A large group of community members gathered outside the State Member for Gosford’s office at Woy Woy on Monday, September 1, to request that Mr Chris Holstein honour his Government’s pre-election promise to “Secure Bambara’s Future”.
Long-time campaigner for Bambara’s protection and political activist, Jake Cassar said: “We have literally done everything we can to have this promise honoured and our community’s reasonable wishes adhered to.” “Gosford Council and the State Government have said they are committed to Bambara’s protection since the early 1980s, and still the majority of the land remains unprotected. “We have held many awareness concerts attended by hundreds of locals, two art shows, around a dozen peaceful protests, camped for three months on Woy Woy Rd to draw attention to the issue and have sent over 1,000 emails and letters to our elected leaders respectfully requesting that they support the community that elected them. “I call on Gosford Council CEO Paul Anderson to make public the legal advice that he says he received that restricts the State Government from compulsorily acquiring the land for conservation. “Local environmental groups, the Central Coast Greens and others have written to Mr Anderson requesting proof of this information he used to block Greens Cr Hillary Morris’s recent motion for council to urge the State Government to urgently move to secure Bambara, and they inform me that Mr Anderson is simply not responding. “I suggest that the information put forward by Mr Anderson may have been false and misleading, as under section 145 of the National Parks and Wildlife (Act 1974) it clearly states that the Government has the full powers to compulsorily acquire land for conservation or to protect places of Aboriginal cultural significance. “If Mr Anderson has indeed purposely misled the people of the Central Coast, and to the detriment of a motion to support conservation of threatened species and cultural heritage, then I believe Gosford Council should reconsider his position on council. “No one is getting a fair go here. “Not the land owners or the concerned community alike. “While it’s important to acknowledge that this community’s peaceful but unwavering lobbying has recently resulted in just under a third of the land at Bambara becoming National Park, there are still several blocks that are not secured and anything is possible in the future. “Gosford Council and the State Government saw fit to zone this extremely culturally and ecologically sensitive land, in the middle of our local National Park, to allow Bed and Breakfast accommodation, housing developments and even for agricultural developments. “Then when someone purchases the land with their presumably hard earned money, council publicly announces that the land is actually undevelopable, potentially devaluing the land, and then offers the main owners approximately one third of what they paid for the blocks. “While I am not suggesting that the land owners should be paid more than what the land is worth, I strongly believe that they should be treated fairly, especially considering the role that the local and State Government played in creating the situation we have today by giving Bambara a very inappropriate zoning. “It’s no wonder people become disillusioned with the political system and the politicians themselves. “Our elected leaders should be very proud that they have a community of people who deeply value our ancient cultural heritage and want to preserve our beautiful and sensitive environment, not finding a way to oppose us at every turn. “Many people I have spoken to don’t agree, but I still have some belief that Mr Holstein will honour this promise before the State election. “In saying that, I have strong concerns that if Mr Holstein does not honour this promise before next year’s State election, our community will be forced to battle on for years to come. “After putting in a substantial effort myself over several years and making many sacrifices along the way, I admit that the thought of having to continue pushing for meaningful action to occur into the future is quite distressing. ‘But I won’t give up and I urge others not to also. “This peaceful protest will probably be the last shot we have for many years to come to finally bring an end to our struggle, so I’m really hopeful that it will make an impact,” said Mr Cassar.
Media release, 1 Sep 2014
Jake Cassar,
West Gosford