Road closures and land sales

• Some sites are treed and are adjacent to other treed sites, providing environmental benefits in themselves, and collectively enhance the ecological integrity of an area, such as the Shoal Bay site and the Nelson Bay site on Wahgunyah Road. 
• Others are important environmentally in their own right, such as that at Fishermans Bay for which koalas are often sighted nearby, or may act as buffers between important environmental areas and existing developments, such as that at Shoal Bay and Fishermans Bay.
• Some act as important environmental access or corridors between reserves, such as Soldiers Point where koalas have accessed the beach for salt licking.

These are examples which EcoNetwork would not support selling — and several others too.

Why natural buffers are important to protect nature reserves

Often people think they can build to the edge of nature reserves without impact. Invariable on the edge impacts occur alongside development as community push in further. Buffer zones become important in mitigating those impacts into higher quality areas.

Just a little rubbish shown here, but sometimes mattresses, tyres and all manner of refuse is dumped.

Dumped garden cuttings are another impact spreading weeds into nature areas. While this is illegal, at least buffer zones help to protect the quality nature areas beyond.

Children have built a little shelter and that’s a great way to explore and connect with nature. However it tends to trample areas and disturb the vegetation, and again buffer areas help protect the nature reserves beyond.

• Some have been used as recreational reserves in the interim, and sometimes council has even provided recreational facilities such as a bench seat, such as that between 199 and 201 Soldiers Point Road 

• Some include a ‘Park Rules’ sign, which community believe the site has been reserved as a park. 

• Others if closed, disconnect community from our beautiful coastal assets, whether as physical access such as that at Morna Point Road or Soldiers Point Road, or importantly also as view lines, providing a visual access of community to the ocean.
  • In some coastal areas, opportunity for views have been alienated by privatising and developing foreshore land. 
  • Current waterfront blocks in public ownership help provide a little more equity and should not be privatised thereby creating increased visual barriers. 
• Waterfront view lines are also important from a tourism perspective. Those occasional ocean glimpses are important in improving the amenity of an area for community and visitors. 

• Others if developed, will impinge directly on the visual and recreational ambience of the area, such as that on Kingsley Drive on beach, picnic areas and the Tomaree Coastal Walk, while sale of the Shoal Bay block will dramatically impose on the Tomaree Coastal Walk.

These surplus ‘Road Reserves’ have been put on Public Exhibition for our comment and feedback.

The Public notice is here with the download list of proposed road closures here. Submit by Sunday 24 August. You can submit via statutory.property@portstephens.nsw.gov.au, the email provided for enquiries.

EcoNetwork believes Council is genuine in asking for feedback.

We do not believe there is any subterfuge occurring, as some have suggested, though we believe this has been poorly communicated, creating community confusion.

Whilst legally Council may be required to issue a Public notice, a ‘Have your say’ or additional information may have provided better understanding and much less community confusion.
UPDATE: Council later on issued a Have your say.

Council’s community consultation needs to be better ~ there is minimal explanatory information

Thank you to the many people and affiliates who either shared their submissions with us, or provided information and photos to help our views. Overwhelmingly, community who responded to us want to retain our land as part of our future environmental green spaces and as places for community in our increasing urbanised built environment.

Environmental values

• land that is vegetated adjacent to other environmental / conservation reserves 
• land that acts as a buffer between development and reserves of environmental value
• land that could act as a corridor to other land parcels, whether vegetated or potentially rehabilitated.

Community open space values

• land that is currently perceived as a recreational reserve
• land that provides physical access to another asset, in particular the waterfront road reserves as access to the beach
• land that provides visual access, or view lines, to important scenery (in particular water views) 
• land that provides open space in an area with minimal open space nearby.

1. Maintenance works that are beyond our current rates, beyond the Special Rates Variation, disaster relief and grants, maybe could be funded from the profits or sale of other Council investments which are more easily replaced in the future, and are not part of our environmental and community heritage.
2. Council should use any funds from sale of our land that does not hold community or environmental benefits (as outlined in values above), if it is legally possible, to purchase land that is in private ownership which has better environmental or community open space benefit than that being sold. Thereby strengthening our natural heritage which is being eroded on so many fronts, that is, taking nature positive action!
   
   Unfortunately as far as the sale of surplus road closures is concerned, the profit must be applied to roads, so point 2 above is relevant to sale of any other lands.

Selling a land asset may help a short-term maintenance issue, but what happens in 3-5 years when we have another prolonged wet period, and these assets are already sold? 

Our Port Stephens climate, on the average, has been on an upward wetter trend over the last 45 years.

We need better ways to fund ongoing road maintenance than selling our land assets and heritage.

An easy way you can help protect ’surplus road’ blocks, several of which are really valuable environmentally and recreationally to our community, is to sign this legislative e-petition. 

This calls for state-funding for two of our major roads ~ Medowie  and Lemon Tree Passage. Ask your friends and family to sign too! In August apparently only about 2000 signatures ⎯ 20,000 are needed. So please get behind Council’s call!

This is the direct petition link to the parliamentary petition to the Legislative Assembly. You will not be bombarded with more petitions if you sign it.

This is Council’s facebook link to the e-petition, it is a public Facebook page so you do no need to be on Facebook to access.

We believe no waterfront properties should be sold.

• They provide windows of open coastal views for community appreciation and connection to our coastal environmental, rather than built form — in many areas they are the last windows in a bank of built form.
• They provide community access to the waterfront.
• They often provide environmental and wildlife benefits, which could be enhanced.
• Once sold they are gone for ever, which is a significant loss to us and to future generations, and many in the community believe is not responsible management, especially selling such treasured assets to fund a maintenance project.

Soldiers Point waterfront reserve should not be sold.

The reserve provides community access to the beach for walkers, swimmers and kayakers alike, as well as being an actively used park with facilities.

This Soldiers Point Road reserve is one of very few remaining visual corridors or windows to the waterfront and should not be sold.

Most of Wanda Beach foreshore is built out, unlike most other foreshore areas. These few remaining blocks should be preserved in perpetuity. They are irreplaceable, once sold never retrieved.

Surprisingly koalas have also been observed accessing the beach to meet their salt lick needs, and this is the sole eastward corridor from Stoney Ridge Reserve. It also supports a huge tree with a cavity used seasonally by a myriad wildlife including native bees

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Morna Point waterfront land should not be sold.

Like Soldiers Point, this block provides community an access to the foreshore.

Importantly also it is a view line from along Morna Point Road, providing openness and connectivity to our coastline.

This enables just a little social equity for the majority without waterfront properties.

Such connections are important also for our future generations too, and selling is a short term gain only with long term negative consequences.

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Kingsley Drive reserve should not be sold.

Development on this land would present a visual imposition, impinging on the recreational and ambient amenity of beach users and the adjacent picnic area. It would also negatively impact on users of the adjacent Tomaree Coastal Walk.

The land also facilitates view lines from Kingsley Drive eastward which would be blocked by development.

The road reserve offers a direct and potentially safe access to Kingsley Beach that is not afforded by walking the gauntlet against the guard rails.

There is a small remnant of coastal vegetation found on rocky cliffs and should be regenerated rather than decimated.

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Ocean Beach reserve should not be sold.

Development would create discontinuity in the vegetated corridor which is a priority to maintain.

The Tomaree Coastal Walk overlaps the site or is extremely close and development would hugely negatively impact the TCW, part of our region’s tourism asset.

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Fishermans Bay block should not be sold.

It has good environmental value, even in its partly degraded state, as well as being an important buffer between existing development and the adjacent natural area, an area already assessed for its high potential for transfer to national park – see submission demonstrating the area’s values. This block borders land and shares ecological values of the neighbouring land which has a range of endangered species, the threatened ecological community Swamp Sclerophyll Forest on Coastal Floodplains, includes 33 koala sightings (some as recently as 2021), squirrel gliders and many more.

This Fishermans Bay block should be retained and its wildlife value enhanced.

It is important in its own right and as a protective buffer between existing development and its neighbouring high quality environmental land.

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Wahgunyah Road block should not be sold.

This is a treed block with 13 large eucalypt trees and several tall shrubs.

Along the road and nearby are various small green areas and a treed retardation basin which together provide treed corridors which broadly connect to a large tract of treed land incorporating Lily Hill to tis east and fire trails extending west to the water tank.

This block along with neighbouring blocks provide an urban wildlife corridors linking to larger areas. This treed block enhances connections.

The first image shows the treed long narrow block, while the second is viewed from over the road.

A beautifully treed block, important ecologically and climatically.

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Reserve next to 10 Wahroonga Street toward Adelaide Street should not be sold.

Sale of the main block next to 10 Wahroonga St would significantly reduce the quality and integrity of the green corridor and parkland of Adelaide Street.

Mature trees would be lost. Raymond Terrace has lost many in storms already. Retaining and enhancing the integrity of this area into the future is important..

The Murulla Crescent corridor enables direct and safe community access to Beetles Park playground within this Adelaide Street green corridor. The corridor is so narrow that likely it is only of value to an adjoining residence, with very little revenue gained. Such a sale would be extremely questionable compared to the loss of community connection in perpetuity.

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Six Mile Road should not be sold

“Voice of Wallalong and Woodville”, our affiliate, advise of a longer term need for this road reserve.

It should be retained for the probable upgrades that will be needed to accommodate the increased traffic from Monarchs Rise that will be using it to access the Pacific Highway to travel north.

In addition the road has been designated as the flood free option for access to the development and for evacuation of residents if needed.

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Stanley Street should not be a priority to sell This is lightly treed and augments the treed reserves in the immediate area, thereby increasing their combined habitat value and its proximity to the koala reserve to tis east.

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The block is treed between other treed residential blocks and provides walk and bike access connecting communities

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Fingal Bay opposite Coral Street on Rocky Point Road