Download Draft Wildlife Corridors Plan Submission

Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan
I recommend that the whole of the Caldera area within the Tweed Shire be evaluated, and
prioritised under the Corridor Plan. The DECCW, Coffs Harbour, has already mapped out
significant wildlife & climate change corridors within this area
The Caldera is listed as an iconic landscape, the 2nd largest erosion caldera in the world. It has
one of the highest biodiversity values in Australia with a significant percentage of threatened
species.
The Caldera area includes 3 World heritage listed National Parks.
Tweed Shire Council is currently preparing a report on the possibility of the area being
nominated as the “Border Ranges Biosphere”, which would encompass and support the
National Wildlife Corridors Plan.
Due to the rapid urban expansion in this shire much of this landscape is now under threat of
habitat destruction, with natural corridors threatened and a resulting loss of species. A Wildlife
Corridors Act could ensure a long term commitment to the protection of such areas.
Mt Warning/Wollumbin is a significant & major Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Site, as are the
ridges and surrounding areas radiating out from it, as the ancestral song lines.
As Mt Warning/Wollumbin National Park is essentially an island National Park, I specifically
recommend that the last major corridor linkage of the Byrrill Creek area be recognised and
nominated as extremely important.
The Byrrill Creek area corridor links between the World Heritage Mt Warning/Wollumbin
National Park, Mebbin National Park and ultimately to the World Heritage Border Ranges
National Park.
The Byrrill Creek area has been classified as an important conservation area or corridor area
within the:
1. ·
Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan
2. ·
The Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, as a Priority
Implementation Area
3. ·
NSW Stressed Rivers Assessment – Tweed Catchment, NSW Land and Water
Conservation
4. ·
Tweed Riparian Restoration Prioritisation Report (2003) Ecosure, Burleigh
Heads
5. ·
Tweed Shire Vegetation Management Strategy (2004)
6. ·
NRCMA Byrrill Creek Riparian Rehabilitation Project 2006
7. ·
PAS Key Corridor Connections Project 2009 & 2010
Funding of approximately $560,000 has been spent on the Byrrill Creek Subcatchment on
riparian repair, weed management, and the local Landcare Group is committed to ongoing
maintenance & revegetation of riparian corridors.
Dr S. Phillips of “Biolink” Ecological Consultants, identified 45 Threatened Fauna species, 26
Flora Species & 3 Endangered Ecological Communities in a 5km radius of Byrrill Creek. 24
species of Flora & Fauna are listed under the Federal EPBC Act
This area is currently under threat as a proposed Dam site for water supply for the ever
expanding urban developments in the north & east of the shire. It is an area far too valuable to
be clear felled & inundated.
Another corridor area that deserves nomination and protection within Tweed Shire is one that
links the Burringbar Range with Mooball National Park and the Cudgen Nature Reserve.
Within this corridor “Kings Forest”, a new urban development of 12,000 residents has been
approved. The development is located within core koala habitat & koala migratory corridors.
There is an estimated 144 coastal Koalas left in Tweed Shire and there is a dwindling chance of
their survival.
I hope my comments and recommendations of nominated corridor areas within the Tweed
Shire are included within the National Wildlife Corridors Plan.
I would appreciate an acknowledgement that you received this submission.
Yours sincerely,
Ray Thorpe
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