Page 601 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020
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One of the reasons the Greens argue that our planning system needs to prioritise a more compact form is to protect the environmental values at our urban fringe. If the city keeps expanding, it will further encroach into the natural environment. Rare ecosystems will vanish. We may never see the earless dragons’ little grin again.
These are significant issues that we should explore in other debates. The motion I am moving today focuses on one type of threatened ecological community in the ACT: yellow box red gum grassy woodlands. The motion asks for the protection of yellow box woodland in the ACT, and it specifically asks for an area of land on the west side of the Mount Majura nature reserve to be rezoned and protected, to ensure that it is not developed.
Yellow box red gum grassy woodlands are naturally occurring, temperate zone woodlands, in which yellow box trees co-occur with Blakely’s red gum. They include an understorey of native tussock grasses and home many native animal species. Sadly, these areas in the ACT have already largely been cleared for housing and other infrastructure. It is important that we protect the remaining areas. They are especially valuable as a home to several endangered species, including vulnerable bird species such as the superb parrot and glossy black-cockatoo. These birds favour nesting in the hollows of trees in these woodlands.
My motion specifically references a significant portion of land that is in Watson, to the east of Antill Street, on the fringe of the existing Mount Majura nature reserve. Members may know the area. The Ted Noffs Foundation building is here, and there are also government horse paddocks. There are several blocks here, which I have listed in my motion, which contain yellow box red gum grassy woodland. In particular, there are old-growth, hollow-bearing yellow box trees in this area, the kind of trees favoured for nesting by the vulnerable birds that I have mentioned today.
Ms Le Couteur asked questions on notice about this site last year. The answer indicated that while there has been no government investigation of the site in the past four years, ACTmapi does indicate that environmental values have been identified on the blocks. These include the threatened box gum woodland which I have already mentioned, as well as Rosenberg’s monitor, a lizard which is listed as a vulnerable species in New South Wales and is rare in the ACT.
These blocks are currently zoned as CZ6, “leisure and accommodation”. This means that these blocks could be developed with dense residential development. We do not believe that that is appropriate, and it risks destroying a precious, threatened environmental area. We argue that this zoning should be changed. This whole area should be rezoned to be part of the Mount Majura nature reserve, to which it is already adjacent. The rezoning would protect this area from development and protect a valuable ecosystem.
A second benefit of reserving this area from development is that it provides a buffer between the existing urban environment and the remainder of Mount Majura nature park. It can be problematic when residential developments border right on the edge of reserved grassy woodlands. The Friends of Mount Majura have explained to me some
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