Wallarah

Wallarah Peninsula

The State Government has jettisoned established planning policies to permit intrusive, overwhelming urban development in the unique heritage village and coastal landscape at Catherine Hill Bay on the Wallarah Peninsula.

It has ignored the protests of two Councils and the decision of the Land and Development Court against the RoseCorp development. It has failed to deliver on an undertaking to have the village added to the State Heritage Register.

The area was at the bottom of the Planning Department’s priorities for development – until the developers tapped Frank Sartor on the shoulder and told him what they wanted. He catapulted their demands to the top of the list, as part of the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy.

The Strategy delivers valuable new National Parks and green corridors, for which the Government is to be commended.

But the NSW Nature Conservation Council’s Annual Conference last weekend condemned the Government’s use of Section 3A of the planning act to permit development on land where no development right currently exists (as at the Wallarah Peninsula).

As a consequence, the NCC said, the integrity and application elsewhere on the coast of Coastal Policy and other established State planning policies was threatened.

The NCC also decided to support the National Trust’s complaint that the development proposal “gratuitously compromised” the natural and cultural value of the village and surrounding landscape.

The Wallarah Peninsula Alliance, which has 30 participating groups in Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Wyong, and operates under the umbrella of the Community Environment Network. It is co-ordinating a campaign to protest the Government’s high handed and arrogant sell out of another coastal icon.

You can follow the campaign on our web site www.catherinehillbay.org.au., go to News and Events. Maps of proposed “development footprints” are on Maps

The Wallarah Peninsula Alliance seeks your support in yet another effort “to stop the rot”.

We urge you to support the NCC resolutions.

Please send your views to, particularly, the Premier and Mr Sartor; see list below.

Please phone or send your comments, with a copy of this letter, to your local State MP (Labor, Liberal, National or Independent).

For further information
WPA Secretary, Brian Cogan (Ph: 4972 5081 Email:bcogan@bigpond.com)
Sue Whyte, President, Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association 02 -49762310,
Email: suewhyte1980@bigpond.com.
Web site: www.catherinehillbay.org.au

Contact list:
Hon. Morris Iemma MP
GPO Box 5341
Sydney NSW 2001
Minister: NSW Premier
Phone: (02) 9228 5239
Fax: (02) 9228 3935
Email: the premier.

Hon. Frank Sartor MP
Governor Macquarie Tower Level 40 1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Minister: NSW Minster for Planning
Phone: (02) 9228 4700
Fax: (02) 9228 4711
Email: the planning minister.

Hon Milton Orkopoulos MP
PO Box 306
Swansea NSW 2281
Minister: Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
Phone: (02) 4972 1133
Fax: (02) 4972 1494
Email: swansea mp.

Peter Debnam MP
Suite 102, 332-342 Oxford Street
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Minister: NSW Leader of the Opposition
Phone: (02) 9369 3017
Fax: (02) 9389 8050

Chris Hartcher MP
PO Box 929
Gosford NSW 2250
Minister: Liberal Party - Shadow Minister for Planning
Phone: (02) 4325 1603
Fax: (02) 4324 2356
Email:chris hartcher.