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PO Box 4134
Werrington NSW 2747 |
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PO Box 4134
Werrington NSW 2747 |
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Welcome The Western Sydney Conservation Alliance Inc (WSCA) is a not for profit volunteer group that seeks to protect Western Sydney's dwindling Natural Heritage. That aim is being achieved in a number of ways including:
Find out more here Want to join the Western Sydney Conservation Alliance? Download our membership form. The membership fee is a modest $5.00. Post it with your fee made out to the Western Sydney Conservation Alliance to the address at the top of the page. Volunteer and join a Bush Care Group here Our next bush care day is planned for Sunday the 5th of December Do you have 3-4 hours to spare one Sunday a month? Do you want to learn more about native plants and animals, gain new skills, meet new people, get some exercise and do something positive for the environment? The first Sunday of each month members of the public are welcome to join the new bush care group established in Cranebrook at the former Air Services Australia site. Bush care restores habitat for our native species.
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Current News
Western Sydney group to meet with Brad Hazzard this week about urban
sprawl The Western Sydney Conservation Alliance Inc, an alliance of conservation, resident groups and concerned citizens, is meeting with Brad Hazzard the NSW Planning Minister this Friday the 3rd of February to discuss his urban sprawl policy which is opening up thousands of hectares on the urban fringe. We will be seeking answers from the Minister as to how his urban sprawl policy can be delivered sustainably, protect key remnants of bushland and the quality of life of residents. Media release here The Shanes Park Air Services Australia land must be protected by the NSW Government as a Nature Reserve not a Regional Park Robyn Parker must not sign the Deed of Agreement with the Federal Government condemning the 558 hectare site To stop this injustice we first need to convince Robyn Parker not to sign the Deed of Agreement. Please email Robyn Parker or phone (02) 9228 5253 office@parker.minister.nsw.gov.au
For more
detail about the Shanes Park site and how you can help avert this crazy
decision click here www.shanespark.com is a new website about the Shanes Park land and why it should be a Nature Reserve. Check it out for lists of species, photos and background documents. You can also lodge an e-submission directly from this site.
WSCA v Penrith City Council & Ors A brief summary of the court case and our Points of Claim can be found here Bart Bassett called on to organise urgent meeting on ADI Site clearing and Liberal broken promise Email here sent to the office of Bart Bassett the local Liberal Member for Londonderry on the 26th September 2011. His seat takes in the entire ADI Site. Here is Bart Bassett's response to the above email which includes WSCA's further response Lend Lease bulldozers role despite legal action WSCA commenced legal proceedings challenging Penrith Councils approval of Lend Lease DA's to clear 59 ha of bushland at the ADI Site. The Environmental Defenders Office, representing WSCA, wrote to Lend Lease detailing the case and requested they surrender the consents issued by Council. This occurred on Monday and they were given until 3pm Wednesday the 21/09/11 to comply otherwise an injunction would be sought to cease any works. Lend Lease, in an act of bastardry, organised bulldozers to come on site to start clearing. Clearing commenced on Wednesday afternoon and continued all day Thursday. The EDO was only informed that the site had been bulldozed on Thursday afternoon. The EDO on Friday morning sought an injunction to stop Lend Lease. However pressure from WSCA and good media coverage forced Lend Lease to voluntarily stop work and they gave the Land and Environment court an undertaking not to commence work until Monday the 26th at 10am. Stay tuned for further updates and actions
Barry O'Farrell Greenwash ahead of St Marys Community Cabinet Meeting Just two days out from a community cabinet meeting at St Marys (19/9/2011) Barry O'Farrell the NSW Premier has thrown up an environmental smokescreen to deflect attention from his governments broken promise to protect 100 ha of critically endangered bushland that Lend Lease propose to bulldoze at the ADI Site (Jordan Springs). The Premier has managed to get Channel Nine news to run a story about the Libs election commitment to change the reserve status of the 181 ha former Air Services Australia site from Regional Park to Nature Reserve. The news story claims that the site has been saved from housing by the Premier. This is not the truth and is an insult to WSCA volunteers, including the author, who since 2004, dedicated countless hours to fighting and exposing all levels of government to have this site saved. The Channel Nine story can be seen here
Whilst a Nature Reserve is better than a Regional Park the truth is the Libs did nothing to conserve this land. Its protection from housing was locked in years ago when WSCA secured $15 million in Federal Funds to buy the site back. That triggered a cave in by Penrith Council who then decided that their Penrith LEP would rezone the site for nature conservation. NSW Labor then turned its back on the developer and WSCA managed to get the Feds and NSW to the negotiating table to have the site acquired from the cash strapped developer. Ever since politicians and governments have tried to take the credit for saving the site when it was really saved by community volunteers from WSCA. Barry O'Farrell is just another politician to take the credit for the hard work done by the real saviours of this land. If anyone thinks this is grand standing by the author then they are just in denial of the truth. The real conservation test for the Liberals was not to tinker with a reserve classification but to honour their ADI Site commitment and actually demonstrate a commitment to conserve some bushland. Not re-announce the protection of land already saved from development. They have reneged on their ADI promises and are probably expecting a flogging at the community cabinet meeting. Hence the spin in advance of this meeting. WSCA has lodged an application to meet with Robyn Parker and Brad Hazzard about several important conservation issues including the broken ADI Site commitment. You can view the issues flagged with the Libs here Lend Lease latest DA's for Jordan Springs Lend Lease lodge Development Applications (DA'S) with Penrith Council to clear another 59 hectares of critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland at ADI Site (Jordan Springs) Penrith Council bulldoze NSW Government election commitment Penrith Council has approved six development applications by Lend Lease allowing 59 hectares of critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland to be bulldozed. Liberal Councillors, including Tanya Davies the Liberal Member for Mulgoa, voted with Labor and in doing so have bulldozed a commitment by the Liberal Nationals to conserve an additional 100 hectares within Jordan Springs. Their actions have left Barry O'Farrell and his Brad Hazzard looking like liars. Brad Hazzard and Environment Minister Robyn Parker have been called on to step in and take this development proposal off Penrith Council Robyn Parker, the NSW Environment Minister, however has confirmed that the O'Farrell Government has reneged on this election commitment by telling the Penrith Press that they (the government) - with the skewed logic that somehow Penrith Council represents the local community - believe local planning decisions are best made by the local community. She then goes on to claim they are protecting Cumberland Plain Woodland through their $40 million NSW wide corridors fund. This is nonsense as only a fraction of that money is to be spent in Western Sydney and likely on bushland that contains no CPW. The NSW Liberals think they can get away with these lies because a couple of conservative conservationists publicly endorsed the Liberal environment policy at the last election. This small breakaway group, with a narrow conservation objective, has effectively undermined broader conservation efforts, such as at the ADI Site, by giving the NSW government the legitimacy to ignore groups critical of their policies. WSCA has criticised the new government and they are largely refusing to acknowledge our existence by refusing to meet with us or answer our phone calls and correspondence. Here is an example being Catherine Cusack's outrageous attack on WSCA (nothing but facts stated by WSCA) prior to the NSW Election. Read our media release on this appalling ADI Site outcome here Here is a You Tube video of David Shoebridge of The Greens getting stuck into the O'Farrell government over this outcome:
St Marys Leagues Club extension to clear more Cumberland Plain Woodland St Marys Rugby League Club is wanting to clear 4 hectares of CPW to make way for a new football field and a Seniors Living Complex. This bushland is critically endangered and forms part of the proposed Cumberland Conservation Corridor which is supported by the Federal Government with $22.5 million to assist with its formation. This area provides refuge for a range of animal species including Eastern Grey Kangaroos. The Green and Golden Bell Frog has been found on this site. St Marys Leagues club has been obliged to refer their proposal to the Federal Govt Environment Dept for their assessment. You can make comment on the proposal. You need to act ASAP though. Here is the link Email your comments to epbc.referrals@environment.gov.au and quote reference number 2011/6042 Some of the Kangaroos that exist within this tiny remnant. They will be seriously affected by the destruction of their range. Western Sydney's Kangaroos are constantly at risk of being hit by cars and being attacked by dogs due to being displaced by urban development - so here we go again.
Photos by Edwin Vella and Mark Fuller
RTA road widening at ADI Site to clear hundreds of trees The RTA has on public exhibition plans to widen the Northern Rd at Cranebrook to 4 lanes. These roadworks are being funded by Lend Lease as part of their development of the ADI Site. The ecological consultants report is very vague but the proposal will remove over an acre of CPW and they claim only 60 trees will be removed. The interesting conclusion by the report is that they have called for the RTA or Lend Lease to compensate for this 1 acre loss of CPW by providing an offset. This is an amazing validation of WSCA's claims to Penrith Council and the NSW Government that Lend Lease must be liable for the CPW it clears in relation to the ADI Site development. Across the road at the ADI Site Lend Lease propose to clear nearly 500 acres of CPW and claim they don't have to provide any offset due to the nearby publicly owned Regional Park. Penrith Council and the NSW Govt, who are mates of Lend Lease, have swallowed this rubbish and it appears Lend Lease may get away with one of the greatest acts of environmental bastardry. This call for an offset for the loss of 1 acre of CPW now requires Penrith Council to finally act. Here is the website for the RTA at which you can see the reports and make a submission
Penrith Council pathetic fine for illegal land clearing Evidence of tree removal and land clearing of about 3 hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland was presented to Penrith Council for investigation. Photo evidence was provided showing trees bulldozed. Council staff eventually investigated and in phone conversations admitted tree clearing had occurred and the land owner had not lodged a DA for such works. They said that under scrubbing had occurred but that trees had been removed and this was a breach of Councils LEP for the area. WSCA was notified by Council that a $1500 fine had been issued. When WSCA went to the media and highlighted the inadequacy of the fine and that a prior incident of land clearing in 2000 resulted in Council taking a land owner to court and who was fined $75,000, Council told the media that no trees were removed and that the land owner had only under scrubbed the 3 hectares. This was a blatant lie by Council. Council staff had told WSCA that tree clearing had occurred and our photos proved that.
Private Members Bill - Western
Sydney Conservation Corridor
Liberal Louise Markus has proposed a Private Members Bill (PMB) to create a Greater Western Sydney Conservation Corridor. The PMB was today debated for 20 minutes by Liberals Louise Markus and Russell Matheson and Julie Owens and Michelle Rowland from Labor. As predicted this turned out to be a blameathon with both sides slagging off the other about whose to blame for Western Sydney's environmental woes. However there was some truth in what both sides said. Download the 20 minute video here (note this was filmed with a hand held camera so a bit wobbly at times)
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A Gardeners Guide to the Native Plants of Western Sydney Email us if you would like a copy of WSCA's native plant booklet mailed to you. Include your postal address.
Correspondence sent to our politicians and decision makers. See who is ignoring us and who is responding here Media releases and articles here ADI Site info and ADI Residents Action Group website archive here Save Cranebrook Air Services Australia site archived website here. A site saved by WSCA volunteers here Penrith Local Environmental Plan. Disastrous outcome for our environment here Penrith Council failing to protect its environment
Population Growth info
here WSCA bush care join now
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