EnvironmentThe North Byron Shire Parklands site covers 256 hectares, or 660 acres.
The site contains a wide variety of environmental values ranging from valuable vegetation types through to highly degraded former agricultural lands. A portion of the property adjoins the Billinudgel Nature Reserve. Part of the proposed site (approximately 35%) falls into an area which has been identified as a wildlife corridor. While considered wildlife corridor from a planning perspective, due to many years of destruction the flora has been hugely fragmented and is in need of serious regeneration and reforestation.
Likewise the ability of fauna to move between forested areas has been compromised by this fragmentation and a host of physical barriers including the Tweed Valley Way and the recently upgraded Pacific Highway.
Single ownership of the two amalgamated North Byron Shire Parklands sites provides a unique and one-off opportunity to help restore the wildlife corridor link between Billinudgel Nature Reserve and the Mount Warning Caldera from its existing state of long-term farming land.
Work is currently underway, in consultation with the Department of Environment and Climate Change, to legally commit key strategic habitat sites to the National Parks reserve system. The Minister for the Department of Environment and Climate Change has approved in principle the transfer of strategic habitat sites to the Parks and Wildlife reserve system. North Byron Shire Parklands is currently working with Byron Shire Council to effect the necessary boundary adjustments to facilitate this transfer.
Further areas within Parklands are being intensively managed to enhance their habitat values. A key priority is to restore the native vegetation so that we can link what currently are fragmented patches of forest for the benefit of the animals and birds that live there, allowing better and safer movement to and from coastal and inland habitats.
North Byron Shire Parklands has already planted in excess of 6,500 native trees in currently cleared parts of the wildlife corridor. We propose to plant thousands more, however much of this work is contingent upon achieving some degree of certainty regarding the proposal for a sustainable event venue.
By repairing the destroyed native vegetation, managing the weeds and feral animals and closely monitoring the biodiversity of Parklands, the benefits that the proposal will bring far outweigh its limited use as an event venue.
Our local indigenous Madhima Gulgan bush regeneration team have done an incredible job over the past eighteen months, planting thousands of trees. With all the wet weather over the past twelve months many of these trees are now three to four metres high. They have also removed noxious weeds across a 9.4 hectare area and have installed numerous nest boxes to improve habitat conditions for birds and other fauna.
North Byron Shire Parklands applied in 2008 for a Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority Biodiversity Grant to fence a number of forest blocks across the site to exclude cattle and promote much needed understory growth.
Update May 2009: This week, due to the actions brought against Parklands by CONOS, Parklands has had to decline this $45,000.00 grant. “We would like to thank staff at NRCMA for their valuable time and assistance and we hope to reapply for this funding in the future’’ said Mat Morris.
In February 2009 we completed our summer Fauna survey. The survey detected 94 vertebrate species, bringing the total known vertebrate fauna species on the property to 167. Three fauna species listed as vulnerable under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 were recorded, and four exotic species were detected.
Finally, a koala survey undertaken in both June 2007 and October 2008 found limited evidence of koala activity (one sighting of koala pellets). A Koala Plan of Management has however been developed.
While we have spent hundreds of hours surveying fauna and flora and have developed a host of management plans to protect and enhance the site’s biodiversity, we continually look for inspiration from our friends and colleagues. In particular, we have learnt many lessons from our close friends at Woodford Folk Festival. They started on a journey not dissimilar to ours.
We believe North Byron Shire Parklands can evolve into a world class event venue which sits at the forefront of the principles of sustainability.
Below is our sustainability strategy.
