East Lismore resident Susannah French was relieved when she heard that a new Telstra mobile phone tower development in East Lismore was not going to go ahead.

Read more about the issue: Fire at new Telstra tower development site sparks locals’ concerns

Susannah hails the recent decision by Lismore Councillors to not allow the controversial development as a “win for people power”.

“It’s a win for koalas and a win for native species,” she said.

Susannah lives close to the 4G/5G transmission tower’s proposed site location in Crawford Road.

Threats

Susannah had been campaigning for months to stop the development. She had even received threatening messages from others for expressing her concerns about the tower’s negative effects on human health - from 5G electromagnetic transmissions.

“People get angry about not having towers and technology,” she said.

Corridor

“The proposed tower site is actually part of Lismore City Council’s environment corridor which allows biodiversity access for animal species to travel east from Rotary Park to Goonellabah ridge.

"At the last Council meeting when Councillors voted on the development application, there was no mention of the potential health issues from the tower – only the impact the tower would have on koalas and the zoned nature corridor.

“Councillor Lloyd quoted from a submission from Ros Irwin who knows about koalas and the land's environmental zoning,” Susannah said.

“Councillor Guise also said the NBN network we now have is fast, reliable and secure - and that we didn’t need the tower.

Inconsistencies

“There was discussion about the gross inconsistencies in the environmental impact statement lodged by the Telstra consultant.

“The consultant said there were no koalas there, but the site is where Friends of the Koala release koalas that have been in care.

“There has been lots of koala activity since the lockdown and there’s lots of koala joeys there now.

Aboriginal site

“The site is also an Aboriginal funerary site and there were concerns over the site’s significance for local indigenous communities.

“So now we still have a preserved wildlife corridor, instead of a tower, roads, fences and an electromagnetic facility.”

Susannah said she sees the current federal, state and local government narratives being strongly about human health, safety and precautionary measures.

“Safety is far more important than having faster downloads,” she said.