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Director Conservation Incentives and Design Section Department of Sustainability,
Environment, Water, Population and Communities Canberra ACT 2601 Draft National
Wildlife Corridors Plan
Both my wife and 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 second 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 three 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, we
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:
Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan;
The Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, as a Priority Implementation
Area;
NSW Stressed Rivers Assessment – Tweed Catchment, NSW Land and Water Conservation;
Tweed Riparian Restoration Prioritisation Report (2003) Ecosure, Burleigh Heads;
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Tweed Shire Vegetation Management Strategy (2004);
NRCMA Byrrill Creek Riparian Rehabilitation Project 2006; and
PAS Key Corridor Connections Project 2009 & 2010
Funding of approximately $560,000 has been spent on the Byrrill Creek Sub-catchment
on riparian repair, weed management, and the local Landcare Group is committed to
ongoing maintenance & re-vegetation of riparian corridors.
Dr. S. Phillips of “Biolink” Ecological Consultants identified 45 Threatened Fauna
species, 26 Flora Species & three Endangered Ecological Communities in a five kilometer
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 our 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,
Sue Klein & Roger Graf
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