Climbing out of COVID, clambering back climate change, the continual challenge.

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report of 9th August states “Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change.”

An infographic Worlds Apart- A story of three possible warmer worlds highlights our choices.

An ABC article on the IPCC report cited Leslie Hughes, Professor of Biology at Macquarie University and councillor at the Climate Council, as saying:

"What we do by 2030 would determine our future. There must be no new oil, coal or gas exploration or infrastructure. We've got to stop subsidising fossil fuels. We've got to electrify everything and then run everything from renewable energy. We've got to change our diets.We've really got to change most of the ways that we do things. But we know how to do it and there are ample opportunities to do so."

The Climate Council recently launched an interactive Australian Gas Exploration Map, which demonstrates just how much of Australia’s pristine land and waterways are under threat from gas companies. Australia is already one of the world’s largest liquified gas producers, and yet, new gas projects are being proposed across the country.

On our door-step the Kurri Kurri gas-fired power station proposal is “locking us in for catastrophic climate impacts. Building a government-owned gas power station in the middle of a climate crisis is the equivalent of asking the Australian public to jump onto a sinking ship without a safety raft” according to the Climate Council. 

What can we do locally? Supporting a transition to renewable energy away from coal and fossil fuels, moving towards electric vehicles, protecting our trees and the natural areas that link them, and eating less meat. All the small actions will add up…it’s what got us into this predicament in the first place, it will get us out of it too and COVID has shown us that we can change the way we do things. This time it will be for the health of the planet and all its inhabitants.

Newstan Mine Extension proposal for 15 years.

The Newstan Mine Extension Project aims to extract up to 25.9 Mt of coal at a maximum rate of 4 Mtpa at the Newstan Colliery over a 15 year period. Mining would include first workings, partial extraction and total extraction by bord and pillar techniques.

In 2019, Myuna Sport and Recreation Centre was closed due the integrity of the Ash Dam and its infrastructure should an earthquake hit the City. Issues of concern around this project which proposes to mine under the ash dam include:

• Subsidence,
• seepage of heavy metals into Lake Macquarie
• the integrity of the dam floor
• contamination of ground and surface water.

The proposal states "Conservative protection barriers have been adopted in the mine design to minimise subsidence impact risks to overlying infrastructure such as the Main Northern Railway, Eraring Power Station and Eraring Ash Dam and sensitive surface water features such Stockyard Creek, Kilaben Creek, and Stony Creek."

The Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group has prepared a submission with reference to local impacts and is available here for you to review and consider in any personal submission.

You can send your objections to https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/12886 and click on “make a submission” button. Click “I object to the project” then add your comments or upload your submission.

Submissions are due by 19/10/21 via the NSW Planning Portal.

Great Southern Bioblitz 2021- Lake Mac City - 22-25 October

Over the past few months of exploring the local surrounds you may have noticed an occasional fungus, a periodic petal or two, the abundance of birds, the incessant insects, those tremendous trees, superb shrubbery, and groovy grasses. Their presence has helped to keep us present and provide much needed respite from the constraints of the COVID cloisters.

The Great Southern Bioblitz is an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge this biodiverse abundance in our backyard, a way of saying thank you to the silent majority and recognising their place in our community space… and you’ll get find out the names of these floral and faunal friends.

All you need is a camera and computing capacity to upload to inaturalist, a very easy-to-use app/desktop application. A community of citizen scientists will assist with the naming.

Lake Macquarie City will be joining in the Great Southern Bioblitz from 22-25 October 202. In addition to increasing awareness of what we have across Lake Mac’s suburban backyards, parks and nature reserves, we can see what is recorded in this snapshot of Spring across three continents.

You‘ve still got time to learn how to use  inaturalist app, here’s an instructional run-through.

All of the details on how to participate
in the Great Southern Bioblitz are here. 

Nico's Great Cycle Challenge

During October Nico Marcar is once again taking part in the Great Cycle Challenge to fight kids' cancer!

Nico is combining his passion for cycling with assisting a worthy cause, supporting the Children's Medical Research Institute to continue their work into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and finding a cure for childhood cancer. Cancer is a very serious disease and it is the largest single killer of children from disease in Australia.

Please consider supporting his challenge by making a donation through his fundraising page

Time to hang out at The Naturespace Hub

Have you been for a walk in the 'Coal Point School – Naturespace and Community Hub' project? The project sits between Rofe Street and the corner of the school that connects to the ridge trail.

The final stage of the project is now complete and the plants are in. That means the Naturespace area is now play-space perfect (a custom picnic table and some signage will be installed during the school holidays) and ready for fun. Please keep in mind that the area is on school property and as such, is open to the community outside of school hours.

The project funds were awarded in 2019 by the NSW State Government as part of their Community Grant program. We've been working for a while through COVID delays and the impacts of wet weather and soaked ground in the early part of the year to bring the project to life. The education trail has been complete for a while and now the Naturespace area is also complete and open for kids and the community to enjoy. Thanks to everyone in the community for the support the project has received and the local businesses that have contributed to the project. Thank you to Ros Cornish for propagating most of the plants for the project. We hope they can adapt to their new home without too many losses.

This new community resource will need the ongoing support and watchfulness of the community to stay playable. Every plant that is meant to be there has at least one stake, partly for protection and partly so we can all identify the weeds. We'd like the stakes and intended plants to stay. If you see any weeds coming up we'd love for you to pull them out and leave in a pile by the gate. Thanks!

Further updates will be posted on the project Facebook page, 'Coal Point Primary School Naturespace & Community Hub.'

by The Naturespace Project Manager – Lindy Hulton-Larson

Westlakes Trophies Welcome and Farewell

Carl and Helen from Westlakes Trophies Framing & Engraving at Carey Bay Shopping Village wish to announce that they have sold their business and are going to retire.

“We would like to thank our loyal customers, some of whom have been with us for over 21 years, and we consider treasured friends. It has been a wonderful community to be in business and we appreciate the local support we have had. We feel fortunate in that the new owner, Daniel Cunningham, is very capable and has so much enthusiasm, and we feel confident will continue to grow the business.

Daniel is looking forward to meeting the locals when lockdown finishes. He intends to run the business in a similar manner and looks forward to a strong working relationship with existing staff, Sukira & Pika, and new staff member Rob”.

DA In Play 1/9/21 to 8/10/21 & Two different DAs

The CPPA endeavours to provide a summary of active applications in our area as outlined in the table.

Please consult LMCC’s website for a full listing: 

https://www.lakemac.com.au/Development/Planning-and-development-services/Application-Enquiry.

• DA = Development Application
• BC = Building Information Certificate
• TA = Tree Assessment
• CC = Construction Certificate,
• CDC = Complying Development Certificate,
• REF = Review Environmental Factors
• SC = Subdivision Certificate.
• MU = Mixed use
• RFB = Residential flat Building

Two very different DAs on our doorstep

A DA with a difference to comment on
 163-167 Excelsior Parade - DA/2459/2021

Demolition, Multi Dwelling housing and a 3 into 26 lot Strata Subdivision.

A development application with a difference, one that has attempted to retain some of the vegetation! On page 17 of the Statement of Environment Effects the proponent states in regards to Landscape and Tree Planting – "We highlight that the design is specifically derived around retention of existing significant vegetation on site and within the road verge. The designer has taken great care to ensure significant stands of vegetation are retained at the front, centre and mid-block interface portions on the allotment."

Some images of the proposal's location and context  follow:

DA/2075/2021 (44-46 Brighton Avenue, Toronto)

Aggressive encroachment and dangerous precedents:

In contrast to the vegetation retention approach proposed above, local residents have recently been commenting on a DA which not only proposed clearing of all vegetation on the block but also vegetation on adjacent blocks.

Those of us who live around or travel along Brighton Avenue and Excelsior Parade have noticed the increasing loss of vegetation and birdsong as developers have moved into the ‘medium density’ rezoning between Pemell and Ambrose Streets, combined blocks and turned them into tightly packed units.

DA/2075/2021 (44-46 Brighton Avenue, Toronto), now being assessed by Council staff, pushes the limits even further in seeking to squeeze nine units into two former house blocks just along from Jarrett Street (one of them with the spreading liquid amber that is so glorious in autumn).

The developer seeks to build right up to the side and back fences with a gun-barrel drive/watercourse up the middle.

That involves not only the removal of all trees on the site but also the removal of adjacent mature trees on the southern side and at the back. It constitutes a drastic encroachment upon those neighbouring properties.

Obviously it is not practical to slice off half a tree, branches and roots, along a fenceline and expect the other half to remain intact. Such aggressive action would create a hazard. Either the other half must be viciously trimmed in the hope of eventual re-growth, or it must be removed.

Of course there is a legal right to seek removal of encroaching hazards, but is not reasonable to submit create potential hazards and demand encroachment rights without prior consent. There is no ‘right’ to cause collateral damage.

Neighbours have objected. Council’s Streetscape/Landscape Referral Response addresses some of the harmful impacts but downplays or ignores others.

If Council were to approve this DA, it would set an appalling precedent. The whole ridgeline from Pemell St to Ambrose St would become a clearfell zone and be turned into a hard-surface, bird-free, built environment with massive stormwater run-off into the lake and no outdoor residential amenity.

Building codes are belatedly addressing the worsening heat-island effects of rising temperatures (climate change) combined with urban densification and wide expanses of unshaded heat-absorbent surfaces. Science has established that vegetated neighbourhoods can be at least 10% cooler than exposed built environments, thereby providing more comfortable and more healthy residential amenity.

Some Sydney Councils have become pro-active in addressing heat-island effects. LMCC should also address this worsening problem as part of its strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change. The developer will clear, build, sell and leave. LMCC and ratepayers will own the problem in perpetuity, so we need foresight and good planning now. This DA is the clearest possible example of poor practice not only in precinct planning but also in climate mitigation and adaptation.

Let us hope Council does proper due diligence and holds its nerve.

An expanded Committee for the CPPA

The CPPA Annual General Meeting was a resounding success with three new brains - Selma Barry, Nico Marcar and Prue Bedford - joining the governance board of the Association. Along with the returning stalwarts, Harvey Mitchell, Ian Dennison, Tony Dynon and Suzanne Pritchard, this collection of committed community enthusiasts will endeavour to determine a positive direction for the CPPA, ensure best use of its assets and implement its objectives.

The CPPA committee meets every odd month, 3:30-5:30pm at the hall. Interested members are always welcome to join us.

An annual report was compiled for the AGM and circulated to members prior to the AGM. The complete report is available online for your perusal.

President’s Thoughts-Suzanne Pritchard

The 2020-21 Progress year certainly created food for thought. The constraints and opportunities that COVID created have moved the goal posts for what a community requires to be connected, sustainable, nurturing and caring.

It was a time to really appreciate the open spaces we have in our bigger backyard. So many people got the opportunity to explore our bushland tracks. The Coal Point School Naturespace project is now providing access off the West Ridge (Tirrabenbah), guaranteeing increased usage and therefore appreciation of some picture-perfect bushland. The well attended Walk Safely to School Day provided locals with access knowledge of the bushland track and will hopefully be an ongoing option for students to travel to school in the future.

The Bush Blocks project kicked off after the last AGM and provided lots of opportunities to consider what collaborative housing could look like in our community. The Bush Blocks Collaborative Housing project is an exciting opportunity to create the community we want, providing options to value-add on bushland blocks with creative, smart and sustainable housing that connects and unites the residents with the surrounding community while protecting and enhancing biodiversity for future generations. “Collaborative living is about building stronger communities by emphasising social connection and looking for beneficial ways to share resources and pool skills. The sharing economy is one example of collaborative living, collaborative housing is another”. https://www.collaborativehousing.org.au/

Interestingly LMCC is looking to expand the concept of a Circular Economy to include Circular Communities. The aspirations of the Bush Blocks project align tightly with circular economy principles, and it is hoped that the CPPA will be able to seize an opportunity to facilitate the reshaping of the Carey Bay shopping precinct as a circular community precinct.

Communicating with the community on the Toronto Foreshore Masterplan also dominated the past year with an expanded Chronicle distribution to counter the collapse of local newspapers and the limited regard Council and Councillors show for community concerns. Ultimately the masterplan was adopted on 24 May with significant issues remaining unattended to, such as boating access, parking, and the rezoning of the land to ‘community’.

Thank you to our Members and Volunteers

The Progress Association is indebted to all the volunteers who give their time and skills to undertake community projects and the members whose support is vital for the organisation to be able to represent community views.

Sincere thanks to all the volunteers who are the backbone of the CPPA, managing hall bookings, undertaking hall maintenance, distributing newsletters, supporting social events, sharing photographs, massaging data, providing local insights, proffering professional expertise, auditing our accounts and landcaring our biodiverse bushland.

Treasurer’s Report- Ian Dennison

Overall, CPPA financial position remains very healthy.

CPPA membership consists of 10 life members plus 124 financial members (i.e. expiring 31/12/2021)

Hall hire income reduced due to Covid restrictions, which led to reduced hall usage, and further reduction due to CPPA halving hirers' bills for a period, to help their businesses recover.

Sponsor income down year on year, mainly due to:

• introduction of multi-month payment options, under which several sponsors paid all or most of 2020 sponsorship in the 2019 year (making 2019 abnormally high, and 2020 abnormally low)
• reduced number of Chronicles in 2020 (8 for the year)?
• Membership subs and donations income down markedly year on year, mainly due to introduction of multi-year payment option, under which many members pre-paid their 2020 subs (plus 2021,22 and 23) in the 2019 year (making 2019 abnormally high, and 2020 abnormally low)
• The CPPA continues to support the Toronto Foreshore Protection Group and Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group by facilitating membership and a wider Chronicle distribution, which will be reviewed to determine if the membership grows in these expanded distribution areas.

Sincere thanks are once again given to Veronica Lund who reviews our accounts each year with efficiency and enthusiasm.

Fantastic fauna face triple threat of rats, roads and removal of logs

There have been some amazing sightings lately of friendly fauna visiting our community. A spotted-tailed quoll was seen at Robey Rd, along with a Pheasant coucal, a large, long-tailed, pheasant-like cuckoo

Ecologists Chris Mclean and Gordon Patrick both assured us that they are relatively common in Lake Mac, occurring at both Glenrock SRA and the Watagans NP.This one was probably a roaming male on the lookout for a mate when he went as far east as he could.

Wildlife carer Catherine said “the fact that the quoll and pheasant coucal are down our way, shows just how important our bushland, trees and native gardens are for our wildlife that are having to extend their range to find more food and suitable habitat.”

The Threatened species website says “Quolls use hollow-bearing trees, fallen logs, other animal burrows, small caves and rock outcrops as den sites” so it’s really important to let the logs lie in our bushland reserves as they are important homes for our fauna nomads.

Quolls also eat a variety of prey including gliders, possums, small wallabies, rats, birds, bandicoots, rabbits, reptiles, insects, carrion and domestic fowl. With the current explosion of rodents this can potentially be devastating for the quoll. Second generation rodenticides can cause death beyond the target rodent by building up in the fat reserves of every animal further up the food chain, eventually killing them too.

The first generation warfarin-based rodenticides, which don’t accumulate, are less likely to impact on non-target animals like quolls and owls.

The other local threat for this uncommon community quoll will be the roads. Driving carefully, especially at night, will help.

Local bird surveyors Rob & Michael have also noted that the Satin Bowerbird on the West Ridge is active again - “he has moved it a bit but that’s a good sign that the hormones are flowing again” .

Adult male Satin Bowerbirds build and decorate stick bowers to attract females for mating. Females choose among males based on these complex bowers, decorations placed at these bowers, and displays consisting of vocalisations and posturing. These bowers are amazing, if you happen to come across one please stay a respectful distance, it is their home that they’ve invested a lot of time in decorating it.

A new name TAG and broader purpose for The Toronto Foreshore Protection Group (TFPG).

The TFPG, a coalition of local community groups that emerged to champion a community focussed outcome for the Toronto foreshore has renamed as the Toronto Action Group (TAG) to continue to advocate in a positive manner for local issues on behalf of our community. The TAG website and Facebook pages still contain all the accumulated information and will be rebranded as time and inspiration allows.

The TAG team believe there are still significant issues that need to be addressed for our community and will continue to be a positive voice for community consultation and council responsiveness.

Two local National Tree Day (NTD) events

All hands on deck on 29th July to finish the “Coal Point School’s Naturespace & Community Hub” project!

So close! We just need to do some planting and the CPPA Landcare group will be helping out for two mornings in July. Can you help too? No experience is needed.

• July 22 - weeding and preparation for planting
• July 29 - planting & mulching. If you can help, we'd love to see you. Unfortunately COVID will prevent the students from participating this year, but we can still plant out the Naturespace.

We're lucky enough to have a great selection of plants grown by a local volunteer (thanks Ros!). 

Entry is off Rofe Street near the top gate. We will be COVID safe with sanitiser on hand.

Please RSVP through the Facebook Page 'Coal Point Primary School Naturespace & Community Hub' or coalpointprogress@gmail.com if you'd like to be part of this great community initiative.

Hope to see you there! - Lindy Hulton-Larson (The Naturespace Team)

Getting Grounded at Gurranba on 31st July

The Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group and CPPA Landcare are hosting a planting as part of the National Tree Day celebrations across our Tree City of the World, Lake Mac, and we’ll be sharing a BBQ lunch and morning tea treats for all attendees.

On Saturday 31st July, 10am-noon at Gurranba Reserve (308a Skye Pt Rd) we'll be popping in a few trees to boost the canopy and planting a Lomandra buffer, bordering the foreshore bushland, to prevent the spread of weeds and recognise that remnant veg lives here.

We’ll be engaging in another favourite pastime too, the mindful removal of Mother of Millions; these camouflaging specialists are a great treasure hunt for little ones, and easy to remove.

Please wear a hat, gardening gloves, long sleeves and covered shoes, and bring a water bottle. If you have your favourite gardening tools bring them along too.

To assist with catering please RSVP at https://treeday.planetark.org/site/10025384,

Gurranba Reserve has been the site of both goodness and grief over the past few months. It holds a special place in our local landcare history being the site of the very first landcare working bee in 1995, which involved ropes and a 4WD to remove the Lantana that covered the foreshore slopes. A whispering Casuarina grove now stands tall on that spot.

The Landcare crew have continued to regularly visit and nurture the site with a much more tender touch, to the point where the delicate extrication of Mother of Millions (MoM) resulted in 1.5tonnes of the menacing ‘mother’ taken off-site to the tip.

This huge haul would not have been possible without the concerted effort of caring locals who regularly filled the MoM crate on the foreshore on their morning walks. 

Additional efforts from the Gill family translocating Kangaroo Grass (Themeda), mulching and getting on top of the Farmer’s Friends (Bidens Pilosa) before they became the next big weedy worry, has resulted in amazing progress on this perpetual problem patch.

Unfortunately, with the good also came the grief. The discovery of over a dozen foreshore trees felled to clear a view corridor for a reserve neighbour. 

The intent behind the action of destroying what belongs to everyone for personal ‘gain’ was distressing to the landcarers who have been protecting and preserving this special foreshore reserve for all.

Without hard evidence, such as photos, Council can take no action. Perhaps the neighbours with a good view of the site might like to keep an eye out for any further incidents, take a photo and report the vandals.

All neighbours are welcome to come along to the National Tree Day planting and discuss view corridors and get to know the people who care for our trees and the public land upon which they live.