3. Outstanding Issues | Our Green Corridor


	OUTSTANDING ISSUES

What is still needed to ensure the Green Corridor endures over the long-term

In November 2006, the State Government took significant steps to protect the Lower Hunter Green Corridor in the National Parks Estate. This reserving of land achieved much of the aims necessary for the corridor's broad protection framework.

The coalition said that an assessment would be made to ascertain what outstanding issues need to be acted upon by the government to achieve a robust corridor capable of withstanding the surrounding future development pressures, this obviously includes securing lands that completes the connectivity of the corridor. The Coal & Allied private lands are currently still under negotiation.

This assessment has been completed and these outstanding issues are:
(most of these issues relate to lands already owned by government agencies)

1. The connection between the new Sugarloaf State Conservation Area and the Watagans National Park is through a thin State Forest Flora Reserve surrounded by State Forest logging areas - this connection needs to be of a size befitting the state significance of this corridor and protected from logging and open-cut mining.

2. An important area of Sugarloaf forests between Mt Vincent and Leiberts Lane has not been included in the new Sugarloaf State Conservation Area, in spite of much of it falling within the "Mulbring Landscape Conservation Area" as designated by the National Trust of Australia in September 1984. Mt Vincent is also an area of special meaning and significance for the few remaining descendants of the Awabakal Tribe. This land must also be protected from logging and open-cut mining.

3. The government-owned ex-BHP land west of the F3 Freeway, near West Wallsend, is scheduled to be transferred to the reserve system but not that on the eastern side of the F3. All this land was given as "environmental compensation" to the people of the Lower Hunter and should be in the National Parks Estate.

4. While most of the Awaba forest lands are being reserved in the new Sugarloaf State Conservation Area, the area that was the subject of the contentious open-cut coal mine proposal is not included. Purchase of the non-government owned land must proceed and the land then reserved.

5. The fate of the Coal & Allied owned forests in the foothills of Mount Sugarloaf, the "tank paddock" and the area around the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park is still uncertain. While the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and the coal company proposes that 2,473 hectares be transferred for reservation, the future of the area around the regional park, especially the connection to the wetlands and to the Newcastle Link Road, is uncertain.

6. Secure land in corridor north of Mount Sugarloaf that is believed to be privately owned.

7. The Hunter Water wetlands at Minmi must be protected in the reserve system. It's believed DEC will purchase a large amount of this land but its full purchase must be made.

8. The National Park Estate (Lower Hunter Region Reservations) Bill 2006 only adds a single hectare of government-owned land to the renamed Hunter Estuary National Park. This leaves almost 2,900 hectares of Hexham Wetlands outside the National Parks estate. The government-owned wetlands at Hexham, Kooragang and Tomago, managed by the Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and the Regional Land Management Corporation (RLMC), should be protected in the Hunter Estuary National Park. The Hexham wetlands west of the old railway embankment should be purchased and protected.

9. It's believed the wetlands purchased on Hexham Swamp, by the CMA, may now not be transferred to DEC for reserving for 5 years. This transfer must occur soon, as previously planned. This 15 year old project is now in danger of being overwhelmed by development pressures so it must be transferred to the reserve system, in the near future. SEPP14 is being ignored. This project can still be managed by the CMA, but under the safety of the reserve system.

10. State Environmental Planning Policy 74, which covers wetlands on Kooragang and was put in place for a transport corridor to the old Austeel proposal at Tomago, should be repealed. The size of Tomago wetlands proposed for conservation has also been substantially reduced in the RLMC's MOU. This conservation land needs reinstating.

11. While most of the forests on the Tomago Sandbed (4,570 hectares) will be protected in the new Tilligerry State Conservation Area, the other government-owned lands covering the water reserve (owned by Hunter Water Corporation) should also be protected.

12. The much-anticipated reserving of the Stockton Bight National Park has still not occurred.

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