Several past and present members of the STEP committee were delighted to be invited to a function at Ingleside on 19 April 2015 to celebrate the unveiling of a memorial to the life of Neroli Lock (see STEP Matters 178, p7).
Neroli and her husband Harry had helped the property’s owner transform a creek from a willow and weed invested bog into a beautiful stream. This was another example of the tireless energy and imagination that Neroli devoted to all facets of her life.
This article was written by former president of STEP, Barry Tomkinson, who has had a close involvement with the Berowra Valley National Park proposals.
The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.
Tony Blair, ex British Prime Minister
Local and state politicians might well consider the words of Tony Blair when they assess their level of support for the push to have Hornsby Council establish a large sporting complex within the boundaries of their local national park, the Berowra Valley National Park. Do any of them still have the intestinal fortitude to say no to what has for years now seem to be a well-organised campaign to build team sports grounds, with associated parking facilities, night lighting and change room facilities, in an area specifically set aside by legislation ‘to conserve nature and cultural heritage’?
STEP members may recall that in June 2012 we reported on The Curious Saga of Stringybark Ridge (STEP Matters 165, p2–4).
Stringybark Ridge, once the site of a long abandoned pony club, is part of the Berowra Valley National Park (BVNP). All physical traces of the pony club have long since been removed and the site was substantially remediated by Hornsby Council during the years of its joint tenure with NPWS in its earlier status as a regional park. For some unknown reason two small level areas once used by the pony club have continued to be mown, but apart from that and a pathway into the site, you would now have difficulty in knowing the area was once anything other than good quality bushland.
The main parties involved seemed then to be in agreement that this is how it should remain.
All NSW national parks are governed by a legally binding Plan of Management (PoM). Then:
All of which would seem to indicate that the future of Stringybark Ridge as an easily accessible urban lung for the local community, rather than as a basis for team sporting ovals, was assured. However, not so fast, where local politics are concerned.
NPWS has issued a new draft PoM which, while specifically required under the relevant legislation 'to protect and conserve' the area, in point of fact proposes a spectacular reversal of their own previous policy.
Page 18 now identifies the Stringybark Ridge area as a potential area for a number of purposes, including 'activities of a recreational, sporting, educational or cultural nature'.
Precisely what has led to this turnaround is not mentioned, but a sense of it can be ascertained by the following paragraphs in the draft PoM:
Hornsby Shire Council has expressed an interest to the Office of Environment and Heritage in the establishment of a sportsground in the modified natural areas of Stringybark Ridge. Consideration of sporting facilities at Stringybark Ridge is in response to a shortage of sportsgrounds in the southern areas of Hornsby local government area and increasing participation in organised sports.
Potential sporting facilities could include a single sportsground on the larger, open grassed area suitable for team sports such as cricket, rugby and/or soccer. The smaller open grassed area could potentially be utilised for field athletics such as throwing and jumping events.
Hornsby Council in addition proposes to build change rooms, amenities buildings, kiosks, parking and to erect tower lighting. The facilities would be used both mid-week and over weekends.
The draft PoM goes on to state that NPWS will, in consultation with the community and Hornsby Council, prepare a precinct plan for Stringybark Ridge to articulate the specific activities and facilities for future use, including possible planned future use.
Yes it does.
STEP understands and is sympathetic to the fact that local sporting groups sometimes wish for additional sporting facilities. However, our primary purpose has always been, and remains, the protection of our remaining natural urban bushland. No-one is making any more urban bushland and with Sydney’s population set to grow substantially over the next two decades, Stringybark Ridge is in many respects a test of how our local society and political leadership will address the competing interests of urban growth and urban bushland protection.
We all know that it is bad debt management to pay off one credit card by racking up the debt on another and the same goes for our management of our ecological debt. Ultimately the quality of our urban life style is a wholly owned subsidiary of the health and quality of our natural environment and we as a society need to protect both. Taking our local environment for granted is no more sensible that taking our global environment for granted. One is simply a subset of the other and we can no longer plunder either with impunity. With human population impacts now so large in urban environments such as Sydney, past ways of thinking that there is always going to be enough ‘free land’ for all requirements can no longer prevail.
The Stringybark Ridge location is ideally suited to provide the vast majority of local residents safe and close contact with the natural bushland. The PoM quotes research which has time and again indicated the health advantages of this type of exercise.
Stringybark Ridge is also one of the relatively few significant ridge top sites still located within urban national park boundaries, making for easier walking by the many middle-aged locals.
The PoM (p20) also confirms that in terms of physical activities in NSW, walking is by far the most popular undertaken by any group (55%). Hornsby Council’s own Unstructured Recreation Facility Plan (2009) reflects essentially the same finding, this time across the totality of the shire as a whole.
While the Environmental Defenders Office NSW has questioned the legality of the proposed sports fields’ construction, if approved Stringybark Ridge will establish a precedent which other well-organised pressure groups will likely use in an attempt to have new team sporting facilities and amenities built in national parks throughout NSW. A netball complex here, a BMX track there, more space for team sports somewhere else.
All perfectly understandable in one sense, but signalling the death of a thousand cuts for our already small amount of land set aside for conservation. It is common knowledge that there are currently ‘on hold’ well-developed plans to also have an extensive mountain bike track system built around the Stringybark Ridge site, for which initial site planning has already commenced, and there is little doubt that this will be the next cab off the rank if the sports fields are approved.
After that, what? Quad bikes and motorised trail bikes?
STEP understands that in a civil society all groups are free to approach local elected officials to help them achieve their goals. We however also expect our elected representatives to fully represent our interest in protecting urban bushland and with regard to the Stringybark Ridge that effort seems to have been manifestly absent. While the bushland has no vote, the mass of local walkers who do so all want to have their interests protected, but we need to remind them. After all, the team sporting lobby groups do so all the time.
The best way for STEP members (and their friends) to do this is to send a submission to
While STEP will also make a submission, the way the game works is based on numbers. The STEP submission will count as one only and will be measured against all other submissions on that basis only, not on the merits of its contents. So a one line ‘I support the Proposal’ from anyone else in favour of the proposal will count equally alongside the STEP submission on behalf of its 400 members.
STEP members in their email need simply say that they do not support the BVNP PoM proposal on pages 18 and 19 to provide for 'activities of a … sporting nature' on Stringybark Ridge as they do not believe such activities fit with the need to protect the and conserve the area, as required under the NPW Act.
Participants in Clean Up Australia Day once again noticed the massive extent of littering and rubbish dumping from vehicles. The Comenarra Parkway is a prime example.
Take-away food containers were the dominant item. It seems that people think it is okay to toss anything out the window. Inadequate securing of loads is also a major problem.
Fortunately, in the future, it will be possible for beverage containers to be returned to a reverse vending machine. The container deposit legislation announced by the NSW Government prior to the election is expected to take two years to implement.
The government also introduced a scheme on 1 March 2015 where littering from vehicles can be reported to the EPA via a website or app.
To report littering from a vehicle, you must have observed the litter being discarded or blown from the vehicle. Seeing litter next to a vehicle and assuming that it came from that vehicle is not sufficient for a valid littering from a motor vehicle report.
The NSW Government election demonstrated the high level of concern about coal mining and coal seam gas. Several seats affected by mining and coal seam gas had strong swings away from the Liberals and National Party. Ballina, Wyong and Campbelltown were lost to the Greens or Labor.
Prior to the election Premier Mike Baird responded by cancelling 12 coal seam gas exploration licenses. However ongoing operations in the Pilliga, Gloucester Valley and Camden have not been proven to be safe for local communities and agriculture.
Marine sanctuaries had been compromised when the shore fishing restrictions were placed on hold by the government while an expert panel reviewed the social values and risks to marine life of recreational fishing. In December two-thirds of the sanctuaries were restored. The other third have been rezoned as habitat protection zones, meaning that beach and rock platform fishing will be permitted.
The government has promised to protect Sydney Harbour’s marine life but no details have been provided. Labor is supporting a marine park.
There is a long way to go to protect our threatened species. The government pledged $100 million to the Saving Our Species program that was launched in December 2013. The funding would be spent over four years and, the government says, would be used to fund programs to protect all 970 native species from pests with measures such as fencing and improved soil quality.
The government's ‘saving our species’ approach divides animals into streams according to the likelihood they can be saved successfully and the cost and benefit to society of protection. The very low funding previously provided ($5 million) could only cover protection for 70 species. Critics said that this approach was prioritising iconic species such as the koala.
This good work could all be undone if they follow through on their announcement to simplify the biodiversity legislation by repealing the Native Vegetation Act and replace it with a new law.
The appalling 10/50 bushfire prone vegetation clearing legislation is still wreaking havoc in our beautiful tree-lined streets with large habitat trees being removed for non-bushfire protection reasons. The reported count is now more than 1200 trees converted to mulch in northern Sydney. We hope the public inquiry will lead to the return of a scientific basis for assessment.
The residents of Malton Road and the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust have been working for many months to try and save some 2 hectares of privately owned land in Malton Road, Beecroft from subdivision and residential development.
Development of these residential blocks at 79–87 Malton Road will necessitate the loss of canopy and understorey over most of these lots, due to the Rural Fire Service requirements for a 50 m inner Asset Protection Zone. This zone has to be maintained in perpetuity, destroying this critical bushland corridor habitat.
Malton Road is located within the Byles Creek Catchment which is environmentally significant. The land is part of a vegetation corridor along Byles Creek between Pennant Hills Park and Lane Cove National Park, allowing species to disperse between the reserves and national park and for the transferral of genetic material. The high conservation value of this corridor is further emphasised by its inclusion as a ‘core area’ in the pilot NSW Biodiversity Investment Opportunities Map as part of the NSW Government Green Corridors Program.
It contains a unique set of environmental elements including a natural watercourse, sandstone benches and cliff faces, locally significant Blackbutt Gully Forest, habitat for a diversity of native flora (over 100 species) and fauna (19 species) including several threatened species such as the Gang-gang Cockatoo, Grey-headed Flying-fox and the Powerful Owl.
The Gang-gang Cockatoo is listed both as ‘vulnerable’ and as an ‘endangered population’ under the Threatened Species Conservation Act with only 14 observed in the Hornsby local government area in 2013, with the Byles Creek corridor being their stronghold providing known habitat and potential breeding with suitable large hollows located throughout the corridor and at 79–87 Malton Road.
The Powerful Owl is listed as ‘vulnerable’ under the Threatened Species Conservation Act and is also known near Byles Creek, with seven sightings in the vicinity and a nearby breeding pair.
The development application was reviewed at Hornsby Council meeting on 11 March with a motion passed to allow council sufficient time to approach the NSW Government and determine if there is an opportunity to have the site acquired due to its environmental and heritage characteristics.
Hornsby Council will next consider the development application on 10 June.
Demonstrate your support for the acquisition of the land by the state government and the preservation of this bushland by signing the petition on the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust website and/or write to the Minister for the Environment.