Callala Bay: Council to vote on forest’s reclassification to conservation area

A fight to save a south coast forest and its threatened inhabitants has come to a head, with a regional council set to vote on its fate next week.

Signs were placed in the forest, fighting against its destruction. Photo: Brett Mezen @wildlife_by_brett (Instagram).

A two-year campaign to save a south coast forest from becoming a residential development and protect the threatened species who call it home, could come to an end on Monday, with a vote determining a conservation reclassification.

Coastal community group Callala Matters began campaigning two years ago to conserve the 40-hectare forested land in Callala Bay from residential development, after the land was rezoned in 2022 to R2 zoning by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

Callala Matters spokeswoman, Cat Holloway said the residential rezoning “should never have happened”.

“Greater gliders and many other incredible animals here are on the brink of extinction,” she said.

Developer Sealark planned to bulldoze the area to make way for 380 houses, which were set to be gradually released to the market across a decade.

Shoalhaven Council will determine if the forest is reclassified as a conservation area. Photo: Brett Mezen @wildlife_by_brett (Instagram).

However, Shoalhaven Council halted the subdivision, withdrawing the developer’s biodiversity certification application, due to the forest’s environmental significance.

The residential rezoning also arose after ecologists recorded a population of greater gliders, yellow-bellied gliders, gang gang cockatoos, grey-headed flying foxes and other threatened species.

The 40-hectare forest is home to a number of threatened species. Photo: Brett Mezen @wildlife_by_brett (Instagram).

The future of the 40-hectare forest will be determined on Monday, with Shoalhaven Council set to vote on it’s reclassification to a conservation zone.

Ms Holloway said the vote posed a simple question: “Do you want to fix the problem or make it worse”?

More than a thousand Callala Bay locals, numerous scientists and environmental organisations from Shoalhaven and wider NSW spoke out to save the forest during the proposal’s public submission period.

Although nature was the primary concern, opposition to development also cited bushfire and flooding risk, poor roads and exorbitant real estate prices in the Callala area, where nearly 50 per cent of houses are unoccupied.

“The state is green lighting outdated urban subdivisions that have no place in our remote coastal villages,” Ms Holloway said.

“These habitats are the last remaining refuges for national treasures that we must guard for future generations and for the sake of the wildlife itself.

“Conservation zoning is the next crucial, courageous step to recognise the modern climate and culture in which we all live.”

Shoalhaven Council vote on the conservation reclassification on Monday.

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