Page 3330 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
wider landscape matrix which is highly connected but which may have integrated uses”.
Considerations of connectivity corridors are recommended to be included at the onset of the planning process, and this report has identified some key issues for planning and land management in the ACT which are particularly relevant to Throsby. Firstly, existing corridors should be maintained and enhanced, not taken away from, and that connectivity should be maximised in surrounding landscapes with supporting buffer areas.
The report also calls for the strategic establishment of nature reserves and biodiversity corridors in key locations as well as identification of areas that might be degraded but be capable of restoration. In the face of climate change, which is mooted to exacerbate habitat loss and fragmentation impacts, these imperatives become even more important.
It is interesting to note that an ecological assessment of a small portion of Throsby undertaken for the sports complex noted some of the area was degraded or significantly modified and gave this as a reason not to protect the area. But what we are learning now is that there are habitats that can be restored. We should not dismiss this idea that degraded habitats are written off for urban development. With proper management, we value add to our biodiversity and restore connectivity to the landscape.
The report also notes that the links between Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves with the Majura Hills and adjacent New South Wales land should be strengthened before woodland area becomes more fragmented. Indeed, it highlights this area as a high priority for action. Yet building Throsby does nothing to improve the connectivity of that region. If we look at a map of the high connectivity areas on the final map in the report, which shows both the value of links between key habitat areas and the neighbourhood habitat areas, we can see that this area of east Gungahlin is one of the higher value areas on the immediate urban fringe.
Connectivity issues need to be dealt with properly. Many of the broad recommendations in this report make me wonder why the government is even considering developing Throsby at all. The recommendations in this report should be considered carefully and implemented. We do not want this report to disappear into some black hole just because the recommendations have big implications for future development plans.
The next key issue is that of biodiversity values of Throsby itself. Firstly, it contains areas of high biodiversity value, including patches of critically endangered yellow box/red gum grassy woodland and it is also a breeding area for the golden sun moths and superb parrots. The combined area of Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves contains the largest example of yellow box Blakely’s red gum grassy woodland in the ACT, an ecological community that is protected under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. It has been put to us by the save Throsby group that the area which intrudes in between these nature reserves contains patches of woodland that would qualify for referral under the EPBC, though
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video