'We don't want this to disappear': 39-year-old Tuross Head development given green light

Local environmental group, Friends of Coila formed in early 2022 after hearing an urban subdivision that was approved in 1984 would go ahead under McCloy Group after they purchased it for $13.7 million.

Headed by former Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy, the group markets the development, Driftwood Shores, as a "boutique...parcel of land between the Tuross Head Country Club and the picturesque waters of Coila Lake".

Driftwood Shores won't just be home to new residents - it will also feature an award-winning timber sculpture of a whale valued at $200,000.

In the coming months, construction will begin to extend Monash Avenue and Clifford Parade by about 500 metres from Anderson Avenue. Monash Avenue will extend a further 100 metres from the Tuross Head Country Club.

A spokesperson from McCloy Group said they have an "extensive" base of interested buyers and prices of the blocks are yet to be determined.

Cleared blocks ranging from 600 to 1200 square metres including four battleaxe blocks near Chauvel Crescent will be on offer for buyers searching for "a lifestyle by the sea", according to the developer.

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Friends of Coila are concerned that the development will encroach upon and gradually destroy three endangered ecological communities bordering the site: estuarine swamp oak forest, wetlands and estuarine saltmarsh.

They said the cost to Tuross' precious and fragile coastal environment will be catastrophic.

Gillian lives in Tuross Head and has been working closely with the Friends of Coila to draft submissions to the council and letters to NSW government ministers to stop the development.

She said it's disturbing that the development is advertised as boasting "unobscured water views".

"How will they achieve that?"

She said hundreds of endemic coastal swamp oaks (casuarina glauca) would need to be removed for proposed blocks along the lake to have unobscured views.

She said that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was not required when a modification to the development was approved by the Eurobodalla Shire Council in March 2022.

That modification saw the 10-hectare site subdivided into 72 sellable blocks, increasing the original 1984 plans for 61 blocks.

Nick from Friends of Coila said the group has sent countless submissions to the council, citing concerns for the immediate environment surrounding the development and greater pressure on the existing community.

"The footprint of the land is the same, so the council considers it to be of no significant difference," he said.

"We would argue adding another 11 houses is adding that bit more pressure to the environment and traffic. It's 18 per cent bigger."

The Bay Post contacted the council to confirm they did not require an updated EIS to approve the modification.

Nick said the council needs to consider the environmental changes seen along the South Coast since 1984 and recognise that endangered ecological communities are threatened more than ever.

"Since 1984, we have seen climate change happening, more information about the environment and a lot more citizen involvement in these kinds of developments.

"But they're saying none of that matters, this is all considered cleared and of no substantial difference since 1984."

Michele from the group pointed out that many of the native, endemic trees and shrubs on the land are not cleared.

"It's distressing that they're considered cleared because they are clearly there."

A recent letter from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment to the Friends of Coila said that "there is no legal power" to require re-assessment of development consents already granted and that it is up to local councils to update land zones according to potential environmental impacts.

At the time of the approval, Eurobodalla Mayor Mathew Hatcher wrote to the NSW Minister for Planning and Homes, requesting a review of lapsing development consents.

The mayor received a response from the department confirming development consents that have lawfully and physically commenced run with the land and that the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 now excludes low-level works like surveying, clearing vegetation as signs of physical commencement.

The group united over their shared love of endangered and threatened species that rely on Coila Lake's ecosystems for habitat and food.

One group member, Margaret, has been photographing birds from the foreshore since she moved to Tuross Head 10 years ago.

Coila Lake provides crucial habitat for the endangered Far Eastern curlew, pied oystercatcher and the vulnerable bar-tailed godwit.

Gillian said the Far Eastern curlew typically breed in China and Russia and journey south. They are the world's largest migratory shorebird.

"They are desperate for food after flying thousands of kilometres. What they need is foreshores and mudflats.

"Every time we build something, we're destroying their feeding grounds."

She said birdwatchers from across the country come to Tuross Head and the environmental diversity provides a much-needed financial boost to the village.

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Margaret has seen birds that typically migrate from Tasmania and Queensland on the lake, including hundreds of Tasmanian silvereyes. She said after the Black Summer bushfires, very few species were seen at Coila, but they are "back with a vengeance" in 2023.

It is this ecological diversity that the Friends of Coila are concerned about losing.

The development site would effectively enclose the swamp oak forest, salt marsh and wetlands, with homes slated to be built on either side of the creek that runs south of the lake.

Friends of Coila member Michelle said the three endangered ecological communities were not endangered 39 years ago and it is coastal developments like Driftwood Shores that have caused them to become endangered.

"That's why this is so inappropriate."

Walbunja woman Nikki "Booroo" Parsons said graves and campsites have been found at the development site, and it is considered by local Indigenous people as the head of the Bingie Dreaming Track.

"There are plenty of places where the trees are already cut down - it's already blank land," she said.

"Why can't they go there, why come for places of sacred cultural significance?"

The council requires an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit (AHIP) to be obtained by developers before construction begins. The McCloy Group is currently still completing archaeological digs at the site.

Friends of Coila continue to appeal to the council and government ministers and have received 600 signatures on their petition to immediately protect the land at Coila Lake.

A council spokesperson told the Bay Post they downgraded the development's plans to construct a public, sealed road between the Monash and Anderson Avenue intersection and Chauvel Crescent to a shared pathway to reduce environmental impact to the adjacent swamp oak forest.

The group believes the land surrounding endangered ecological communities needs to be protected so future generations can benefit from the diversity that is rarely seen in coastal villages.

"The government says the council has the ability to revoke or modify the consent and the council tells us they cannot do that and we should talk to the government about planning laws," said Michele.

"There are options: considering land swaps, or only doing half the land development. It's not for us to work out what the solutions are, but we are finding that there is a massive concern [in our community]."

Nick hopes the NSW government can "step in" and stop historic developments from going ahead.

"The NSW government should whack a moratorium on these zombie developments.

"Let's get independent EISs done for all of them and let's consider it all with climate change and threatened species being a high priority."