Council 'ignored' warnings on Goulburn's Rocky Hill clearing: Falconer

That's the firm view of former Goulburn ecologist and High School science teacher, Rod Falconer. As an initiator of the Eastgrove wetlands, with The Goulburn Group, he said he was highly disturbed that the work of so many volunteers was being destroyed by "incompetence."

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Four heavy rainfalls have washed tonnes of soil down from a heavily cleared 28-lot residential subdivision at 99 May Street, above the wetland. The council imposed stop-work and clean-up orders on the developer in November. These remain in place. But despite detention dam construction, it didn't stop tonnes more soil inundating the wetland during a torrential downpour on January 7.

Mr Falconer, now living in Lithgow, has slammed the council's management of the development and the surrounding Rocky Hill bushland.

"The whole point is that the hill has been badly treated," he said.

"Goulburn not only loses its backdrop but the wetlands may be badly affected by tonnes of soil washing into them. It's very disturbing, it shouldn't have happened and any effort to control (the impact) has been incompetent."

The council's environment and planning director has previously said the clearing was permitted under a 2008 consent, which was still active. Planners had to work within this but had nevertheless insisted on more rigorous stormwater control in recent months. The council is also considering legal action.

The developer could not be contacted for comment.

Mr Falconer undertook a study of Rocky Hill's natural vegetation in 2001. It identified flora and fauna, conservation threats and recommended that a comprehensive plan of management be completed to avoid further loss.

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It noted that in the 1920s, "massive clearing" of the hill's northern area occurred for the war memorial's construction. An Aboriginal bora ring, which Dame Mary Gilmore tried to save, was likely lost in the process. A southern portion had also been highly disturbed.

Mr Falconer said the best remaining central portion was around May Street, the current development site.

"It had a rich and varied under-storey of shrubs and Grevillea arenaria, which was significant because it flowered most of the year, unusually on the inside, which allowed small birds to feed, safe from predators," he said.

There were also scribbly gums and endangered Yellowbox, kangaroo thorn and much more that harboured a wide variety of fauna, including the "increasingly rare" small passerines and honeyeaters.

In 2001 he warned that the outlook for Rocky Hill as a "special and significant site" was "grim without a well thought out management plan."

"A worst case scenario might entail Rocky Hill becoming a visual eyesore composed of cheek by jowl housing, commercial hoardings, tacky promotional edifices, rubbish heaps and eroding weed thickets, virtually devoid of resident native fauna," Mr Falconer wrote at the time.

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In regard to 99 May Street he reiterated a 1999 consultant's report which called for measures to avoid development of this "strategically and visibly vital and ecologically high quality bushland."

"The loss of this particular stand of bush would reduce Rocky Hill to two heavily altered, mainly weed infested flanges to the south and north," Mr Falconer wrote.

In 2013, he completed another study for a developer who wanted to transform the block into a residential subdivision.

"I remember sitting on the hill and finding all these birds you don't normally see. It was a naturalist's paradise," Mr Falconer said.

"I realised it would be all obliterated...It defied rational use of the land and the community's interest."

The land was on-sold before the subdivision progressed. But by 2015, work had started. That year the council fined the new owner for undertaking partial clearing without a construction certificate. Mr Falconer criticised the clearing then, saying it significantly damaged an important wildlife corridor.

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Years earlier, the late Ange Zantis, who owned the block and "saw its secrets," had offered to swap the land. This was rejected.

"They could see no value and they've kept that view," Mr Falconer said of the council.

"They and corporate bodies have no appreciation of Goulburn and its landscape...They've had decades to care and look after the hill but they haven't listened."

He said in this context, the council's recent explanation that it was powerless to act, given the subdivision's 2008 approval, was no excuse.

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He also claimed senior council officers had previously advised the lot was "unsuitable for housing construction" and bled water when it rained. Further, this could create structural stability issues for homes.

Mr Falconer said the council's latter insistence for onsite detention ponds was like "putting a band-aid on a gaping wound."

The combination of forces has come home to roost, in Mr Falconer's mind. The wetlands was the casualty.

Together with the late Peter Mowle, Bill Wilkes and numerous volunteers, he devoted hours of work transforming them from brick pits to a thriving haven for birds and animals. Bird hides, walking paths and hundreds of planted trees and shrubs had turned it into a major tourist attraction.

"The wetland was not by chance. It was carefully engineered as a filtration system so water could flow through a series of ponds and back into the river, free of pollution," Mr Falconer said.

"...All the silt there now means that the wetland won't function as intended and species will die. We also don't know whether the soil had contaminants. The water needs to be of high enough quality to let life back in."

Under the council orders, the developer mustn't let dirty water leave the site. The council's environment and planning director Scott Martin said his organisation would also oversee the developer's clean-up of the wetlands to ensure the correct method was employed.

Mr Falconer said the Friends and Residents of Goulburn Swamplands, a volunteer group that had devoted thousands of hours to the wetland, would not have input.

"It's a slap in the face," he said.

"...The whole thing has been irresponsible, incompetent and completely lacking vision for Goulburn, a city with a very bright star."

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