Koonyam Range NSW: when forest dwellers don't value trees

 

IMAGE: Google Earth 11.01.24
Click on images to enlarge

There couldn't be more than a handful of residences on Boogarem Road in the middle of pristine native forest on the Koonyum Range. However, that street is gaining a reputation........

On 11 Jan 2024 the NSW Dept. of Planning and Environment announced that a person described as a local Koonyum Range resident was convicted of clearing 0.35 ha of native vegetation and constructing an unauthorised building in Mount Jerusalem National Park.

The cleared section at Boogarem Road, Koonyum Range NSW after removal of illegal dwelling. IMAGES: Echo, 12 January 2024

InsideLocal Government, 12 January 2024:

A Koonyum Range resident has been convicted and fined by Mullumbimby Local Court after failing to check property boundaries before clearing 0.35 ha of native vegetation and constructing an unauthorised building in Mount Jerusalem National Park.

The actions breach the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and National Parks and Wildlife Regulation 2019.

With fines and a costs order amounting to nearly $22,000 (including a remediation order of $8,000), the court found the local resident had direct responsibility for the offences.

“The felling of forest oaks impacts directly on the habitat and food resources of the glossy black cockatoo, a listed vulnerable species known to occur in the area,” said NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Area Manager, Jenny Atkins.

“Trees are highly valued in the Byron Shire and their removal, without permission, is not tolerated by NPWS, or the broader community. The fines and the community correction orders imposed by the magistrate in the Mullumbimby Local Court support this.

“This sends a strong and very clear message to people that before you clear land or cut down any trees or do any building work, even on your property, you should know where the property boundaries are.

“You should always check with the local council to see what is allowed and what is not.”

Mount Jerusalem National Park is home to several endangered and vulnerable plants and animals and this sentence is a reminder that native vegetation laws must be taken seriously, she said.

“The seriousness of the offences is reflected in the penalty imposed by the court which, in addition to the fines and costs, included two community correction orders of 12 months.”

In June 2022 Andrew Giles Packshaw was reported as pleading guilty and being convicted of development without consent. It appears he erected a donga.

Mirage News,16 June 2022:

A Byron Shire resident has been fined $60,000 for land clearing and removing trees from a property on the Koonyum Range west of Mullumbimby, and $10,000 for unauthorised building work.

It comes after Council was notified, in October last year, of alleged land clearing, tree removal and construction on a property on Boogarem Road.

Investigations found there was progressive land clearing between April and October last year on a 1,300m2 site including the removal of nine trees ranging in height from 15 metres to 25 metres.

An expert arborist/ecologist engaged by Council found the age of each of the trees that were cut down or pushed over was 40-50 years.

The property is in the Scenic/Escarpment zone where the clearing of land can only be done with development consent.

The offence was aggravated by the fact that the Rural Fire Service had imposed conditions providing that clearing for bushfire hazard reduction did not permit the removal of trees over three metres in height.

Ralph James, Legal Counsel, said that the court found that the impact of the clearing, and the construction of an informal shower and toilet area, had a negative impact on the natural environment and that the clearing of native vegetation and earthworks modified the site which impacted native habitats and drainage

"This land borders a national park and, not surprisingly, the area is home to a number of endangered and vulnerable plants and animals," Mr James said.

"The felling of Forest Oaks impacts directly on the habitat and food resources of the Glossy Black Cockatoo, a listed, vulnerable species known to occur in the area.

"Trees are highly valued in the Byron Shire and their removal, without permission, is not tolerated by Council, or the broader community, and the large fines imposed by the Magistrate in the Mullumbimby Local Court support this," Mr James said.

"In addition to the $60,000 fine for removing trees, the defendant was fined $10,000 for the construction of the informal shower and toilet," he said.

"The defendant has been ordered to also pay Council's legal costs of $5,000.

"I hope this sends a strong and very clear message to people that before you clear land or cut down any trees or do any building work on your property you should check with Council to see what is allowed and what is not," Mr James said.

A name change for Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby?

 

IMAGE: Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2023

Echo, 21 November 2023:

Changing the name of a local street because it is derived from a racist slur might seem a simple decision at first glance.

But the reality has proven more complicated when it comes to Hottentot Crescent in Mullumbimby’s Tallowwood housing estate.

The street was given its name because of the hottentot fig trees that were planted there in 1993.

But the word ‘hottentot’ itself is a racial slur that has been directed toward members of the Khoisan tribe in South Africa for hundreds of years.

Earlier this year Byron Council was approached by a local resident who argued that the crescent should be renamed.

In response to the approach Council sent letters to the 23 houses on the street asking for their views.

It received a wide range of responses, from those who felt the strongly that name should be changed, through to those who strongly believed it has become part of the local identity that has nothing to do with its racist derivation.....

Byron Shire councillors will consider the issue as Item 13.23 Possible change of road name Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby at its ordinary monthly meeting on Thursday 23 November 2023.

Item 13.23 carries the staff recommendation:

That Council commences the name change process for Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby

A suspicious person might wonder if the well-heeled owners and operators of Airbnb-style short-term rentals in Byron Bay may have been lobbying both Macquarie Street and Darcy Street to protect their lucrative income earners

A suspicious person might wonder if the well-heeled owners and operators of Airbnb-style short-term rentals in Byron Bay may have been lobbying both Macquarie Street and Darcy Street concerning Byron Shire Council’s desire to place a 60-day annual cap on short-term rentals by June 2024.

With the following consequences.......

The Echo, 9 August 2023:

Byron Shire Council risks losing its planning powers to ‘independent intervention’ if it does not ‘demonstrate how it intends to improve its housing supply’.

In an aggressive letter to Council’s general manager, Mark Arnold, Sydney-based Deputy Secretary NSW Planning, Marcus Ray, outlined what he believes is Council’s failure in fast-tracking housing supply for the area, adding that Council’s development application (DA) processing times ‘are among the slowest in the state’.

In the letter, which was provided to The Echo, Mr Ray demands that Council outline ‘commitments it intends to make over the next three, six, 12 months and beyond, to deliver at least 4,522 new and diverse homes to 2041’.

It’s a target that he says Council will fall ‘well short of’.

Where is the flood data?

The demand comes despite his own department still sitting on the long-awaited 2022 flood data that will underpin further developments.

In previous years, the NSW planning department told The Echo that housing targets are set by councils, are flexible, and not enforceable.

Regarding the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) report recommendations on short-term rental accommodation (STRA), which are yet to be adopted/rejected by NSW Labor Minister Paul Scully, Mr Ray says, ‘it remains critical for Council to demonstrate how it intends to improve its housing supply before any decision on Council’s planning proposal can be made’….

Read the full article here.

Sometimes in 2023 humour is all you have left if you live on one of the many once-sealed Northern Rivers roads

Google Earth snapshot, March 2023
Click on image to enlarge

ECHO, 18 April 2023:

I moved to the Byron Shire in 1986, the year this great little paper started expressing the views of our community. I remember back then the complaints about the state of our roads… It’s like this paralysing brain fog descends at the mere mention of our roads, and this has now been going on for decades. Throw in a couple of ‘once in a lifetime weather events’ and now we’ve got 200 road projects in waiting. Is mine one of them?

Yankee Creek Road is only 1.4 kilometres and is a dead end (in more ways than one). Last Monday night I had to tow my friends out after they tried to avoid the craters.

So far this year four different friends have said they cannot visit me anymore because they don’t feel confident negotiating the road.

There are now four sections where you have to drive offroad to avoid the potholes and craters that remain unfixed in the road.

It was really bad before the 28 February and 30 March 2022 floods, but now it’s atrocious.

The repair work to my car last week cost me $1,570; that entailed replacing the strut mounts, shock absorbers, bump stop boot kits, and of course I’m constantly visiting my mates down at Tyre Power!

So, I thought I should wave my feeble hand in the air, and I wrote to the Mayor and all councillors with photos and a detailed description of how bad things are. I did get a response from Sarah Ndiaye and Duncan Dey that the matter had been forwarded on to Byron Shire Council (BSC) staff, but no other confirmation.

Like Navaya Ellis (Echo, 29 March) I would like questions answered. These are: when will someone come and take a look at Yankee Creek Road? What classifies a ‘bad’ road versus a ‘dangerous’ one? What designates a high priority? Is there anybody out there? Yoohoo, drowning not waving!

Gosh, a courteous reply saying my letter had been received would be a good start.

I think I’m experiencing what I’ll coin FF: ‘futility fatigue’. It certainly took me out last year after nine months enduring the endless fob offs from insurance companies.

Yes, I have a beautiful new home, albeit, now a leaky one. Here, I have to thank Byron Council for giving me a ‘Completion Certificate’ when parts of my roof had no flashing – my insurance company sure loves you dudes.

Sorry, I digress… you see FF is insidious because there are so many other people with way worse war stories; I don’t have the right to winge and complain about insurances and roads when others are so much worse off.

Then FF inertia sets in and the paralysing brain fog returns, making any attempt for resolution and clarity feel like crawling across cut glass… best just give up, right?

Nup! Maybe we can generate some income to help BSC, perhaps a new reality TV show called Survivor on North Coast Roads, city dwellers can pay an exorbitant amount to be given four bald tyres and a road map of our worst roads; an experience of a life time! Spine tingling action with search and rescue at the ready.

Mishaela Simpkins, Mullum Creek 

Is the Perrottet Government an out-of-control political and planning juggernaut about to smash its way through NSW Northern Rivers communities?

BYRON SHIRE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

In which property developers get access to existing rail corridor and Mullum community loses green space......

  

Byron Echo, 1 March 2023

Byron Echo, 22 February 2023:

As previously reported, the entire railway corridor length in Mullum will become either medium-density ‘affordable housing’ or car parks, under a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated 24 November between Council and the state government, which has a three-year expiry date.

The public were not informed of the plans until the MoU was presented as a Council agenda item. The MoU also includes Council’s ‘aspirations’ for access via the rail corridor to its land called Lot 4, enclosed by a bend in the Brunswick River.....

Note: Area 3" of "Map 2" will allegedly be "affordable housing focus". This areas coincide with the section of flood prone land chosen by Resilience NSW for landfill to accommodation emergency housing pods.

In which more flood storage is removed from the floodplain and where the direction of flood water traveling across Mullum township in a 100 ARI event is altered....

Byron Echo, 22 November 2022:

The Resilience NSW (ResNSW) Flood Report on the impact of the fill at the emergency housing site at Mullumbimby was finally released to the public on 7 November.

The report details the impacts that the fill, built up to current 1-in-100-year flood level under selected Scenario A, will have on flood levels for existing housing, in particular on Prince, Poinciana and Station Streets.

‘According to the report, there are 11 properties that will see an increase in flooding in a 1-in-100-year event, and 85 properties that will actually see a reduction in flooding in this type of event,’ said Byron Shire Mayor, Michael Lyon.

‘They might not want the fill to be removed.’

Two properties identified in the ResNSW Flood Report, with six units that were severely impacted by flooding in 2022, will see a 3cm increase of above-floor flooding as a direct result of the fill-in a 1-in-100-year flood (as labelled in 2020 by the North Byron Floodplain Management Study and Plan).

The temporary pod site will provide 40 units, for up to 160 people who were affected by the devastating February floods. However, there are key areas where the ResNSW Flood Report by BMT fails to provide adequate information on how their conclusions are drawn regarding the impact on existing houses and residents in these areas.

Local Councillor and hydrologist Duncan Dey pointed out that, ‘At 40 pages this is a very thin technical report and it has not provided the modelling and details needed to allow the public to see how they reached, or to confirm, the conclusions they have put forward. There is also no clue as to who did the actual modelling, or authored the report’.

3–6cm not a small increase

In their November Construction Update, ResNSW say that this is a ‘small increase in flood levels’. However, Cr Dey says that ‘in the profession, rises of 3cm or 6cm are not considered small’,

‘The government should accelerate the many flood mitigation options at its disposal, as described in the adopted North Byron Floodplain Risk Management Plan. That plan is a joint venture of Council and the NSW government. Work on those measures might well achieve a 3cm drop in flood levels at this and many other sites throughout the north of the Shire. Government should pursue that rapidly, before the next flood.’

Fill creates a levee

‘The flood report deals with current climate conditions only. It doesn’t deal with future flooding, which will be worse in 2050 or 2100. It doesn’t have to, because the fill is only there until the middle of this decade… or is it?

‘It looks at the 385m long fill site that runs parallel to the railway, plus an 80m northward extension as shown in Figure 4.1 of the report.

‘This fill acts as a levee bank. It totals 465m parallel to the railway and acts as a barrier to flow when the Brunswick Valley floods,’ explained Cr Dey.

‘The water flows west to east down the Brunswick Valley, that is, it flows from the Mullumbimby Showground across town towards the Industrial Estate.’

Flood velocity overlooked

The impact of the velocity, the speed that the water moves during the flood event, has not been presented in the report.

‘The reality is that these velocities have to have been modelled to obtain the water levels,’ said Cr Dey.

‘The ResNSW Flood Report contains no information about flood velocities and hence doesn’t consider their impacts. If you block a 465m width of a floodplain like this, you get still water behind the levee (on the east side) but you get a raging torrent around the two edges of the levee. By not examining velocities, government doesn’t have any picture of how they will impact Poinciana and Argyle Streets, which are the streams that the high velocity water will run down. The result could be that people who were able to get out of harm’s way under the pre-fill scenario may no longer be able to. One family escaped on 28 February by floating their kids to a neighbour’s elevated house using a kid’s three-ring pool as a life raft. Flood velocity must always be considered as well as flood depth.

‘Why were the velocities not reported and made publicly available to the community? They sit there in the computer model – it won’t run without them. We don’t know what the consultant was asked to do or report on as this has not been made public. The community is in the dark about the parameters being considered on their behalf by ResNSW.’

Long-term site?

The Mayor, Cr Lyon told residents when the report was released that there had ‘been talk of houses and other purposes here [on the fill site] for 20 years… Those conversations [regarding future removal of fill] are not for right now’, he said. However, the risk to existing houses if the fill remains long-term are significantly increased.

‘Under the state’s own Floodplain Development Manual, constructing works on a floodplain is only allowed after investigation through a proper Floodplain Study and Plan. We completed one in 2020. It doesn’t support a levee bank anywhere in the floodplain of the Brunswick River,’ explains Cr Dey.

‘As shown on Table 4 of the ResNSW Flood Report, the 100-year flood level is lowered under Scenario A for 85 properties while being raised for 11 properties. The story for rarer floods, like the 2022 flood, is far more unacceptable however, and must not be ignored, especially if the fill stays after 2025.

‘The report estimates 280mm of water above the floor level for one of the negatively impacted houses during a 1-in-100 year flood. However, they just experienced 800mm above floor level in the February 2022 flood. The report did consider the 2022 flood. Figures like Drawing 2.2 in the report indicate that a 100-year flood is 0.5m deep in Poinciana Street. However, flood marks indicate the 2022 level at half a metre higher.

‘It is likely that when the North Byron Floodplain Plan is reviewed for the 2022 flood, that review will raise the 100-year level for this area to the level experienced in February. That is an increase of half a metre above what was studied for the ResNSW Flood Report. This report has studied the wrong flood.

‘In planning law the 100-year flood is used to for setting floor heights for new constructions. When considering impacts of mitigation works, like levee banks, on existing residences, all floods should be considered, especially the floods of most concern to the people affected. In this case, that is the flood they just had.

‘The ResNSW Flood Report doesn’t consider the 2022 flood and how a repeat of that flood would behave with the fill in place.

Climate change

‘The ResNSW Flood Report ignores climate change, because it is for a two-year project, not the one the mayor is speaking about in relation to longer-term housing on the site. Climate change will make what is now the 100-year event occur more frequently. And similarly, the future 100-year flood is likely closer to the current 500-year flood.

‘For the current 500-year flood, the report shows that the fill of Scenario A (which is effectively a levee bank) lowers the flood level at 57 properties while raising it for 56 properties.

‘For the “Probable Maximum Flood”, the fill lowers flood levels at only two properties, while raising it at 52 properties. Most of those affected properties are west of the railway line, around Station Street.

‘ResNSW modelling shows a significant increase in flooding in Station Street for the 1-in-500-year flood scenario. If the fill remains long-term, these figures would be the ones that count. They show that this levee bank would be deemed unacceptable under normal scrutiny.’

The right consultant?

It is understood by The Echo that work done last decade on the North Byron Floodplain Management Study by BMT, previously known as WBM-BMT, had to be redone by a second consultant before it could be used. Byron Shire Council resolved (19-036) in February 2019 ‘that Council recognise the weakness of service provided by the consulting company which prepared the Flood Study [will] and consider that in future engagements’. So why did ResNSW choose this same consultant?

[my yellow highlighting]

Note: Mullumbimby Emergency Housing - Flood Impact Assessment by BMT (Official) was created for Customer: Symal Infrastructre Pty Ltd [sic]. The draft document went through six revisions between 27 October and 22 November 2022.

Symal Infrastructure Pty Ltd is a private corporation headquartered in Spotswood, Victoria, specialising in Construction, Civil construction, Building construction, Engineering, Earthworks, Plant hire, property development, and Landscaping according to its Linkedin entry. Its shareholders are listed by ASIC as: Bartolo Family Investments Pty. Ltd, R. Dando Investments Pty Ltd and Fairbairn Investments Pty Ltd.

The Mullumbimby Emergency Housing - Flood Impact Assessment has been endorsed by the NSW Perrottet Government.

Landfill area for emergency housing pods is outlined in red in this Google Earth snapshot. This landfill area will have to be extended north and west towards the Brunswick River and to the south, under the NSW Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) proposal.

The Echo, Letters, 17 November 2022:

Resilience NSW was tasked to provide emergency housing for flood refugees. Byron Council and Transport NSW provided 3–5 year short-term leases for three greenfield sites – the rail land in Prince St, Mullum, the riverbank behind the Bruns sports field, and on public open space beside the preschool in Bayside Brunswick.

Nine months later the engineers are still filling and compacting the soil – right on the riverbank in Brunswick Heads and in Prince Street with B-double trucks cruising through our towns every day, for months on end, at phenomenal, unnecessary and unwanted expense.....

Digging trenches to provide services isn’t easier with tonnes of roadbase in the way.

The roadbase is needed so cars and trucks can drive over the sites instead of parking offsite and hiring a crane to lower the pods onto the foundations.

It’s the most insensitive, inappropriate design and construction undertaken in our Green Shire, seemingly without any consultation with, approval by, or oversight from Council – the leaseholder. It must be stopped before they dump fill at Bayside Brunswick too.

After months of costly activity we still haven’t got one house, yet our caravan parks are raking in the profits on their unfilled, unimproved land sites. There is no justification or necessity for this ugly brutalist style of development in the 21st century.

Who are these experts? The professionals over-engineering with this gold-plated use of public funds? Why has no one in power queried or challenged this excessive over-development on leased land? Where are those Byron Shire councillors and directors hiding? Even the work crews are embarrassed to talk about the environmental impacts.

There are far better ways to provide accommodation for those in dire need, just ask the community for advice – we’re giving it away for free.

LISMORE CITY LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

In which Lismore City Council becomes a local government for roads, rates and rats.....

The Echo, 2 March 2023:

NSW Planning Minister, Anthony Roberts, has removed planning powers from Lismore City Council. Councillors failed, on February 14, to constitute a local planning panel (LPP), which is designed to ‘speed up planning processes to support flood-recovery efforts’ that would have allowed them to nominate two members to the committee from a minister-approved pool of candidates.

The NSW government’s LPP usurps Council’s planning powers.

In a letter to Mayor Steve Krieg, Roberts said the failure ‘may result in confusion and uncertainty for planning processes in Lismore LGA.’

Under (s) 2.17 of the EP&A Act 1979, Roberts appointed ‘members to sit on Council’s behalf’.

All associated costs for the panel will be borne by Council, Roberts added.

Disempowering communities

Cate Faehrmann, Greens MP, planning spokesperson and lead candidate for the Upper House said, ‘The Planning Minister has a track record of disempowering communities to serve developer interests’.

‘The NSW government needs to establish a process that gives Lismore residents agency over the reconstruction process, not one that will let developers roll over the community to squeeze as much profit out of reconstruction as they can’.

‘The Lismore community has been crying out for greater transparency and control over the recovery process. Instead, the NSW Government has disempowered the community even further,’ said Ms Faehrmann.

‘The people of Lismore are anxious about how decisions are being made about the future of their city. The last thing they need is an undemocratic planning panel making decisions for them about what reconstruction is going to look like.

‘The fact that Lismore council needs to pay for the staff and facilities of the government’s sham planning panel is completely unacceptable. It’s another flagrant example of state government cost shifting which will hurt Lismore council ratepayers even more.

‘I’m calling on the government to reverse this decision and at the very least pay for the costs of this planning panel,’ she said.

Lismore needs transparency

Local councillor and Green Candidate for Lismore Adam Guise said, ‘It’s outrageous that the Liberal Planning Minister is riding roughshod over our community and sacking Lismore councillors from local planning decisions. Councillors were never consulted on this extraordinary announcement made by the Minister last year only days before Christmas.’

‘Lismore Council decided at its February meeting not to constitute a planning panel. Councillors resolved to keep our planning powers so that planning decisions are made locally with community involvement.....

[my yellow highlighting]

Perrottet Coalition Government riding roughshod over local government in the Northern Rivers region - yet again

 

ABC News, 15 December 2022:

Byron Bay attracts tourists from across the world, but short-term holiday rentals have been blamed for exacerbating the housing crisis.(ABC News: Bridget Judd)

The Byron Shire Council has been blindsided by an 11th-hour decision by the NSW government which will stall controversial plans for a 90-day cap on short-term holiday letting in parts of the shire.

The state government announced yesterday it had instructed the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) to hold a public hearing on the issue.

The Byron Shire Council today voted in support of the policy after working on the proposal and consultation for three years.

However, the change will now need to be approved by the state government once it receives advice from the IPC.

Mayor Michael Lyon said it was a disappointing change of direction.

"In June we were told we were trusted with the ability to run a fair consultation," he said.

"That's the way it should be. Local government is the closest to its community and it should be trusted to make decisions which affect it."

The council hoped a 90-day cap would alleviate the area's housing crisis by encouraging property investors to place their vacant properties back in the long-term rental market.

Cr Lyon said he would try to remain positive and trust the IPC to look carefully at the very complex issue.

"This is a desperately needed reform for our community," he said.

"We've put our best step forward and just have to trust that the right decision will be made by that IPC."

'Sorry, game over'

Greens Ballina MP Tamara Smith made a scathing criticism of the state government's decision to intervene at the last minute.

"It is an absolute disrespect to our community after all we've gone through with the floods and the acute housing crisis," she said.

Ms Smith said the state government had caved to pressure from international corporations at the expense of local government and communities.

"Council has jumped through every hoop that the planning department has said they had to go through," she said.

"We're about to find out the result … and the minister has said, 'sorry, game over'."…..

Read the full article here.