‘Risk of life’: Peninsula residents slam Aboriginal-built homes

Climate change, traffic and damage to bushland are reasons why Northern Beaches residents don’t want the Indigenous community to build homes on their own land

Passionate Northern Beaches residents have highlighted climate change, traffic congestion and damage to undiscovered Indigenous cultural heritage sites as reasons why an Aboriginal Land Council should be blocked from building new homes on the Northern Beaches.

An independent Planning panel on Monday heard from a wave of speakers, one of them in tears, who are all fiercely opposing a plan to construct 450 low-density homes on Morgan Road at Belrose.

The Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC) have been attempting to develop the 71-hectare site for 23 years, with the intention of selling most of the new homes to the highest bidder.

This land, which is mostly bushland, was given back to the MLALC under the 1983 Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

During the community forum, the panel heard from Lauren Kajewski, who said the proposal failed to recognise ‘compounding risks of climate change.’

Residents and locals have strongly opposed a proposal to build 450 homes at Belrose by the MLALC. Picture: Supplied

Ms Kajewski said the project had not considered ‘extreme heat, extreme bushfire and extreme coastal storms’ and left the door open for the possibility of ‘future class actions, insurance risk, mortgage risk and risk to life.’

Another warned that replacing bushland with houses would lead to a spike in ‘feral cats and dogs’ while a different speaker said they disagreed with the ‘removable 45 rugby fields of natural diversity.’

Others suggested the MLALC should consider other ways of making money off the land, or that the state government should consider purchasing it off the Aboriginal people to preserve the bushland.

When opposing the new houses - another Northern Beaches resident said: ‘the exit on Wakehurst Parkway is one lane. That intersection will be a disaster and a major accident waiting to happen.’

MLALC believes building the homes at Belrose will help First Nations people ‘gain economic independence’ and ‘generate income’, while also contribute to the state’s dwindling housing supply.

Nathan Moran from the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, pictured at the site of a controversial new housing development planned for Belrose. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The independent Planning panel is currently holding a final meeting, before making a recommendation to the Minister Paul Scully by mid-2025.

During the exhibition period, the proposal received 3,700 submissions, with residents raising concerns about the environmental impact, traffic congestion and the scale of the rezoning.

One submission claimed “this is about money” before claiming the MLALC was preferring “money over connection to land.”

Another accused the MLALC of ‘proposing to scrape a significant area of threatened species habitat off the face of the earth.’

The new Aboriginal-built homes have also been strongly opposed by Michael Regan, the state MP for Wakehurst and Sophie Scamps, federal MP for Mackellar, who have both collected a petition of 12,000 signatures calling for the proposal to be binned.

Federal MP Sophie Scamps has claimed the Land Council’s proposal creates a ‘high risk of bush fire.’ Picture: Supplied.

State MP Michael Regan said the proposal will ‘clear over 45 football fields worth of native vegetation’. Picture: Supplied.

In a statement on his website Mr Regan acknowledged the land was granted to the MLALC “in recognition of past wrongs committed against First Nations people, however the state government was now ‘trying to fix past wrongs against First Nations people by committing new wrongs against nature.”

In its own submission, Northern Beaches Council warned the new homes on Morgan Road would result in “enormous impacts on bushland with high biodiversity values” and potentially “a catastrophic risk to future residents.”

Former Coalition Minister Anthony Roberts described any political opposition to the development as ‘gross hypocrisy.’

“The politicians and councillors who oppose are the same people who spend all their time saying we have to listen to Aboriginal people.

“If they were really interested in listening to Aboriginal people… they would understand that in this case they want self-determination… and to develop this site to create intergenerational wealth” Mr Roberts said.

Former NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said political opposition to the Lizard Rock project was ‘gross hypocrisy.’ Picture: Richard Dobson Picture: Richard Dobson

In a response to the community submissions tendered last month, the MLALC claimed it could ‘mitigate potential (bushfire) risk’, nearby roads ‘can accommodate the expected level of day to day traffic’ and the relevant land parcel “does not contain any threatened ecological” species.

According to grassroots organisation - Sydney YIMBY - the suburb of Belrose has built fewer than 50 new homes since 2011.