Director
Conservation Incentives and Design Section
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
Canberra ACT 2601
Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan
The Northern Rivers Region of NSW is a place like no other. It is rich in biodiversity
and community values. It will soon be declared by the people, through democratic
means, a Coal Seam Gas Free Region. This is to ensure we have a livable
environment for our people and future generations. It is also to fulfill our role as
custodians of the land and protectors of our incredible wealth of wildlife that ofcourse
can not speak for themselves.
I recommend that the whole region be protected by any means possible to preserve
this rich and precious world heritage listed food bowl.
I also recommend 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:
 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
 Tweed Shire Vegetation Management Strategy (2004)
 NRCMA Byrrill Creek Riparian Rehabilitation Project 2006
 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,
Brendan Shoebridge
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