More than 50 people attended the Ulladulla and Districts Community Forum meeting, which discussed the recent clearing of land at Dolphin Point for a housing estate. 

The meeting heard residents vent their thoughts on the clearing, which began two weeks ago to make way for stage six of the Highview Drive development. 

Stage six is at the end of Vista Drive and runs along the back of properties on Highview Drive.

Despite the knowledge that those trees would one day be cleared, the shock of seeing so many trees felled for some neighbours was distressing.

Emile Jansen put forward a motion at the meeting for those in attendance to consider. It called on Shoalhaven City Council to preserve remnant bushland habitats, require all development proposals to have a flora and fauna impact assessment, and for developers to lodge a surety against performance of the consent conditions equivalent to $5,000 per approved house block. 

Support for the motion will be decided at a future meeting, to allow residents to think about was is proposed. 

However, a show of hands at the meeting saw the majority of those present vote to take action to stop similar land clearing happening again in the region. 

Because of the size of the development, the Dolphin Point housing estate plans were approved by a state body, the Joint Regional Planning Panel. 

Gayle Nolan, who lives close to the cleared site, said animals were in distress during the land clearing, scurrying through her yard and squawking as dozers pulled down their habitat. 

“I will never get that out of my head,” she said. 

“This should never, ever happen again. We need to look at how we develop land in the future, it is getting out of hand. We as a community need to take action.” 

The issue will come back before the forum on Monday, September 3.