Community Voice Australia- Central Coast hosted a community event titled Protect our Forests and Sacred Lands on September 16, where issues of environmental concern in the region were discussed.
Held at Kincumber, the event featured local speakers sharing details of logging in Ourimbah State Forest and the fight to save Kariong Sacred Lands from a housing development proposed on Woy Woy Rd.
“Ursula Da Silva of Camp Ourimbah and Brian Davies of Palmdale compared archival photos of the grandeur of Ourimbah State Forest with the destruction left by the Forestry Corporation’s recent logging,” a spokesperson said.
“Concerns were raised about the logging’s impact on koalas and wildlife as well as the fire risk of leaving dead vegetation in place of fire-retardant rainforest.
“John Seed, long-term environmental campaigner and founder of the Rainforest Information Centre, then shared some stories of successful forest campaigns and encouraged us that protests do work.
“Of note is that our taxes subsidise the Forestry Corporation whose practices include many violations of forestry law; they are racking up numerous fines for environmentally reckless and unlawful behaviour.
“Everyone, except for industry and politicians, agrees that native forest logging needs to stop (as decreed this year in Victoria).”
The second item on the agenda was a proposed 70-home development by Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council (DLALC) on land at Kariong.
“Aunty Colleen Fuller (Traditional Custodian from the Darkinoong and Yuin tribes) and Lisa Bellamy (President of the Kariong Progress Association) explained how the State Government Aboriginal Land SEPP allows for fast tracking of development by Indigenous land corporations,” the spokesperson said.
“Of concern is land at Kariong, which is zoned C2.
“C2 Zoning applies to areas that contain high ecological, scientific, cultural or aesthetic values and is the next rung down from National Parks.
“The Kariong project is one of a number DLALC has at various stages of assessment in the delivery pipeline, including proposals at Somersby, Wallarah and Lake Munmorah that total 331.5ha of its land.
“DLALC is the largest private land holder on the Central Coast with another 1000 land claims currently being processed.
“Local environmentalist and founder of Coast Environmental Alliance Jake Cassar encouraged the public to make submissions when the housing development opens for public exhibition in October.”
Source:
Community Voice Australia- Central Coast
Maybe an idea might be for some of the people that own land/houses adjacent to to the current bush lands to sell their property to the Government, regenerate the the land, rezone and move somewhere else.