VALE UNCLE JACK CHARLES: “He will be dearly missed.”

 

The Healing Foundation, media release, 13 September 2022:

VALE UNCLE JACK CHARLES: STOLEN GENERATIONS SURVIVOR WHO DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO HEALING OUR NATIONS

The Healing Foundation pays tribute to the legacy of the great Uncle Jack Charles, following a life dedicated to healing for Stolen Generations survivors, their families, and communities.

Uncle Jack was himself a Stolen Generations survivors who was taken from his mother as an infant and spent his lifetime reconnecting with family and Country as shared his life and stories with the world.

The Healing Foundation Board Chair Professor Steve Larkin acknowledged the role Uncle Jack played in Stolen Generations healing movement.

“Uncle Jack was an inspiration to us all, so generous in sharing his life and his stories,” Professor Larkin said.

“He was an Uncle to all, and worked alongside The Healing Foundation from the first day, ensuring messages of healing were shared with his beautiful storytelling and endearing charisma.

“He will be dearly missed.”

The Healing Foundation Stolen Generations Reference Group Chair Ian Hamm paid tribute to Uncle Jack as a true statesman who dedicated his life to healing our nations.

“When I heard of Jack’s passing, I cried.

“Jack, through telling his own life story, shone a bright light in the darkest corner of our national narrative - that of the stolen children.

“He did this without anger, but with purpose and the deepest of compassion.

Thank you, Jack, for just being you.”

It is with deep sadness that The Healing Foundation acknowledges the remarkable life of Uncle Jack Charles and his work and dedication to the Stolen Generations movement.

In sharing our sympathies and respect for Uncle Jack and his family, The Healing Foundation has paused access to videos on our YouTube channel that feature his voice until the mourning period has passed.

The Healing Foundation is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation that partners with communities to address trauma caused by the widespread and deliberate disruption of populations, cultures, and languages over 230 years. This includes specific actions like the forced removal of children from their families.

Six months out from the state election and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet adds a new dimension to the term 'city-centric'

 

The Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2022, p.5:

NSW will be a thriving economy of six cities with fast rail, ambitious affordable-housing targets, more apartments and townhouses, and more defence and space jobs under a bold new plan from Premier Dominic Perrottet.

The state government and the Greater Sydney Commission will today unveil a discussion paper on the six-city plan – which includes Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle City, Central Coast City, Illawarra-Shoalhaven City, Western Parkland City with the new Western Sydney International Airport at its centre, as well as the Central River City and Eastern Harbour City.

Map of the one and only newly created 'region' NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Epping Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Cities & Liberal MP for Pittwater Rob Stokes apparently care about.....

Six Cities Discussion Paper Mapping

NSW Greater Cities Commission, The Six Cities Region: Delivering global competitiveness and local liveability, September 2022, excerpts from the Discussion Paper's 68 pages:

• We are actively and effectively managing climate vulnerability, proactive climate proofing, urban heat and planning, and designing our built environments to withstand flooding, bushfires and coastal erosion.

• As we grow, we must ensure our region strengthens its resilience in the face of the increasing climate-related risks and natural hazards of drought, bushfire, floods, extreme heat and overexposure to UV radiation that are already impacting our communities. This is embodied in the objectives and priority actions set out in the NSW Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.

• The 2019–2020 bushfires across eastern Australia caused loss of life, property, infrastructure and devastating impact on communities, vegetation, wildlife and ecosystems across our region. There were additional health and economic impacts from the thick smoke blanketing the region for months.

  In early 2020, major flooding impacted parts of Greater Sydney, the Central Coast City and the Illawarra-Shoalhaven City. Floods returned to parts of the region in late 2020, 2021 and 2022, causing more devastation, disruption and landslips.

  
  

One might be forgiven for thinking that the Perrottet Government has its sights squarely fixed on those zones where the bulk of the state population (therefore the bulk of registered voters) are to be found. That it is the issues, concerns and aspirations of voters living between the Illawarra-Shoalhaven and Newcastle-Upper Hunter which matter most when it comes to planning and implementing climate change mitigation, resilience measures and urban design & development. 

Seemingly wider regional New South Wales and its high climate risk communities will only get noticed between now and the March 2023 state election if the smaller number of regional voters outside of those "six cities" manage to transform themselves into very politically prickly problems for the government in Macquarie Street.

Sydney-based developer Tower Holdings begins land clearing for contentious Harvest Estate subdivision in West Byron

 

Property developer Tower Holdings P/L land in West Byron before clearing began - situated less than 2km from the beach. 

IMAGE: Google Earth

The Echo, 9 September 2022:

Land clearing has begun on one of the West Byron land parcels on Ewingsdale Road, owned by Tower Holdings.

Two Development Applications (DAs) were hard fought by the community for decades, and their approvals will see a new suburb constructed on ecologically significant land.

Environmental concerns, traffic and a lack of affordable housing were raised as issues throughout the process.

One DA is owned by a ‘locals’ consortium, who won considerable concessions behind closed doors at a court mediation with Council’s consultant lawyers.

The clearing now underway for the Tower Holdings DA – called Harvest Estate project – is headed by wealthy Sydney-based developer, Terry Agnew.

Immediate neighbour, Tom Vidal, alerted The Echo of the clearing, and says he shares a 1km boundary with Agnew’s DA.

Vidal is also secretary of the Belongil Catchment Drainage Board, and says he spoke on matters regarding drainage and flooding for the DAs.

Comms broke down

‘I personally arranged a meeting between Terry Agnew, his CEO, and some councillors at my place, after communication broke down between the parties in November 2019’.

‘Consequently, a much better outcome was achieved than the first proposal; unfortunately our “local” mates were not so understanding’.

As for the ‘locals’ DA, he said, ‘The secret court negotiations were woeful’.

He added, ‘To ask residents to make submissions to the court without notifying us that most points of contention (traffic, storm water, drainage, flooding, social impacts etc.etc) were conceded already was quite unbelievable’……

Read the full article here.

BACKGROUND

The Echo, 24 September 2020:

….A lot has happened in the West Byron saga since Villa World’s Development Application (DA) was rejected by the Northern Regional Planning Panel on April 8, 2019.

First, the landowner, Tower Holdings, had to repay Villa World Ltd their $10 million deposit for an interest in the development, as it was dependent upon a successful DA.

Then Tower Holdings purchased the subsidiary Villa World Byron Pty Ltd so that they could appeal the rejection in the Land and Environment Court.

In August, there was a court conciliation conference on the original DA, to which seven community members were allowed to submit short written statements.

Now, Villa World Byron have submitted a revised DA to the court, which is on public exhibition until Wednesday September 30.

There will be no extensions, and the court will determine the DA. …..

30th Annual Mardi Grass protest is returning to Nimbin next weekend, Friday 16 to Sunday 18 September 2022

 

After being battered by repeated heavy rainfall and flooding earlier this year the little village of Nimbin has scrubbed its face and decided to put on its beads and feathers again.

NBN News, 10 September 2022:

The 30th Annual Mardi Grass protest is returning to Nimbin next weekend. [Friday 16 to Sunday 18 September]

The annual cannabis law reform rally draws hundreds of protestors to Nimbin.

The three-day protest is normally held in May, but was postponed due to the floods this year.

Nimbin, NSW
IMAGE: Insurance Business: Australia, 15 July 2022

An example of what land clearing and landfilling looks like in the small coastal town of Yamba in Northern NSW

THEN

Section of WEST YAMBA URBAN RELEASE AREA to the west (left) of Carrs Drive from below Harold Tory Drive down to Miles Street. IMAGE: Google Earth. Click on image to enlarge

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2007:

Plans to build 1100 homes on a flood plain have triggered a wave of worry, writes Linton Besser.

FOR 250 kilometres, the Clarence River snakes through northern NSW before it meets the coast at Yamba.

There, during heavy rain and high tide, the estuary spills its briny current over a huge flood plain just west of the town. The 340 or so hectares of salt marsh, melaleuca forest and mangrove swamp act like a giant sieve, filtering the floodwaters as they make their way into Lake Wooloweyah to the south.

Now though, the Clarence Valley Council is one vote away from rezoning the West Yamba flood plain and turning it into a busy residential area.

In a monumental decision, the council has foreshadowed dumping 270,000 truck loads of fill on the area to raise it high enough to make it habitable.

Council planners want the area to house a new population of 2700 people in 1100 dwellings, with development levies to pay for an overhauled sewerage scheme, roads and other infrastructure.

But green groups say the proposal, first mooted in 1995, will put Yamba at risk from rising sea levels, and represents a dramatic threat to the area's sensitive wetland ecology.

And even the proposal's architect, the council's environment and planning director, Rob Donges, acknowledges it is out of step with today's planning regime.

"There are acknowledged problems there. It is flood-prone, low-lying land with a high water table," he said. "We have never hidden the fact that if we were to start the process of West Yamba today there would be doubts as to whether council would proceed."

The council has not yet received the findings of a flood risk management plan, commissioned to examine the effects of altering the area's natural drainage corridors, but Mr Donges has recommended the draft local environment plan go ahead anyway.

He insists the wheel has turned too far to stop now……

NOTE: Former member of Maclean Shire Council & Clarence Valley Council senior planning staff, Mr. Donges now acts as a planning consultant, advising property development companies and assisting with their development applications. Applications he has been associated with include large-scale subdivisions in Yamba (including West Yamba), James Creek and elsewhere in the Clarence Valley. Mr. Donges has previously been involved with the West Yamba Urban Release Area as a local government employee.

NOW

Townes Contracting Group

Yamba Residential Developments

Carrs Drive 160 lot subdivision stage 1

Contract value: $12.5 million

150,000m3 of select fill 

Section of WEST YAMBA URBAN RELEASE AREA  that is currently being developed. IMAGE: Townes Contracting Group, 5 Riley Street, Tenterfield, NSW, 2372. Click on image to enlarge

 

Sometimes it seems that the NSW Coalition Government, along with the usual suspects amongst property developers & town planning consultants for hire, won't be satisfied until they carve up and concrete over ever hectare of land in the Lower Clarence Valley

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 7 September 2022:

A request by The James Creek Residents Group for an independent Landscape Architect to research and report on a proposed controversial subdivision has been rejected by Clarence Valley Council in less than 24 hours.

The Development Application DA from MPD Investments for a 332-lot sub-division, comprising 327 residential lots, one commercial lot and four drainage reserves and public open space areas for 104 James Creek Road is currently on public exhibition.

About 5pm on September 1, Lorri Brown sent a letter to Clarence Valley Council CVC senior staff and councillors on behalf of the James Creek Residents Group JCRG and said she was shocked to receive a reply at 11.36m the next day.

“The speed at which the response came does worry us, because you wonder how much it had actually been considered,” she said.

“What worries us is it’s the first subdivision out here in the hinterland of what we call Yamba and it's important to do it correctly.

"If we're going to subdivide land out here, we need to do it properly, that's all we're saying. "Let's get the first one right as a template for others to follow.

"When the JCRG asked council for a specific Development Control Plan DCP that applied to the proposed development, Mrs Brown said they were told the DCP is on the council website.

"The only control plans over it are for what you find in residential areas like Maclean or Yamba, and that's what they're applying," she said.

The JCRG stated in the letter they requested the research and report from an independent Landscape Architect because, as they understood, CVC didn't currently employ anyone with "the necessary credentials".

"For whatever reason there is no DCP or other guiding development controls currently in place for James Creek," the letter to council stated.

"We need to know how this subdivision will impact the natural and built landscape. "We have a responsibility to ensure that this is a development that is fit for the future."

Issues that would be assessed by the Landscape Architect requested in the JCRG letter included the impacts of a car dependent estate, why there are no designated electric vehicle charging stations and recommended locations and the implications with roads that don't comply to minimum carriageway requirements.

The projected effectiveness of heating /cooling for proposed building designs, the proposed density, small blocks, and heat banks were other issues to be assessed in the letter from JCRG.

"An evaluation of the designated park areas that have been flagged by council as inadequate for the density of the population," the JCRG requested.

"The realistic planting of trees in the designated footpath spaces, an environmental impact statement on the natural and built landscape, transition and buffer zones relating to neighbouring agricultural land and an evaluation of the subdivisions impact on the local ecosystem."

The assessments requested by the JCRG would necessitate a six-week extension in the progression of the DA, which the CVC General Manager Laura Black said she was "unable to provide" in her email reply.

"Council recently adopted its Community Participation Plan that sees the previously adopted 14 day exhibition period for complex DA's like James Creek extended to 28 days," Ms Black wrote.

"Twenty-eight days brings our exhibition timeframes in line with that required for large Environmental Impact Statements for state significant infrastructure projects (for example major highways and bridges).

"This is policy position of Council, and it can only be varied by resolution.".

Ms Black also alluded to problems a six-week extension would cause with the body that will ultimately decide the DA’s fate, the Northern Regional Planning Panel NRPP, which determines developments with a capital investment of more than $30 million.

“I have also advised councillors’ that the Northern Regional Planning Panel requested that council officers make every effort to submit the DA to them before the end of the calendar year for their consideration, to ensure timely decision making for all stakeholders,” Ms Black wrote.

“A six week extension would impede this happening.”…..

NOTE: Sections of James Creek Road is known to be cut by water over the road during heavy rain and flood events.

BACKGROUND

The Daily Examiner, 3 December 2020:

Last month a proposed 342-lot subdivision in the middle of James Creek caused many residents to raise concerns about the negative impact of such a development within its semirural setting.

The development application SUB2020/0038 lodged by Robert Collin Donges earlier this year includes 336 residential lots, four drainage reserves, one commercial lot and one public reserve.

While most residents were shocked to see this kind of DA appear in their neighbourhood, it was an inevitable step in the Clarence Valley’s regional urban growth plans.

According to the Mid-North Coast Regional Strategy 2006-2013, James Creek was identified as an area for proposed future urban release, along with Gulmarrad and West Yamba.

It was again identified as an area to investigate for urban land in the North Coast Regional Plan (2036).

James Creek is known for its quiet, semirural lifestyle with most properties on acreage. However, future planning could see future proposed developments transform the area into high-density housing.

But applicant Rob Donges said that is not his intention……

Clarence Valley Independent, 18 December 2020:

A development application (DA) for 342-lot staged residential subdivision at James Creek was withdrawn on December 7.

The James Creek Residents Action Group, which was formed in late November to “oppose and secure the rejection” of the proposal and “to work with Council, Developers and the Community to promote responsible and sustainable development in James Creek”, will remain proactive and “vigilant” regarding any future proposals for the site.

“We still see our role as continuing to work with the council and the developer, whomever that might be, to secure the best outcome; responsible and sustainable development for James Creek,” spokesperson Lorri Brown said.

At yesterday’s Clarence Valley Council (CVC) meeting (after the paper’s print deadline), councillors considered a request from the withdrawn DA’s applicant, Rob Donges, on behalf of owner Kahuna No. 1 Pty Ltd.

“The applicant has now requested a refund of $20,000 for unspent application fees due to the application being withdrawn,” the report to council stated.

Staff recommended refunding about 50 per cent ($11,415) of the DA fees; due to staff time already expended processing and advertising the DA…..

North Coast Voices, 17 November 2021:

Queensland white shoe brigade onboard as owner of around 33.49ha of James Creek land has another run at overdevelopment

The Daily Examiner online, 12 November 2021:

The James Creek plan could see hundreds of residential lots opened up.

The current proposal at Lot 104 James Creek Road, James Creek was lodged by Madison Ruygrok through Kahuna No 1 Pty Ltd. If approved by Clarence Valley Council it would see 327 residential lots, one commercial lot and two open-space lots created.

According to civil engineering drawings prepared by Geolink in October this year, the majority of proposed sites would be between 600-799 square metres in size with the subdivision to be delivered in five stages with most to have two or three sub-stages.

It’s not the first time the site has raised the ire of nearby residents so it is expected there will be some strong opposition to the most recent plan.

In the March 2014 fiery remarks were hurled from the public gallery as James Creek residents watched Clarence Valley councillors agree to rezone the lot from primary production to general residential and medium density residential.

Then, in November 2020, multiple submissions were made opposing a development application that proposed 336 residential lots, four drainage reserves, one commercial lot and one public reserve.

However, residents against the development were relieved to discover that a month later, the application was withdrawn.

But despite their best efforts to thwart that development, a future of medium to high-density housing in this quiet, semi rural Lower Clarence suburb seems inevitable.

Over a decade ago, James Creek was targeted as an ideal spot for urban growth.

According to the Mid-North Coast Regional Strategy 2006-2013, James Creek was identified as an area for proposed future urban release, along with Gulmarrad and West Yamba.

Residents and members of the community have until December 3 to make a submission to Clarence Valley Council on the development application (number SUB2021/0042).

The owner & only listed shareholder of Kahuna No.1 Pty Ltd is Billabong founder Gordon Stanley Merchant of Tungan Qld and Madison Ruygrok is currently listed as a Town Planner with Place Design Group Pty Ltd of Fortitude Valley Qld.

Oddly in SUB2021/0042 - currently before Clarence Valley Council - it lists the developer of the land as The Trustee for MPD INVESTMENTS UNIT TRUST not Kahuna No1.

Presumably The Trustee for MPD Investments Unit Trust - an entity created in 2021 with an ABN registered in Queensland - is associated with Gordon Merchant.

Mr. Merchant's financial difficulties became known when the Australian Taxation Office reportedly penalised him around $13 million "after an audit by the tax office has ended with Mr Merchant being disqualified for “recklessly contravening” superannuation laws, as well as owing $45m in back tax".  

Administrative Decisions Tribunal April 2021 records show that Mr. Merchant lodged an Income Tax Objection in October 2020 and, he remains disqualified from acting as trustee or responsible officer of corporate trustees of superannuation entities, under subsections 126A(2) and 126A(3) of the SIS Act. 

One has to wonder if either Kahuna No 1, MPD Investments Pty Ltd or The Trustee for MPD Investments Unit Trust are financially secure enough to meet all the fees and charges associated with this development application and commencement of works. 

Or indeed if it is wise to pack an est. 818 persons into such a sardine tin housing estate on approx. 33.49ha between Maclean and Yamba in what is essentially still an agricultural area on a sensitive part of the flood plain where floodwaters are  liable to cut off access to & egress from farms and urban areas in a strong flooding event.

Quotes of the Week

 

“Lend Lease, Stocks and Holdings, Parkes Development and L.J. Hooker all bought land in the Gosford and Penrith areas soon after publication of the Outline Plan. (Sunday Australian 5 March 1972) The inability of local and state government services to keep pace with the rate of subdivision by these developers was contributing, according to the Sunday Australian (5 March 1972) to the escalating price of blocks. In 1970 the average price of vacant land in Sydney was $7,240 per acre, in 1971 $8,969, and by 1972 had risen to $11,802 an acre. (Financial Review 28 July 1972). The beneficiaries of rising land prices are clear enough. According to the present Federal Minister for Urban and Regional Development (Mr T. Uren, MHR) the poor in general and young couples in particular are the ones who suffer.”

[Leonie Sandercock, (1974) PROPERTY, POLITICS AND POWER : A HISTORY OF CITY PLANNING IN ADELAIDE, MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY SINCE 1900]

“To Juanita, there was an urgent need for answers to the problem of rehousing old and low-income people in their own neighbourhoods. This was already occurring in Darlinghurst and it was time it was also taken into account by planners in Kings Cross. Juanita’s reaction to Paul Strasser’s projected Parkes Developments’ proposal marked the beginning of the end of her ‘soft’ editorial policy. She was outraged when Parkes offered to buy her home for what was an extraordinary amount of money for a small terrace in 1973—$200 000. She refused, and she recounted later to the Sydney Morning Herald that she had come under ‘all sorts of unimaginable pressures’. ‘I began to realise that if I was getting into so much trouble—owning my own house and a newspaper—what hope would a pensioner have?’ But the experience was a catalyst for her to also embrace a more formal presence in the Victoria Street power plays. She formed the Victoria Street Ratepayers’ Association and became its secretary. Through this tactic she was able to stall Parkes’ twenty-eight-storey development, as well as gaining another lever against overdevelopment on the west side. With this delay, the Parkes’ plan would ultimately lapse.”

[Peter Rees, (2004) KILLING JUANITA, p.78]

“REASONS FOR DECISION

1 The appellant (“Hometown”) owns and operates a residential land lease community in Lennox Head, New South Wales (“Community”). The Community is governed by the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act, 2013 (NSW) (“Act”).

2 On or about 4 November 2020, Hometown acquired the home located at site 4 of the Community from a former home owner for a purchase price of $207,500. It refurbished the home and marketed it for sale.

3 On 5 March 2021, Ms Bullivant entered into a sale agreement to purchase the home at site 4 from Hometown for a purchase price of $260,000.

4 On 6 March 2021, Ms Bullivant entered into a site agreement (within the meaning of the Act) with Hometown in respect of the home at site 4 in which she agreed to pay $192 per week.

5 By application filed 28 July 2021, Ms Bullivant sought orders from the Tribunal pursuant to section 157(1) of the Act asserting, in summary, that Hometown, as operator comply with its obligation to set fees for the site at fair market value and compensation for the difference between fair market value and the site fees charged by Hometown under the site agreement since its inception.

The Decision of the Tribunal

6 In its decision of 21 December 2021, the Tribunal found, in summary, that Part 10 of the Act and, in particular, s 109 applied to the sale of the home at site 4 to Ms Bullivant and that the site fees charged by Hometown exceeded fair market value. The Tribunal held that fair market value of site fees for site 4 was $164.40 and ordered a reduction of the site fees under the site agreement to that amount (subject to the term of the site agreement providing for a 4% annual increase in site fees). The primary member found that section 109(6) applied to the site agreement entered into between Hometown and Ms Bullivant and made orders for the reduction of Ms Bullivant’s site fees”

[Civil and Administrative Tribunal, New South Wales, Hometown Australia Lennox Pty Limited v Debra Bullivant [2022] NSWCATAP 161 (17 May 2022)]