Spencer: Hassan Ibrahim admits clearing 6ha of saltmarsh along the Hawkesbury River
A man is facing “massive fines” after clearing 6ha of protected saltmarsh from his Hawkesbury River property, telling NSW Fisheries officers “it’s all just grass”.
Central Coast
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A man is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines after pleading guilty to clearing 6ha of endangered saltmarsh from his Hawkesbury River property.
Hassan Ibrahim, 33, of Condell Park in Sydney, faced Gosford Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to seven counts of harming marine vegetation in a protected area without a permit.
An agreed set of facts states Ibrahim owned the 20ha property at 5315 Wisemans Ferry Rd, Spencer, when NSW Fisheries were tipped off about illegal land clearing.
On July 5, 2023, a NSW Fisheries officer conducted an inspection of the site by boat and noted 156 overturned bread crates had been placed on the public intertidal zone to create a platform to Ibrahim’s property.
He also noted numerous mangrove trees had been cut down and a wooden boardwalk had been built through the mangrove forest to the water’s edge.
The NSW Fisheries officer deployed a drone to get a better look and located earthmoving equipment that was “possibly being used on the property to reclaim water land and hundreds of square meters of saltmarsh appeared to have been harmed”.
A few weeks later more Fisheries officers attended the property to conduct a land-based inspection while Ibrahim was present.
During the inspection officers noted large tracts of saltmarsh had been cleared with vehicle tracks present throughout the clearings, 35 mangrove trees had been cut down and various storm water systems had been installed including pipes with one-way flaps to prevent the natural tidal flow from the Hawkesbury River reaching saltmarsh on the property.
The officers also noted the bread crates had been pushed flat into the sand to form a level platform on the foreshore and a 25m-long wooden boardwalk had been installed through the mangrove forest.
The fisheries officers asked Ibrahim what he could tell them about the clearing of saltmarsh.
“I don’t know what saltmarsh is, it’s all just grass,” Ibrahim told officers.
Due to the size of the property and the extent of the damage officers organised another more detailed inspection in February 2024.
During the inspection they noted a total of 59,731sq m of saltmarsh had been cleared using a large mower or tractor while crushed sandstone base had been used to create a 104m-long, 4.5m wide access road through the intertidal zone of the property.
On March 26 last year Ibrahim participated in a recorded interview at Sydney South Fisheries Office where he said his late father had initially mowed some of the site to help him “recover” from floods and he has simply “maintained” them every three to six months.
Ibrahim said he constructed the boardwalk through the mangroves because children fished from that bank and he didn’t want them “hurting themselves”.
Magistrate Elizabeth Ellis urged Ibrahim, who was representing himself, to get a lawyer warning “there are massive fines involved”.
She adjourned Ibrahim to July 31 for sentence.
NSW Fisheries meanwhile told the court it was seeking $20,000 in legal costs and a remediation order to restore the damaged saltmarsh, remove the boardwalk and access road and plant new mangrove trees.
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