to have killed a significant number of an already depleted local koala population," Mr Wood said.

An on-site conciliation conference in front of the Commissioner from the Land and Environment Court Paul Adams was held on April 30 last year.

 

The NSW Land and Environment Court held an on-site on-site conciliation conference on April 30, last year.

Lawyers inspected the site which fronts Sawtell Road opposite the Linden Avenue intersection and continues through to the Hogbin Drive Industrial Estate. This was followed by a public conciliation conference at Hi-Tech Dr, Toormina attended by well over 100 people.

The site includes approximately six hectares recognised and mapped as Primary Koala Habitat in the Coffs Harbour City Council Koala Plan of Management.

Another section has been mapped in the Coffs Harbour LEP as an Endangered Ecological Community (Coastal Paperbark and Sedgeland swamp habitat).

The Lot 2 development will come before the NSW Land and Environment Court again on February 17.

"Local residents and friends have been campaigning to prevent destruction of this mapped Primary Koala habitat and critical link in the local koala corridor since the 8.9 ha block was first advertised for sale and its R2 (low density) development potential promoted in 2014," Mr Wood said.

"By far the greatest threat to the survival and health of our local koalas is habitat loss.

Inquiry comes to Coffs Harbour

Dave Wood is also watching closely as the Legislative Council Inquiry into Koalas and their Habitat in NSW comes to the region this week.

A hearing was held at Port Macquarie yesterday and another today at Coffs Harbour.

There are fears that 85 per cent of the koala population on the NSW mid-north coast has been lost to bushfires.

"That's extremely shocking and really should be a wake up call to the government to pause any threats to koala habitat including logging and development in key areas," Committee chair and NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said.

 

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann - Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Saving the Koala, visits Friends of the Koala in Lismore and chats with president Ros Irwin.

The upper house committee visited Port Macquarie Koala Hospital where they were told of an increase in the number of dehydrated and malnourished koalas being brought in before the fires because of the drought.

On Tuesday morning they visited Urunga to hear about a proposal for a koala national park in the area to conserve and protect the species.

The inquiry then moved to the Coffs Harbour C.ex in the afternoon to hear from a range of speakers including the three koala academics and authors of the Coffs Harbour Koala Plan of Management, Ashley Love from the Bellingen Environment Centre and Gumbaynggirr Nation Representative Dr Michael Donovan.

The committee is due to report back to NSW parliament by June 15.