The NSW Land and Environment Court today rejected the Gilead Koala protection case against Lendlease, brought by local community group, Save Sydney’s Koala (South West). Conservationists, said they would continue the fight.   

‘’The Koala colony west of Campbelltown is healthy and since the 2019/20 bushfires, the only one still growing.  It is now essential that the Ministers for Planning and Environment and the local council, take action to protect the habitat and ensure wide corridors connecting the Georges and Nepean Rivers.  Otherwise the Gilead site will be subsumed in thousands of houses, setting Koalas further along the road to extinction,’ said Saul Deane, Urban Sustainability Campaigner for Total Environment Centre.

‘’This case has highlighted the continued unravelling of any effective Koala protections in NSW.  The Koala Plan of Management which requires improved protection does not have mandatory effect because of the so-called Biodiversity Conservation Act, which allows destruction of habitat and dodgy offsets far away from the site, as well cash contributions.’’

‘’Protection of Koalas is a highly important issue for the wider public and future biodiversity and the campaign to protect this iconic species won’t cease.  We will be immediately assessing how to advance the campaign further,’’ Mr Deane said.

The grounds on which this Development Consent had been fought was - an inadequate staging plan; that the Campbelltown Koala Plan of Management was flawed in its approval; and that it wasn't applied properly to the approval of Lendlease’s DA.

Further information can be found here.