By Adam Carey
A cryptic native skink – rarely spotted in the wild, and feared to have suffered huge population losses in the Black Summer fires – has been discovered in bushland in Dromana that is due to be carved up into hundreds of new homes.
The emergence of the endangered swamp skink on one of the largest undeveloped residential sites on the Mornington Peninsula has led to calls to drastically scale back long-standing housing plans and preserve the environmentally valuable bushland instead.
The swamp skink was listed as endangered in March 2023, in part due to habitat loss in Melbourne’s east.Credit: Ray Kennedy
The skink’s discovery means that a housing project that was first put to the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in 2016 will now require Commonwealth approval before it can proceed.
The proposal, which involves subdividing 28.5 hectares of privately owned bushland in Dromana into 250 housing lots, will have to satisfy the Commonwealth that it will not drive the reptile closer to extinction.
The swamp skink was declared endangered in March 2023. Previously it was listed as vulnerable, which does not meet the threshold for Commonwealth intervention. Bushfires in 2019-20 and habitat loss in Melbourne’s expanding east were listed as two key reasons for the skink’s worsening plight.
“The swamp skink is likely to have experienced severe historical declines following European settlement resulting from drastic habitat modification,” the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said.
Adrian Marshall (left), Jordan Crook and Blake Nisbet, of the Victorian National Parks Association, walk along the perimeter of the proposed housing site in Dromana, which is home to the endangered swamp skink.Credit: Joe Armao
“Currently, population size is likely to be declining, with recent impacts to habitat including clearing in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and the 2019-2020 bushfires.”
The bushfires alone reduced the skink’s population by an estimated 15 per cent. The animal is endemic to coastal and wetland areas in south-eastern Australia, and is one of Victoria’s most elusive creatures.
Not even Jordan Crook, conservation campaigner with the Victorian National Parks Association, has seen one in the wild, despite spending long hours in the search.
“I’ve tried for many days, but haven’t been lucky enough to,” Crook says.
In a submission to the department, the association is arguing that development on the large, privately owned site should be kept to a minimum, with as much native vegetation preserved as possible.
“It’s quite a nice, damp site, full of melaleuca and sedges, which they [swamp skinks] really like. It would be a real shame if the site got cleared,” Crook said.
Under the current proposal, about 75 per cent of the skink’s habitat would be cleared, with seven hectares saved as a conservation reserve.
Environmental consultants have given the site a habitat score of just four out of 10. But the association said the lower score was “a consequence of the owner’s mismanagement and the impacts from mountain bikes and 4WDs”.
“Mismanagement should not be rewarded with native vegetation removal approvals,” it argued in its submission.
An aerial view of the privately owned bushland, which is proposed to be subdivided into 250 housing lots. Credit: Joe Armao
The developer’s planning report to the council, dated June 2021, said the proposal offered a rare opportunity to provide new affordable housing lots on the peninsula, within Melbourne’s urban growth boundary. It sought approval to rezone and subdivide the land. The council asked the state government in September 2021 to publicly exhibit the application and has been waiting for a response for more than three years.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor Anthony Marsh said the council recognised the need for new housing within the urban growth boundary, close to shops and services.
“This proposed development meets that criteria,” Marsh said. “It is equally important to ensure any environmental impacts are properly understood. The change in status of the swamp skink and its listing as a nationally endangered species means a more detailed investigation is needed.”
Marsh said the development should not proceed until more work is done to avoid and mitigate impacts on the skink.
The developer, LaManna Property Group, has proposed creating a seven-hectare conservation reserve within the site. It has also proposed reserving 28.6 hectares as an environmental offset near the town of Loch Sport in East Gippsland.
Director Greg LaManna said the location was one of a limited number of places on the peninsula that allows for responsible development.
LaManna said the offset site in Gippsland had been added to the proposal following the skink’s endangered listing in 2023 and would “protect and preserve the species eternally”.
The project also includes a conservation zone that will be rejuvenated and handed to the local council, he said.
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