2 APRIL 1999

The National Parks Association of NSW Inc. is a non-profit community organisation which seeks to protect and conserve the complete range and diversity of natural habitats, features and species as well as significant cultural items and landscapes within New South Wales.

National Parks Association Executive: Tom Fink, President; Stephen Lord, Senior Vice-President; Anne Reeves, Junior Vice-President; Tim Carroll, Secretary; Kathy McCourt, Treasurer; Mike Thompson, John Macris, Beth Michie, Vivien Dunne.

The National Parks Journal is published bi-monthly, with news and features on nature conservation and national parks, by NPA Publications Pty Ltd, 4th Floor, Imperial Arcade, 83-87 Castlereagh St, Sydney.

Phone: (02) 9233 4660 Fax: (02) 9233 4880 e-mail: npansw@bigpond.com website: http://NPANSW.cjb.net Editor: :: :: Glyn Mather Journal Committee: Tom Fink (ex officio) Stephen Lord Anne Reeves Mike Thompson Noel Plumb Proof Reader: Janice Beavan Activities Program Coordinator: Richard Thompson Activities Program Typist: Pat Tregenza Printing: :: :: SOS Printing, 65 Burrows Road, Alexandria.

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June deadline: 19.4.99 August deadline: 21.6.99 APRIL 1999 Vol 43 No 2 APRIL 1999 Vol 43 No 2 APRIL 1999 Vol 43 No 2 APRIL 1999 Vol 43 No 2 APRIL 1999 Vol 43 No 2

EDITORIAL
From the President 3
From the Executive Officer 3
NPA NEWS 4
ENVIRONMENT NEWS, VIEWS & ACTION 6
A free-flowing river
Lane Cove crossing
Save Kosciuszko
COVER STORY
Carr's CAR reserve system 9 by Dailan Pugh
ACTIVITIES PROGRAM (Supplement following p 12)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 21
FEATURES
Gwydir landholders in agreement 8 by Cath Webb
Election special:
Conservation directions in a political landscape 13 by Grahame Douglas
A history of national park additions 16 by Stephen Lord
The Resource Package 18 by Stephen Lord
NPWS: A 30 year review 19 by Tom Fink
Nature conservation, conservation reserves 20 & the RFA process by Tony Norton et al
INDEX TO 1998 NATIONAL PARKS JOURNAL 22
FRONT COVER: Flooded gum with bangalow palms, Mt Lindesay State Forest, NE NSW Photo: Dailan Pugh

INSIDE FRONT COVER APRIL 1999 3 PHOTO SEE FEB 99 NPJ THIS SPACE P3


From the President

The pre-election period has seen the tidying up of some outstanding issues. Particularly welcome is the conclusion of the Gwydir wetlands agreement after three years of work by NPA and others. Similarly, the Silverwater Nature Reserve has been declared over at least part of the RAN ammunition depot at Newington.

Unfortunately there are also many loose ends left for the incoming government. Let's hope that less attention will be given to the special pleaders in future. For example, there should be no more permits issued to individuals to walk dogs on national park beaches; and no more hereditary rights to run bees in national parks. We hope that the incoming government will settle the interdepartmental dispute that has left unprotected the strip of land between high and low tides (the intertidal zone, or ITZ). The lack of firm NPWS control of the ITZ allows damage to rock-pool ecosystems and destructive vehicle access to national park beaches. Transfer of the ITZ to NPWS is an unfulfilled promise from the last election! Whoever wins the election, we hope that the management of individual parks will not be overly influenced by local interests to the detriment of scientifically based management of our parks for their natural values.

The Lane Cove River rail-bridge proposal seems to be an obvious social good. Of course NPA will be working to ensure that damage and loss of amenity in this substantially recreational part of the park is minimised. The likely loss of recreational space would be small, but any loss is good reason to expand the park, now, by the addition of all the remaining large areas of natural land in the Lane Cove River valley.

Tom Fink


Cat hats at the Frontline

The letter to NPA was direct: "Your opposition to the proposal by Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL) to develop Canyon Sanctuary near Bell in the Blue Mountains reveals that you are not concerned with conservation of the environment but rather the conservation of your own organisation."

The only grain of truth in the letter is that NPA is opposed to Dr John Wamsley's ESL or any other developer, public or private, gaining control of the Canyon Colliery site at the head of the Grose Wilderness. Dr Wamsley of course is the larger-than-life "Cat Hat Man", who has used his feral catskin hat to draw attention to his campaign to protect some threatened species by putting them behind feral-proof fences, the Earth Sanctuaries.

Dr Wamsley's work is supported by many conservation-minded people, as one part of the huge effort across Australia to protect threatened species and ultimately ensure that they have sufficient wild and natural habitat to survive without fences or zoos. From Landcare groups with a patch of threatened grassland, to national parks services researching controls for feral predators, to the selfless forest campaigners who fight to protect our forests and their special wildlife from clearfelling and woodchipping; all are striving to protect Australia's biodiversity and its threatened species.

Dr Wamsley's work is only one part of this huge spectrum. Sadly, Dr Wamsley does not seem to give much credit to others, nor understand that one conservation value should not be sacrificed or compromised needlessly for another. He has vehemently attacked national parks agencies and fellow conservationists on the Canyon proposal and many other issues over recent years, and holds highly controversial views on the commercial ownership and sale of wildlife.

Long before Dr Wamsley's proposal, the 900 ha Canyon site was earmarked by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and conservationists for return to the Blue Mountains National Park, from which it was excised in 1967 for the small Canyon underground coal mine. To their credit, Bob Carr and the NSW Government have agreed to the return of the land, despite a strident $200,000 political campaign by Dr Wamsley.

You must visit the site to appreciate the grandeur of the vista, which takes in the 400 metre high sandstone cliffs of the Grose Valley as they glow in the sunset and frame the spectacular Grose Wilderness. This is a vista of World Heritage value, one which no developer should be allowed ever to monopolise or mar. The rest of this escarpment between Bell and Mount Victoria is entirely protected already in the Blue Mountains National Park.

The Canyon Colliery has ceased mining and the operator must restore the small area, some 50 ha, directly disturbed by mining. The road, coal dump and mine headworks, which are the only development scars on this escarpment above the Grose Wilderness, will be removed at the operator's cost and the site rehabilitated. Dr Wamsley is not needed to do this.

In fact, while his ESL proposal turns the coal dump into a resort area, it retains the road and the ugly mine headworks which disfigure the escarpment. It further depends on clearing many kilometres of firebreaks for exclusion fencing.

Dr Wamsley has rejected suggestions by the NSW Government and Lithgow Council to set up "sanctuaries" at a number of alternative sites around the western Blue Mountains, near Lithgow and the popular Zig Zag railway. In my view, this would clearly still provide Dr Wamsley with an environmentally suitable site and access to the Blue Mountains tourist stream he desperately wants. It would also provide jobs in an economically depressed Lithgow.

Dr Wamsley will only have himself to blame if he squanders the public's goodwill and is unable to establish a sanctuary in the Blue Mountains. The Canyon site and its conservation heritage are not for sale.

Noel Plumb Executive Officer


4 APRIL 1999 NP NP NP NP NPA A A A A News News News News News

Three Valleys fights road proposal

The Kempsey Shire Council is working on its long-time dream of building a road from South West Rocks to Stuarts Point "to encourage tourism". They have called for expressions of interest in preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

In the consultant brief there appear the following phrases: "the development consent shall have no unreasonable conditions of approval"; "The consultant shall undertake necessary public relations to ensure that the project will be achieved, the community is satisfied and comfortable with the project and unreasonable objections are effectively dealt with to avoid unnecessary community confusion" (what are unreasonable objections?).

The brief goes on to state that some land acquisition will be required to ensure a minimum 80 kph standard is achieved and considerable clearing about 3 ha of old growth coastal blackbutt - will be necessary. There will therefore be few, if any, trees left along the banks of the Macleay Arm; and all this is to be done in the name of tourism.

The Council wants a road from Port Macquarie (via Maria River Road) to Crescent Head, South West Rocks, Stuarts Point, Grassy Head, and on to Scotts Head. There is already mention of a bridge across Warrell Creek at Scotts Head, with some people "in the know" buying up land at Gumma.

South of the proposed bridge across Clybucca Creek, there are some 500 metres of designated wetlands which are flooded by very high tides. Any road would mean cutting these wetlands in half and it is these wetlands that carry numbers of migratory waders. Apparently, according to the consultant brief, Kempsey Council has approached the Department of Land and Water Conservation to have the "inaccurate" boundaries of the wetland re-drawn, but the Department has refused.

Our Branch received a copy of this brief. When we protested about some of the terms used and suggested it should be reissued, the Council accused us of having obtained the paper illegally and ordered its return. The Council then claimed the brief was not the one actually issued.

The sole benefits claimed by Kempsey Shire Council for this road are more tourists and therefore more jobs. They cannot see that they will be killing off one of the best assets of the district. Some local businesses at Stuarts Point are promoting the road, failing to see that some local people will move their shopping to South West Rocks: passing trade is never a large source of revenue and will not compensate for loss of local custom. The Council fails to acknowledge that there may be any impact on the fishing and oyster industry, nor the scenic beauty.

Our Branch will be fighting very hard to stop this very stupid proposal. Any help would be appreciated, such as letters to the local press, Macleay Argus, Elbow St, West Kempsey 2440; or to Kempsey Shire Council, PO Box 78, West Kempsey 2440.

James Tedder Three Valleys Branch


Minister launches NPA report

In 1995 NPA produced a report on national park proposals for the greater Sydney region, Proposed National Parks Additions in the Sydney Region. There were detailed descriptions and maps of over 100 proposal areas (see also NPJ December 1998). An updated version was then commissioned by Sydney Branch, with Helen Latham writing both editions of the report.

On Sunday 21 February1999, the new version was officially launched by the NSW Minister for the Environment, Ms Pam Allan, at the controversial ADI site at St Marys in western Sydney.

About 60 guests heard presentations by: Doug Benson (senior botanist at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens) on the importance of conserving Sydney's remnant vegetation, particulalry in western Sydney; Bruce Wheatley (ADI Residents Action Group) on the strong community and scientific support for the site being a regional park rather than a large housing estate; Noel Plumb (NPA's Eexecutive Officer) on the importance of community groups in lobbying for conservation reserves; Helen Latham on the purpose of the reports; and Pam Allan on her support for the report; her acknowledgement of NPA efforts over time; the lengthy and sometimes difficult process of reserve gazettals; and the conservation achievements of the current NSW Government.

The full report is available from NPA Head Office for $45 plus postage; and extracts (individual reserve proposals) for $5 per 10 pages.

Helen Latham Sydney Branch


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Macarthur battles rifle range

Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, Craig Knowles, has taken a controversial development application out of the hands of Wollondilly Council, and will determine the application himself. The application is for construction of an international-class rifle range in bushland adjoining the Dharawal SRA. It was submitted late last year and follows a victory by local conservationists, who had a similar development on the same site stopped after the Land and Environment Court ordered that the development approval had lapsed (see NPJ February & August 1998).

Macarthur Branch has led local efforts to prevent development of the area, which has significant upland swamps listed on both the Directory of Important Australian Wetlands and the Register of the National Estate. The Branch has written to Minister Knowles requesting that he refer the matter to a Commission of Inquiry before assessing the development application.

Tim Carroll Macarthur Branch NPA challenges politicians NPA, along with the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and Total Environment Centre, has produced a document titled New Century, New Sustainability, New South Wales, which addresses environment protection and ecological sustainability agendas in the lead-up to the March State election.

The policy document deals with a wide range of issues grouped in the following sections: sustainable urban communities; sustaining basic services; sustaining regional communities; and sustaining citizens and communities.

A companion document, NPA Key Conservation Issues, draws together the sections in the New Century report which are more specifically NPA's focus, that is, concerning the protection of natural areas.

The policies have been sent to the leaders of the Labor, Liberal, National, Democrat and Greens parties.

They are also being widely distributed within NPA. For a copy call NPA Head Office on 02 9233 4660, or check NPA's website at http://NPANSW.cjb.net