The following articles were published in the “Macarthur Advertiser”. They are republished for information of members living beyond the newspaper circulation area.

DHARAWAL DAWN

ALEXANDRA PLEFFER

28 Mar, 2012 01:00 AM

GOOD things come to those who wait, and the people of Campbelltown have certainly waited a long time for their own national park.

Eighteen years after it was first promised by then-opposition leader Bob Carr, local residents’ patience was rewarded on Sunday when Premier Barry O’Farrell announced the opening of Dharawal National Park at Wedderburn.

It takes in the stunning O’Hares Creek gorge and Minerva Pool waterfalls and stretches south and west through the upper catchment of the Georges River to near Appin and the Darkes Forest swamps.

Until now, this bushland gem has been largely hidden away behind locked gates, but will now be opened up to the public.

Environment Minister Robyn Parker said the government would provide $1 million to improve community and disability access, walkways, signage and lookouts.

For Mr O’Farrell, it is the climax of lengthy negotiations with the mining companies and environmentalists.

“When I first got a chance to do a little bit of walking in this area, it was clear to me why Dharawal National Park should be established,” Mr O’Farrell said of the local natural treasure.

“I’m particularly proud that we didn’t put it in the too hard basket.

“We didn’t give up on the hope of establishing here a national park.”

Mr O’Farrell said there had been no compensation paid to mining companies. He said the government had waited for one last mining lease on the site to lapse earlier this month before moving ahead with the creation of the park.

“The excuse given by Bob Carr for 18 years was that it couldn’t be done because of mining interests,” Mr O’Farrell said.

While he admitted BHP Billiton was “a bit resistant” to start with, Mr O’Farrell said there had been no deal made with the mining giant to avoid paying compensation.

Plans for the park will soon be put on public display and will include picnic facilities, a new lookout with access for the disabled and walking tracks.

The gazettal on Monday co-incided with the one-year anniversary of the O’Farrell government’s election in 2011.Mr O’Farrell said he believed the 6500-hectare national park and its great swimming holes would soon become a tourist attraction.

Wollondilly MP Jai Rowell thanked the local groups and individuals who had not given up hope on a Dharawal National Park over the decades.

“Our community have been wanting this for such a long time,” he said.

But Labor environment spokesman Luke Foley raised concerns on Sunday that BHP Billiton would continue to mine on the boundary of the national park which he claimed could affect the park’s water reserves and the headwaters of the Georges River.

Mr O’Farrell said the Environmental Protection Authority would issue fines for any activity that affected the park’s water.

Ms Parker said the exploration licences for the land which is on the fringes of the national park had already been approved by the former Labor government.

THE government’s plans for the park will soon be placed on public exhibition and will include:

¦ A new lookout over O’Hares Creek with disabled access;

¦ Improved walking access to swimming holes and waterfalls;

¦ Picnic facilities;

¦ A loop walk at Darkes Forest to Maddens Falls.

Triumphal shouts raised over new park

28 Mar, 2012 01:00 AM

THE creation of Dharawal National Park has been met with a mix of cheers and sighs of relief.

Sharyn Cullis, of the Georges River Environmental Alliance, said the national park gave Campbelltown residents the opportunity to celebrate a regional image centred on nature and beauty.

“It’s an amazing outcome,” Ms Cullis said. “Dharawal was virtually an invisible and unknown landscape, with rich coking coal underneath already granted by lease to BHP.

“Honestly, who would dare to think it had any future?

“It was set to become the shattered and desiccated collateral damage of a mining project.”

National Parks Association NSW chief executive Kevin Evans said Dharawal’s creeks and upland swamps were important for the protection of the Georges River’s headwaters and the biodiversity of southern Sydney.

“This dedication will ensure this beautiful area will be given the strongest possible protection, a goal NPA’s Macarthur branch has campaigned to achieve for over three decades,” he said.

Campbelltown’s Labor mayor, Anoulack Chanthivong, applauded Mr O’Farrell for protecting such a special place for locals.

“This is a great thing and I think it will be well received by the people of Campbelltown,” Cr Chanthivong told the Advertiser.

“This is not about Labor or Liberal — it’s about Campbelltown.”

Pat Durman, of the NPA Macarthur branch, said for her the announcement had to be seen to be believed.

“It’s absolutely marvellous — it really is the end of a very long fight,” she said.

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Dharawal field officer Andrew Lawless has cared for the park since about 1995 and was over the moon.

“After 25 years in my time with the service it’s great to be involved in the gazettal of a national park that I came into 15 years ago and I had to go around and survey and drive every fire trail because not a lot of people knew what we had,” he said.

Ranger Anita Zubovic was also very excited by the news. “This used to be the quietest park in the state and now it’s becoming the most exciting,” she said.

Park a win for Campbelltown’s koalas

28 Mar, 2012 01:00 AM

SUNDAY’S announcement of a Dharawal National Park was also a major win for Campbelltown’s koala population which uses O’Hare’s Creek gorge in the park as a shelter from bushfires.

University of Western Sydney koala expert Robert Close said the announcement gave local koala colonies a much greater chance of long-term survival.

“I think this will allow our koalas to survive here, probably forever,” said the Advertiser columnist.

Dr Close said he first noticed the importance of the gorge when he found one of the radio-collared male koalas sheltering in the caves there on a very hot day.

“I believe the gorge is the place where koalas will survive bushfires — and by surviving bushfires, there’s always going to be recovery. The cliffs, the gorges and the caves give the koalas a place to hide and the actual way the gorge burns is very spasmodic, so you get little fingers of flames.”

THE gazettal yesterday of Dharawal National Park climaxed a community campaign which started in the 1980s.

Premier Barry O’Farrell confirmed the 6500 hectare conservation area on Sydney’s southern fringe would be protected to the centre of the Earth, preventing mining taking place beneath it.

Environmental groups, who had grown nervous by a three-month delay in the proclamation, were delighted.

‘‘Knowing what BHP had planned for Dharawal, I really thought national park status was the impossible dream,’’ said secretary of the Georges River Alliance, Sharyn Cullis.

‘‘Dharawal was virtually an invisible landscape, with rich coking coal underneath already ‘granted’ by lease to BHP.

‘‘Who, honestly, would dare think it had any future [as a national park]?

‘‘It was set to become the shattered and desiccated collateral damage of a mining project.’’

Ms Cullis said that groups such as Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society, the Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance and the National Parks Association, Southern Sydney branch, were very much a part of the campaign.

‘‘The campaign had everything: the right mix of commitment from the ‘activists’, quality scientific argument, the vindication of findings from an independent inquiry, and most importantly media and political responsiveness,’’ she said.

Ms Cullis said ‘‘continuous coverage’’ by the Leader and sister paper, the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, had played a significant role in the outcome and she was ‘‘immensely grateful’’ to them.

Also present at the announcement were Environment Minister Robyn Parker and six Liberal MPs, including Mark Coure (Oatley) and Lee Evans (Heathcote), whose electorates take in the new park or are affected by it.

Mr O’Farrell said he was extremely proud a Coalition government had achieved in its first 12 months what the previous Labor Government could not deliver in 16 years.

Plans for new facilities, including a new loop walk from Darkes Forest to the spectacular Maddens Falls, will be exhibited, and a community celebration held on May 5.

LINGERING THREAT

BHP’s mining operations on the fringes of the new national park, as well as coal seam gas exploration, could still pose a threat to waterways within it.

Opposition environment spokesman Luke Foley said he was concerned coal seam gas drilling nearby could make Dharawal ‘‘nothing more than a Clayton’s national park’’.

Premier Barry O’Farrell said the Environmental Protection Authority would be aggressive in issuing fines for any damage caused to waterways by nearby mining activity.

Environment Minister Robyn Parker said Mr Foley’s comments amounted to “abject hypocrisy”, as the coal seam gas exploration licences were issued by the former Labor government.