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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 989 ..

I would also like to detail for the Assembly the roles taken by my colleague Mr Corbell and me on this issue. During the last Assembly Mr Corbell—as shadow planning and environment minister—and I—as the local member for Brindabella—went to see the then Minister for Planning and Environment, Mr Smyth. We had four concerns. Firstly, there was a request by the residents for a buffer zone at the rear of Templestowe Avenue, between the nature park and the then buildings. The minister didn’t accept that argument. He didn’t accept that native animals were returning to this area. If my memory serves me correctly, he said that we had to build houses in that area because there was infrastructure in the ground and that it would cost us to do that. I didn’t like the result but accepted that position. There are now houses built in the buffer zone area.

Secondly, we also asked the minister to protect the triangular piece of yellow box/red gum grassy woodland adjacent to the Eaglemont Retreat, an area bounded on two sides by a creek. The minister acknowledged the worth of that. I pay tribute to my colleague the Minister for Planning for his vigorous defence of that area. The area is now protected; there are no houses; there are yellow box/red gum trees; and the native flora and fauna have returned.

Thirdly, we sought the minister’s approval for the continuation of Templestowe Avenue through sensitive grassy area to Charterisville Avenue. There was a proposal for Templestowe Avenue to turn left to join Tom Roberts Avenue and to have a seamless transition from the wetlands through grassy areas into the woodlands in the nature park. This has, in fact, happened. Templestowe Avenue has turned left and we now have that seamless transition.

Fourthly, we asked the minister at the time for preservation of the area known as Conder 4A. Again, the then minister didn’t accept our argument, but he did agree to arguments put by others and as a result a 10-year moratorium was put on the development of the area, with only a small amount of building taking place.

There is some history called for here. The land known as Conder 4A is about eight hectares in area located on the lower slopes of Tuggeranong Hill. It is bounded by Charterisville Avenue, Tom Roberts Avenue and Templestowe Avenue. The land contains vegetation that is an example of yellow box/red gum grassy woodland. This type of woodland is listed as an endangered ecological community under the Nature Conservation Act 1980.

In September of 1999 an environmental study was done by the Commissioner for the Environment. The study found that the land at Conder 4A is indeed an example of yellow box/red gum grassy woodland but that due to the past land use practices the area is regarded as secondary grassland—that is, a woodland with very few trees but retaining the characteristic native grassy understorey; at least 75 per cent of the plants found at Conder 4A were also found at other woodland study sites; the aggregated number of species at Conder 4A was at the higher end of the range of sites studied; the number of exotic species found at Conder 4A was at the mid to lower end of the range of sites studied; and, finally, two sites with a similar number of native species to Conder 4A were located in the Tuggeranong Hill Nature Reserve and the Rob Roy Nature Reserve.

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