There’s movement on the controversial North Lismore Plateau development, which will see the construction of hundreds of residences off Sexton Rd, North Lismore. 

Development company Winten have begun preliminary work on the Dunoon Road access road, testing the levels of clay in the soil.

Project development manager Jim Punch said the company was only in the preliminary stage, “prior to doing civil works like road construction, water and sewage”.

“We have the development civil works construction certificate from Lismore City Council and we’ve gone to tender for construction of bulk earthworks,” Mr Punch said.

“We’ve had having machinery on site the past few weeks doing test digs to see how deep the clay is.

“The Dunoon road access is underlaid with soft clay, so we’ll need to put down wet drainage to stabilise the road before we start building.

“Once the earthworks tender is finalised, we’ll begin bringing topsoil material from the top to the bottom of the plateau and preload the road to stabilise it.”

Mr Punch said the stabilisation works will be happening over the next four to six months, 

“Once that’s finalised, work should start imminently from there and we can start to do things like bring in gravel and form roads.

“We’ll be ready to start work on stage one of the first 50 lots in February, 2020.”

There are three precincts planned for the 255-hectare site on North Lismore Plateau, with two of them already having received development consents.

Precincts 1 and 2 comprise a total of 390 residential allotments with open space and areas for environmental management.

Precinct 3 is a staged development consent application for the creation of 43 residential allotments.

This precinct is still under consideration for development, with extra planning approvals needed under Section 83B of the EP&A Act.

Mr Punch said the third precinct has “approval in principle”, but Winton still had “some work to do in regard to vegetation plans”.

“We need to lodge a development application specifically for the Western lots,” he said.

The development project has been criticised by local groups since it was first proposed, due to the development site being ecologically sensitive and a place of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Last year, in the midst of heated opposition, a Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRRP) was convened to oversee the North Lismore Plateau development process. 

The JRRP then approved stage one of the development in October 2018.

The only condition imposed by the panel was that the approval of precinct 3 will be subject to a future Aboriginal heritage application and threatened species assessment.

Opponents to the development of the North Lismore Plateau include Bundjalung Elders’ Council chair Micky Ryan.

Mr Ryan commenced legal action earlier this year in the hope of invalidating the JRRP’s decision and halt the 433-lot first stage of the development.

Mr Ryan’s legal representative Al Oshlack – who is also a representative of the North Lismore Plateau Protection Association (NLPPA) - said the development project was due to be heard in the Land and Environment Court in February next year.

“The JRRP approved the first two developments,” Mr Oshlack said. 

“But precinct 3 has ecologically important redgum forest and rainforest areas. 

“Precinct 1 is planned to be built on the flood plain and will impact on North and South Lismore residents and intensify floods in the area.

“The Office of Environment and Heritage hasn’t approved the development and is not satisfied that a proper hydrological assessment for precinct 1 has been done.

“The developers should have assessed the clay in the ground prior to development.

“Lismore plateau is a habitat for a number of endangered species of plants and animals and the proposed works of Winten and Council will have an adverse impact on significant Aboriginal cultural sites there.

Mr Oshlack said he thought the development was “one of worst approved developments in Lismore”.

“And rate payers have to pay for it,” he said. “Lismore Council is borrowing $32 million to build infrastructure for the development and the developer is the one who will benefit.

“They shouldn’t be borrowing money if they don’t know if the development is going to go ahead and we already have a debt crisis.

“Last year in a closed meeting, Council approved $10 million to construct a reservoir for the development.”

Mr Punch said Winten was aware of the need to do a koala and bat survey in precinct 3.

“We have always tried to do the right things and have consulted with the Aboriginal community since the day we started,” he said.

“We believe we’ve done everything correctly and so does Council.”