Salamander Bay Town Centre Place Plan ~ Is history repeating itself?

Is Port Stephens Council wasting its time and ratepayers’ money on a proposal that has already been rejected?

Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group
1 May 2026 Media Release

The Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group, MWWCG, believes Port Stephens Council is repeating mistakes from the past with its new proposal for development around Salamander Bay Shopping Centre. Mistakes from 2010 to be exact, when a similar development was knocked back by a Joint Regional Planning Panel, JRPP.

“The similarities are quite striking,” said the group’s secretary, Kathy Brown. “None of the current Councillors were on Council back then so maybe that corporate memory has been lost that would have stopped this latest development in its tracks.”

The Salamander Bay community was shocked to hear last year that as a result of Council’s Town Centre Place Plan for the area, Council intended to develop three areas of Council owned land around the Tomaree Library and Community Centre. The areas form part of the Mambo Wetlands buffer zone, protected by State legislation and many of Council’s own policies, not least of which is its Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management, CKPoM.

Council’s plans in 2009 involved the development of a ring road around the shopping centre with an eight-lot commercial subdivision included. The proposed road ran along the current border of Mambo Reserve and its buffer zone to the west of Tomaree Library and up to the current area behind the shopping centre to the north which Council has now advertised for sale.

See below map for reference:

This plan for Salamander Bay was rejected by a Regional Planning Panel in 2010. It has many similarities to Council’s development plans today.

Port Stephens Council’s current plans include a road similar to that on the western side of the development shown in Figure 3 from the 2010 proposal. Council now intends to have the road do double duty as an Asset Protection Zone, APZ, with the possibility of a protective koala fence on one side. Koalas and other endangered species that now roam free through the buffer zone to the Library area will have even more of their territory restricted.

In their comments on the public interest in 2010, the JRPP wrote: Council is in a difficult position as land owner, applicant and the authority charged with the responsibility of looking after the public interest. Clearly, it is in the public interest to maximise the return for the sale of Council owned properties. Also, it is in the public interest to retain koala habitat, endangered ecological communities, and preserve the wetlands. In our opinion, the public interest is not served by the approval of the current application. p19

The community group believes that all of this applies to today’s developments. Port Stephens Council originally stated that they would be the developer and potentially sell some of the land as well. Council’s original statements also indicated that the community would see a concept plan for the whole development. However, Council has now placed one of the blocks on the market, flagging it as a potential medical facility or private hospital site.

The missing aspects of the previous proposal are still missing from today’s plans, “the buffer zones, pedestrian connectivity and safety; setbacks; building articulation; landscaping; and, other key considerations that would result in good design…” as Council leaves it to developers to decide the design and liveability of this major development.

In 2010, the Planning Panel cited noncompliance with Councils Development Control Plan, DCP. This was revised in 2025, and Council still appears noncompliant with its own policy which states that:

• Development should contribute to an improved natural environment; and
• Development should be planned and designed to avoid and minimise impacts on the natural environment.

The Mambo Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group believes that development in the area of Salamander Bay Shopping Centre was refused in 2010 for many reasons which still apply today:

The development application would result in the unacceptable loss of vegetation within an endangered ecological community and koala habitat that has the potential to impact on koalas and other threatened species;
The proposal does not comply with the statutory provision contained in SEPP No. 14 Wetlands, SEPP No. 44 Koala Habitat Protection, SEPP No. 71 Coastal Protection and the performance criteria contained in the Port Stephens Council Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management; and
The proposal will have an unreasonable impact on the adjoining residential lands to the north; 4. The “…..impacts of the Circuit Road to the north and west of Lots 4, 5 …..are considered to be unacceptable and should not be included in the development application.” (p20 JRPP decision.)

The Mambo Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group has organised another information forum on the issue for Saturday May 30th at 2pm in Tomaree Library.

“We had 70 people at our first forum in March, and we expect to double that number with our next information session. So many people have told us they had no idea of Council plans,” said Ms Brown.

Reference: JRPP(Hunter Central Coast Region) Business Paper – (Item 1) (16 February 2011) – (JRPP 2010HCC003)

May 2026 update