Shoalhaven City Council backs locals' call to make Manyana Beach Estate development site a national park

At its ordinary meeting on Monday (September 26), the council voted unanimously to support Manyana Matters Environmental Association (MMEA) and its mission to declare a new area of national park, on land currently earmarked for a housing development.

The site in question: 20 hectares of forest known as the Manyana Beach Estate, owned by developer Manyana Coast Pty Ltd.

The parcel was one of few bushland areas spared by the Currowan fire during Black Summer.

As part of its support, Shoalhaven City Council agreed to lobby the NSW Government to buy the land from the developer, for the express purpose of conservation.

Council also voted to to use other state government works in the Shoalhaven as a bargaining chip.

Speaking to the motion, put forth by Mayoral Minute, Mayor Amanda Findley said she hoped to get the issue in front of ministers for an election commitment.

"What this motion is attempting to do... is get this conversation back fair and square in the face of the new ministers in the current government," she said.

"They [NSW Government] will be seeking biodiversity offsets for the work that they need to do around the Princes Highway upgrades, and there also seems to be an opportunity there.

"I'm bringing this to your attention this evening to reignite that conversation.

"It's a conversation that the community have requested to be reignited, and I hope that we can write to those ministers, and perhaps extract a promise from them ahead of next year's state election."

MMEA spokesperson Jorj Lowery made a deputation to council on the matter.

She spoke to both the biodiversity in the surviving forest, and to the massive changes in the region since the Development Application was granted.

"That's a zombie DA - it's 14 years old. It's just like so many other communities up and down the coast," she said

"They really are the blight of the Shoalhaven, and one way or another they are rearing their ugly heads. In this case, it happened to be one that didn't burn.

"When this DA first came about, I guess we sort of had to accept that - we had the 11,000 hectares of Conjola National Park, so maybe it was okay and the animals would go into that park.

"The roles are completely reversed: now we need these refuges to maintain these animals, so that they can breed and repopulate, and the seeds can be taken out into the Conjola National Park."

Ahead of the next state election, Shoalhaven City Council will write to the NSW premier; deputy premier; treasurer; and respective ministers for transport, infrastructure, planning, regional transport, and roads.

Letters will also be sent to equivalent shadow ministers, and to The Greens NSW parliamentary representatives.