Mambo Wetlands Community Forum
Presentation by Kathy Brown
Secretary Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group
May 2026
Thank you for putting aside a few hours today to look more deeply into Council’s plans for housing developments in this area.
We are of course meeting on the land of the Worimi people, on land that was never ceded and I would like to pay my respects to elders past, present & emerging. I would especially like to acknowledge the presence here today of Worimi elder & knowledge holder, Carol Ridgeway Bissett. Carol has been a staunch defender of Wanda & Mambo Wetlands over many years. Carol spoke for a few minutes to give us an update on her request that Mambo wetlands becomes a designated Aboriginal Place.
All Port Stephens Councillors were invited to attend today’s Forum. The Mayor Leah Anderson and Councillor’s Errington & Watson have accepted that invitation. Thank you for being here.
Apologies were received from Councillor Armstrong, who attended the first Forum in March, also apologies from Councillors Niland, le Mottee, Wells, Francis and Councillor Arnott.
How did we get to this point?
Ten years ago, the Mambo Wanda Group started a campaign to stop development on the other side of the wetlands, on Port Stephens Drive, when 5.6ha of wetlands was bought by a developer in a NSW government fire sale for just over a quarter of a million dollars.
The same familiar faces that I see here today were involved in that campaign that lasted 3 years, until 2019 when the land was bought back by the State government and then onsold to Port Stephens Council. I’m sure you were as shocked as I was to realise that our council, which was so supportive of the buy back in 2016, now has plans to build on this side of the wetlands.
Mambo-Wanda Wetlands – a chequered past – EcoNetwork Port Stephens
Just to illustrate why I am so disappointed in Councils actions……. I feel like I have been let down, because before the last local council elections in 2024, Councillor Anderson invited many local environment groups to a meeting in Joe Redman Reserve, on Foreshore Drive. All the usual suspects were there, EcoNetwork, Friends of Tomaree National Park, Climate Action Port Stephens, ourselves, meeting of about 10 people, all with a common interest in caring for our beautiful environment. I was there representing the Mambo Wanda Wetlands Group, & I remember thinking how impressive it was that the Mayoral candidate was here to listen to people who cared about the environment.
Each group was asked what their priorities were for the coming years. I remember saying that the designation of Mambo Wetlands as an Aboriginal Place was our top priority.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would need to say, “Can you ensure that Mambo wetlands is never again threatened with housing development?“
I think this is why people have been slow to react to the latest proposal.
No one can believe that this a serious proposition.
The Mayor says, “We are not building on Mambo Wetlands Reserve.”
And The Mayor is absolutely correct – councils plans involve the buffer zone & “proximity” areas of Mambo wetlands. This concept will be further explained by other speakers today but to my mind it is an attempt to blindside the community.
And this is how it was done…
This is the title page of the Salamander Bay Town Centre Place Plan……. The only part of this photo that is relevant to Council’s plans is the strip of trees to the north of the shopping centre. This is the area that council has now put on the market, asking for expressions of interest. It’s the area that backs on to the Worimi Drive Estate.
Here is a map of the proposal as set out in the Place Plan. Area 6, the shopping centre and beyond, all in grey, is not part of the Place Plan proposal. The red border around the zone was a later addition. All of these areas are privately owned commercial enterprises and we believe there was no consultation with the biggest stake holder in the area Charter Hall, who paid $174m for the shopping centre in 2017.
Feedback from the community on the Place Plan, is still available on Council’s website and we can see that there are lots of suggestions about improving the shopping centre. “We need a Harris Farm, we need Officeworks, Anaconda, Big W….etc”
All of these ideas are out of Council’s control and yet the graphics from Council’s Place Plan are still….. in the shopping centre.
Council held drop-in sessions in the shopping centre. Where, according to the feedback on council’s website, council staff advised participants concerned about Mambo Wetlands that the area affected was of poor quality and low grade. Hardly an impartial seeking of community views.
No wonder people were confused – feedback in written submissions & social media, made all sorts of suggestions about improvements to the shopping centre. All of these comments about the shopping centre should have given council reason to pause & think about how badly their message was getting through.
We now realise, that for Port Stephens Council, it was always about the Real Estate.
The land that council owns around the library and community centre & how they could make the most money out of it.
Council is the owner of the wetlands. Are they caring for it as they should?
Council are currently looking for every environmental loophole they can find to be able to build on the buffer zone. This wetland, that is part of the beautiful environment that attracts people here in the first place & is part of the reason that Council is investigating the possibility that Port Stephens is certified as an Eco Destination, and, the reason Council has given support to Mambo’s designation as a Ramsar site, a wetland of international significance.
The mayor likes to tell us that one of the big requests out of the Place Plan was for better medical facilities. But public response to the Place Plan also included over 70% of respondents naming the environment as the most valued element for them and protection of the Natural environment was one of the things respondents cared about most.
Many also said – Hands off Mambo.
Of the 19 submissions received, including one from the Mambo Conservation Group, none were published. Councillors were able to read them before voting on the report in November. The majority of the submissions were against the Place Plan or negative.
We are meeting again today to try to make some sense out of all this.
So, where are we up to with these plans?
At a November 2025 meeting, council unanimously endorsed the report by Council Officers on the Place Plan. We were told there would be a concept plan but this has not eventuated. A concept plan would have let the community know that council had a vision for linking all the developments around the shopping centre. Since our last Forum, Area 2, north of the shopping centre has been placed on the market and a Development Application will soon be issued for other areas, including this area surrounding us, west of the library.
We then had presentations from Tom Headley, Murray Wood and Sue Higginson MLC.
Thank you once again to our speakers. You have provided wonderful advice and inspiration to help us Save Mambo Wetlands.
We have been reminded today that our wetland environment is precious and special and worth fighting for.
We have learned that the environment doesn’t have to be sacrificed for housing, that there are alternatives by looking at our current housing stock and through good planning.
Thank you so much to everyone who came to listen today.
Future actions
- In the next few weeks, Council will put the Development Application (DA), for possibly 2 blocks on public exhibition. This will be a time for you to use the information you have gained today to write to council in response. If you follow us on Facebook or are on our mailing list, we will also be providing feedback and information on these Development Applications.
- You have been provided with Councillor contact details. Councillors love to get feedback and an email to all or a phone call to a few is invaluable information for councillors when making decisions.
Introductions for speakers
Dr Tom Headley, a Senior Wetland Management Specialist with a local business: Wetland & Ecological Treatment Systems for wastewater.
Tom is a constructed wetland specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the research, design, construction and operation of ecological technologies for wastewater treatment. He has published over 20 scientific papers, given keynote presentations at international conferences, supervised PhD students & taught at post graduate courses on treatment wetlands.
Tom’s Topic: The Mambo Wetlands – a provider of multiple values under a myriad of pressures.
But these sleepy wetlands and their connected cousins throughout the peninsula, provide a myriad of vital services for our society and the wildlife they provide refuge to. Unfortunately, the ability to provide these natural values is held under constant tension due to the surrounding pressures of human habitancy. Tom’s talk is about Mambo’s ecosystem services and the threats which undermine them.
Murray Wood, is a registered architect with over 35 years experience working with planning controls, environmental constraints and strategic development frameworks across NSW. Murray has delivered major public, heritage and civic projects, including roles with Maitland City Council and leading architectural firms in Australia and the UK. As director of WOOD Architecture and a Salamander Bay resident, Murray has particular interest in ensuring development aligns with environmental legislation and long term community resilience.
Murray’s Topic: Planning Integrity and the Mambo Wetlands Buffer: What the Salamander Bay Place Plan Really Proposes.
Council has argued that development within the Mambo Wetlands buffer is essential to meet housing quotas. Murray’s presentation reviews the mapping, environmental constraints and housing yield analysis presented before the Plan was adopted and considers whether viable alternatives were overlooked.
Sue Higginson, MLC. As a Greens Upper House MP, Sue is also an environmental law expert, has practised as a public interest environmental lawyer and is the former Principal Solicitor and CEO of the Environmental Defender’s Office, Australia’s leading public interest environmental law centre.
At home, Sue is a farmer, she grows dry land rice and other crops with her partner on their farm on the Richmond Floodplain in the Northern Rivers. Central to her farming practice is biodiversity management and conservation. Her farm is home to koalas, where she has planted thousands of trees to try to secure their future.
In her work on Planning and Environment enquiries and committees, Sue has seen first hand the government’s disregard for community safety by allowing development on land prone to inundation and bushfire. Sue provided some perspectives & guidance on our local issue as there appears to be a constant battle between development & protection of the environment, no matter where you live.
