Manyana Matters Environmental Association
The Manyana Matters Environmental Association Inc (MMEA) is a grassroots community group dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhancement of the natural, social and cultural environment of North Bendalong, Bendalong, Manyana, Cunjurong Point, Berringer, and the surrounding Conjola National Park.
Things you can do right now to help
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URGENT email
We need you to send a quick email to Fiona Phillips MP (fiona.phillips.mp@aph.gov.au) to save the Manyana Forest. Now please.
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Sign our petition
We’ve had over 120,000 people sign our petition on Change.org. Consider joining them today!
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Join us
By becoming a member for $5 you help build our power and strengthen our cause.
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Keep in touch
Stay up to date and learn what’s happening and how you can help.
The MSCR. Please write a short email - like, NOW!
Update: April 2024
A decision is pending! Ozy Homes has at last provided final preliminary documentation to the Federal Department of the Environment regarding the EPBC Controlled Action on the Manyana Beach Estate. This documentation is meant to address the 1,068 public comments that were made in response to the preliminary documentation up to July 2021 - except that it doesn’t!
Fiona Phillips MP has agreed to take our concerns to Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. It would greatly assist if you could spend just 5 minutes RIGHT NOW, emailing Fiona Phillips MP to let her know what the Manyana Special Conservation Reserve means to you and how you would feel if it were to be destroyed. Perhaps begin by thanking her for her support to date, which has been consistent throughout our campaign.
All the preliminary documentation is here: http://tinyurl.com/2382n6je if you would like to view it.
We may well know the fate of the Manyana forest by April 30. So the the time to write that email is NOW!
Scroll down for the backstory.
The story so far
Manyana is a small village on the NSW South Coast that was ravaged by the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20 and is plagued by “Zombie DA’s”.
Just weeks after the last flames had been extinguished, a developer was poised to clear one of the last remaining areas of unburnt forest in our area. The very same beautiful, mature forest our local firies had fought so bravely to save. 20Ha of lush, green habitat that was now harbouring any life that managed to escape the flames. A healthy forest that would be essential to the rejuvenation of the surrounding 11,060Ha Conjola National Park - 96% of which was burnt in the fires.
It was too much for a traumatised and grieving community to bear. It was time to stand up and say, “Enough’s enough.”
So, we – some of those firies among us – banded together to formalise the Manyana Matters Environmental Association (MMEA) and prepare ourselves for the long struggle to stop the destruction of our bushland. We believe our native animals deserve safe and secure homes too.
Zombie DAs
“Zombie DA”s are development approvals that lay sleeping for many years, waiting to come back to life. Legally, these ancient real estate schemes do not have to be assessed under current environmental law - a loophole we, along with many other similarly affected NSW communities, are on a mission to see changed.
Zombie DAs affecting our villages:
MANYANA SPECIAL CONSERVATION RESERVE. The 20.23Ha Ozy Homes 182 lot site mentioned above, which we like to call the “Manyana Special Conservation Reserve” (the MSCR) aka Manyana Beach Estate. Approved 2008.
INYADDA. A 76.57Ha plot of land on Inyadda Drive that is almost entirely Endangered Ecological Communities (EEC’s) is also under threat. Developers Heir Asquith want to replace it with sprawling buildings, statistically holiday homes that will sit vacant for most of the year. No DA has ever been approved.
THE SPOT. An old-fashioned, poorly designed, oversized shopping centre approved in 2008 (corner of Inyadda & Curvers Drives). 13 west facing shops, a supermarket, 4 upstairs professional suites, 106 car parking spaces. 1.14Ha. Owned by the MSCR crowd.
A 42 lot zombie subdivision between the Southern border of Manyana and Cunjurong Point was also completed not long before the Black Summer bushfires. It obliterated 9.5Ha of unique coastal habitat. So our villages already know the devastating environmental impacts of an inappropriate, poorly planned zombie housing scheme!
Support for our campaigns
We believe it’s time for federal, state and local governments to act on their responsibility to conserve this biodiversity hot spot and review these developments. And we’re not alone.
In addition to overwhelming local community support, we’ve had many well known, powerful and influential friends add their voices. Among them area famous actors, authors, surfers, artists, musicians, politicians of all persuasions, eminent scientists, peak environmental bodies, business and community leaders. Our story has been covered by most news channels and even featured overseas.
Manyana Special Conservation Reserve (MSCR)
The 20.2Ha forested area that Ozy Homes wants to destroy to make way for 182 homes has a special place in the hearts of many locals.
As mentioned, this development was approved back in 2008 by the NSW Government under very different circumstances. But it was never approved by the Australian Federal Government, which is currently assessing its likely impact on the environment.
In May 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown, the developer advised they were ready to begin clearing. However, our little community had a different plan – residents and holidaymakers wanted to preserve the unburnt forest forever.
Since the fires, the forest has become a refuge and vital source of regeneration for vulnerable animal and plant species driven from the blackened Conjola National Park by the flames. It’s a vital base from which nature can heal and thrive again.
Threatened species like the grey-headed flying fox, southern brown bandicoot, greater glider and powerful owl have all previously been spotted in the forest. Destroying it now would be an act of environmental destruction that would be cruel to the community.
We have a vision for the forest we are fighting to save. We hope to see it declared the Manyana Special Conservation Reserve (MSCR) in memory of the human and animal victims of the Currowan megafire.
We hope the MSCR will become a place where nature lovers can see rare species like scrub turpentine growing in the wild – and maybe even spot a square-tailed kite circling above. We hope it becomes somewhere visitors can interact with local Jerrinja People and learn more about the area’s rich Indigenous culture and history.
The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) helped us force Ozy Homes to refer their project to the Department of Environment, bringing it under close environmental scrutiny, resulting in the decision by the Federal Environmental Minister to make the proposal a “Controlled Action”. So far the forest has remained standing for 4 more years.
You can help save the MSCR forever. See the top of this page for more info.
Where are things at?
Inyadda Drive
In 2023 there was a battle in the Land & Environment Court between a developer and Shoalhaven Council over the Inyadda Drive land. Council refused the proposal based on environmental, planning, zoning and social issues.
The developer Heir Asquith Pty Ltd has recently submitted an amended Development Application. The new proposal does not have as many lots for houses (although these could later be subdivided) but in our view retains all the environmental threats of the previous proposal that was rejected by Council last year.
The opportunity for public comment closed on February 4th, 2024. Once again, many voices spoke out against this unsustainable and damaging project. There were an extraordinary 228 submissions made in record short time over a school holiday period (and just sayin’, we couldn’t find one in favour). Thank you to everyone who gave the time to write in. Job well done!
Naturally, Manyana Matters reviewed the documents and submitted their own detailed paper opposing the development.
On April 8th, 2024 there was a Land & Environment Court hearing, on site. Six representatives from the community spoke passionately to save the land.
Please watch this space for updates. You can also sign up to our emails, and/or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/manyanamatters/
