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| Banyam Baigham, The Sleeping Lizard Click on image to enlarge |
Michael McDonald Macky Hercus and Natalie Hercus (née Michaels) appear to be ensconced in one half of a $5 milllion dollar duplex on a leafy upmarket street in Point Piper, Sydney NSW. With her father Harry occupying the other unit.
Michael is the director and company secretary of Mackcorp Pty Ltd whose sole shareholder is Hercus Investments Pty Ltd. Hercus Investments in turn has both Michael & Natalie as directors and Natalie as the sole shareholder. Michael is also sole director, sole shareholder & company secretary of Allura Parklands Pty Ltd.
This former rugby union player & investment advisor and active property developer along with his former Sky News presenter wife are whimsically classified by realestate.com.au among the celebrity buyers and sellers of Sydney's waterside suburbs.
It could be considered unfortunate that they chose to become active participants in a move to effectively destroy the Widjabul Wia-bal People's spiritually and culturally significant Banyam Baigham (the Sleeping Lizard).
In was in May 2020 that the Winten Property Group's 2018 proposal for a large-scale 433-lot residential development on the North Lismore Plateau was rejected by the NSW Land & Environment Court.
In May 2021 Michael Hercus and Allura Parklands Pty Ltd, with other landholders Mr A J & Mrs D L Purtle, Mrs V Giacomini, Giacmor Pty Limited, Mr F Basso & Ms S Novkovic, Mrs M L & Mr G & Mrs L Mazzorana, Mrs L Massorana and Mr A R & Mrs F M Riordan, submitted their own large-scale 742 lot residential development plan for the same general area and had it refused by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) in December 2022.
Refusing to take no for an answer this 'celebrity buyers and sellers' couple, through Mackycorp Pty Ltd, presumably along with the other ten owners, have appealed the NRPP decision in the Land & Environment Court. In the process submitting the amended development proposal for 714 residential lots, including 7 large lots and 2 ‘super’ lots for future development), 2 neighbourhood business lots, plus residual lots, public reserves and associated infrastructure.
It appears to matter not a jot to 45 year-old Michael and 46 year-old Natalie Hercus - or indeed any of the other ten owners - that they are seeking to make money from the proposed destruction of a land form respected and guarded by a people and culture which has existed on Country since time immemorial.
Given that Mackycorp's submitted Aboriginal Heritage Assessment (May 2024) indicates that many of the artefacts found on the proposed development site would on further investigation probably fall into a pre-1199 Common Era time period, this supports the presence of ancestors of the current Widjabul Wia-bal people living in the Lismore local government area since time immemorial.
It probably wouldn't even occur to any of them that their connection to the North Lismore Plateau is as ephemeral as the aerial lifespan of a Mayfly when compared to the Widjabul Wia-bal community's presence there.
Banyam Baigham, The Sleeping Lizard
Images: Change.org & David Lowe
North Lismore Plateau rejected development proposal with the light yellow section representing "Allura Parklands" containing 45 new roads, infrastructure and more than 700 residential dwellings. IMAGE: Echo, 18 January 2023.
ECHO, 18 January 2023:
On Thursday 15 December, it took the four panellists on the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) less than half an hour, to unanimously decline the Development Application (DA) 5.2021.221.1 for the northern section of the North Lismore Plateau (NLP) also known as The Sleeping Lizard. Their overall reason? ‘Not in the public interest’.
ECHO, 20 July 2024:
The development of Lismore’s Sleeping Lizard – Banyam Biagham (the North Lismore Plateau) as a 742-residential-lot subdivision was rejected by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) as ‘not in the public interest’.
The DA is the biggest single development ever proposed in Lismore and includes massive bulk earthworks for infrastructure.
The developer, Mackycorp, is continuing to appeal the NRPP rejection of the staged development for 742 residential lots, two business lots, a future residential lot, 45 new roads, bulk earthworks and significant infrastructure following the failed Land and Environment Court (L&EC) conciliation meeting in February this year.
On July 15, 2024 Bundjalung Elder Mickey Ryan sought to join the ongoing North Lismore Plateau Court appeal following the developer recently submitting to the court a Cultural Heritage Assessment Report, containing test pit results carried out earlier this year.
‘The Report recommends that the developer obtain a permit to allow the estimated half to 1.5 million sub-surface artefacts be directly impacted by construction works, i.e harmed, destroyed or desecrated,’ explained Al Oshlack from the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network representing Mr Ryan. [my yellow highlighting]
‘This development with all its flaws such as traffic, flooding, storm water, and even landslides will irretrievably destroy one of the most significant Aboriginal sites in the Bundjalung country. It’s vandalism and sacrilege to such a sacred place, this development is a toxic mix of stupidity and greed,’ Mr Oshlack said.
Lismore Council failed to defend Indigenous heritage
The L&EC accepted the application by Mr Ryan to be a party to the developer’s appeal to overturn the NRPP decision.
This was based on the fact that Lismore Council had chosen not to defend the cultural heritage of the site despite this being one of the key factors in the NRPP refusing the DA, Mr Oshlack told The Echo. [my yellow highlighting]
‘In the statement of facts and contentions Lismore Council was not going to defend the Aboriginal cultural heritage component. Even though it was a key basis for the rejection by the NRPP,’ he said.
‘The developer strenuously objected to Mickey Ryan being allowed to join the case.
‘Mickey Ryan won the joinder on Monday based both on the arguments of public interest and for justice – they were considered valid by the court thus Mickey Ryan has now been joined as second responder.’
The L&EC hearing is set down for an onsite hearing on August 12 followed by four days in Sydney.
NOTE: The Widjabul Wia-bal are recognised in law as holding native title over more than 11,500 hectares of what remains of their land and waters held by public authorities/government agencies in the Lismore local government area.
