The forest survived devastating bushfires. Now it’s being bulldozed for holiday homes

Residents of a South Coast beach hamlet say they will keep fighting a “zombie DA” for more than 150 houses after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek gave the project the green light on Friday.

The development in Manyana, south of Jervis Bay, is set for a rare pocket of forest that emerged unscathed from the catastrophic Currowan bushfire in January 2020, which killed three people, devastated nearly all the surrounding bushland and roared to the edge of the coastal village.

The pocket of forest, top left, that can now be developed in Manyana.

“We’re terrified of more loss,” Manyana Matters resident group president Bill Eger said of the community’s response to Plibersek’s decision.

“The fact it’s allowed to be bulldozed is ridiculous – for holiday homes ... there is no housing crisis for people who can afford a second home – a holiday home – that will sit vacant most of the year.”

Houses in Manyana sell for up to $3.8 million, and vacant blocks for almost $1 million.

Former state planning minister Frank Sartor approved the Manyana Beach Estate development in 2008. In 2017, the owners sold the land to developers Manyana Coast Pty Ltd for $3.85 million. Manyana Coast also bought a small neighbouring block for $630,000 that year, which now forms part of the project.

The Manyana forest locals have been trying to save from development.Credit: Peter Rae

But before the company could start clearing land in 2020, former environment minister Sussan Ley declared the development a “controlled action” that would require ministerial approval amid concern the site had become a key habitat for wildlife trying to recover from the Currowan bushfire.

The federal environment department approved the development last week, but scaled it back from 182 homes to 153. It said Manyana Coast could not pursue stage three of the project to save a patch of littoral rainforest on the site. The department is yet to publish its reasons for the decision.

Ecologists had called for the forest to be protected because it is ideal habitat for animals including the endangered greater glider, whose numbers were decimated by the Black Summer fires, and the threatened grey-headed flying fox.

Manyana Matters founder Jorj Lowrey said the decision to let the development proceed was a blow for every coastal community fighting a historical or “zombie” development approval, where consent granted years ago remains valid because physical work of some sort has been carried out.

A map showing scarring from the Currowan bushfire around Manyana, with the forest slated for development, near the bottom right, untouched.Credit: Shoalhaven City Council

“We really hoped to succeed here, to give other communities some hope, to say ‘Hang in there, the fight is worth it, there will be a reward’ … [instead] the community and the environment loses out to developers, who somehow end up with everything going their way,” Lowrey said.

She said the conditions provided little comfort because a large part of the littoral rainforest knocked back for development would have to be cleared anyway to create a bushfire buffer zone to protect houses, and hoped Planning Minister Paul Scully would intervene.

Scully said responsibility for any further approvals for the project rested with Shoalhaven City Council, but outgoing mayor Amanda Findley said the state government should step up and buy the land to save it, rather than play a game of pass-the-buck.

“We’re back in this finger-pointing exercise between the state government and the local government,” she said.

The development is 500 metres from the beach at Manyana.Credit: Peter Rae

“The state government don’t want to take responsibility for it because they don’t want to set a precedent, and they don’t want to have to cough up any money for purchasing the block.

“But the state government has bigger pockets, and they’re ones who did approve it.”

A spokesperson for Tanya Plibersek said the federal government considers each project referred to it on a case-by-case basis.

“The Albanese government has to make decisions in accordance with the facts and the national environment law – that’s what happens on every project, and that’s what’s happened here.”

The spokesperson said planning and development applications, including zombie DAs, were the responsibility of the NSW government.

A parliamentary inquiry into historical development consents has begun in NSW, with committee members visiting coastal communities this month to hear concerns.

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