Click here to read Land & Environment Court judgement that overturns approval for the Rose Group development.

The part 3A approval by the former Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, to allow Rose Group to build 600 dwellings at Catherine Hill Bay and 187 dwellings at Gwandalan is presently being challenged in the Land and Environment Court . The basis for the challenge is bias on the part of the Minister. The Gwandalan/Summerland Point Action Group is being represented by the Environmental Defenders' Office NSW and barrister Mr Jeremy Kirk.

For further information check out the EDO website: http://www.edo.org.au/edonsw/site/casework_key.php#catherine

Read the EDO NSW Bulletin . Read the chronological list of Rose Group history

See latest newspaper coverage

The Federal Government still has to sign off on the Rose Group proposal for 600 houses.

The clock is ticking!! Please email or write to Peter Garrett. Form letter attached

Attached ... This is an up-date from the WPA and as we have received contradictory information in a previous meeting with the Minister and the Department CHBPA is awaiting the formal Minister's determination to confirm details. We anticipate this to be made public in the coming days and will immediately provide the community and supporters with further information at that time.

Coal and Allied (a subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto), has been given approval by the Federal Government under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation  Act to develop land at Catherine Hill Bay .

Coal and Allied are the second largest land holders in the Lower Hunter. For more than 50 years this mining company took large profits from underground mining in the area; now that their interests have shifted into open cut mining in the Upper Hunter, Coal and Allied no longer wish to keep this land. A deal has been done with the State Government to return a proportion of the land in exchange for development rights on land not zoned for residential development. Surely a case of “double dipping” by a wealthy mining company turned developer.

Whilst we applaud the giving of land to the State Government to create a continuous Green Buffer between the Wallarah National Park and the Munmorah State Conservation Area, residential development in Catherine Hill Bay will have a serious impact on a significant wetland as well as destroying endangered threatened flora and fauna as the proposed development area cuts across animal corridors.

C&A media release
Government Approval

The Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel states that any development in Middle Camp should be located only on land that has been previously disturbed and that is visually separate from the existing village. There will be no development behind the houses to the west of the village (area C) or in Slack Alley (area D). Read more from the CHBPA. Click here to read the the IHAP report.

Below is the formal objection sent to the Department of Planning by the Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association to the development proposed by Coal & Allied.

C&A submission main text
Attach 1 - Core position of the Association
Attach 2 - Community profile
Attach 3 - Social Infastructure and Developer Contributions
Attach 4 - Review of Ecological Bushfire Assessment (2MB)
Attach 5 - Traffic Assessment Advice
Attach 6 - Heritage Assessment Advice
Attach 7 - Heritage Assessment Advice
Attach 8 - Heritage Advice on Development Area D (2MB)
Attach 9 - Community Consultation Comments
Attach 10 - Illustrated Analysis of Proposed development impacts
Attach 11 - Chronology of Planning Protection - 1969 to present
Attach 12 - Previous undertakings to Government and Community by C&A

Some of the presentations from the Progress Associaiton to the Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel

Middle Camp (29MB file)
The Threat to Middle Camp
Heritage Impact Study Objection

Click here to access Coal & Allied News Archive

The Save the Bay campaign has thousands of supporters throughout Australia and overseas. They all want to Save the Bay because they know it is "a special place" unique in Australia .

They support our campaign financially and by making their protest known in objections to the NSW Government, through letter-writing campaigns and lobbying.

You can join this campaign. Click on Things you can do to help Save the Bay.

This web site will keep you updated. Click News and Events for latest news.

We will provide advice during February on this web site on how to make your protest most effective. You can join The Friends of Catherine Hill Bay and receive updates direct to your email.

1. Join The Friends of Catherine Hill Bay to keep informed up to the minute. Click here to download the membership form.
   
2. Help financially. The Progress Association has launched a fund raising campaign for its Fighting Fund to enable it engage professional consultants to strengthen it objection. Click here to read how you can help.
   
3. Donate to the Heritage Trust Fighting Fund. See attached information.
   
4. Visit the Bay - and enjoy it!
   
5. Catherine Hill Bay residents have initiated other lobbying efforts which are being taken up by supporters. See below.

Catherine Hill Bay is a heritage village of about 100 mainly small miners' cottages, whose scale, character and appearance is much as it was in the 1890s and early 1900s. soon after coal mining was established.

The development proposals being considered by the State Minister for Planning, Mr Sartor, and for

1. 600 houses and 150 tourist beds at the southern end of Catherine Hill Bay , intruding onto the headland and into the heritage village (the RoseCorp proposal)
   
2. 300 houses at the northern end of the Bay, in the vicinity of Middle Camp about 1km north.

In other words the heritage village would be hemmed in between new development which would increase the place's size by 10 times.

Despite their combined impact on the community, the Government is treating these as separate projects, with about eight months between publication of the two concept plans.

You can check details of these plans, with maps by clicking here

The community's reasons for fighting and what we think is reasonable development are available in full by clicking on these headings in the side bar (left)

The Government has jettisoned its own established planning policies to force intrusive, overwhelming urban development on the heritage village of Catherine Hill Bay by Coal and Allied and RoseCorp.

Updated Rosecorp plan showing 600 houses! Click here, then scroll down to the "State Significant Site and Major Project (concept plan) application for redevelopment of Catherine Hill Bay and Gwandalan" section. Hard copies are on display at Lake Macquarie and Wyong Council chambers and Department of Planning offices in Newcastle , Central Coast and head office ( 23-33 Bridge St Sydney ).

One man - the Planning Minister Mr Sartor - has the power to

1. Push aside the advice of the Planning Department and Heritage Office.
2. Ignore the protests of two Councils and the decision of the Land and Environment Court against the Rosecorp development plan.
3. Harm the unique heritage value of the Bay's village and landscape -- just to keep the developers happy

Attached is the full article

"...the Planning Minister and Premier's office appear to have misled the community about their intentions, indicating support for heritage protections but not delivering in the face of developer demands for development rights where none currently exist.

Not a pretty picture and not good news for public policy, or for good government or for fair dealing with the community. "

In the following documents, obtained under FOI legislation, the Department of Planning ranked 91 possible sites in the Hunter in terms of suitability for development. Catherine Hill Bay was ranked the second least desirable location for development. In approving development in the Bay, Mr Sartor has ignored his own department's advice, and pushed it to the top. (Click here to download all files - 3MB)

(We gratefully acknowledge the Hunter Community Environment Centre as the organisation which lodged the FOI and provided this material)

Department of Planning Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) for assessing potential development areas in the Hunter.
Page1 Page2 Page3 Page4 (right click to save to disk and view in more detail)

Department of Planning tables for each of the 91 areas. Note that Catherine Hill Bay is area RS253, and this area came in second last.
Table1 Table2 Table3 Table4 (right click to save to disk and view in more detail)

Department of Planning map showing the area numbers Map (right click to save to disk and view in more detail)

Attached ... The Catherine Hill Bay and Middle Camp villages in Lake Macquarie will be given the State's highest level of heritage protection, under a proposal placed on public exhibition today.

More detail and maps are available on the DOP website under the "Explanation" heading.

Rally Against Inappropriate Development on Sunday, 19th October 10.00 a.m. – 2.00 p.m. , Hyde Park near St James station marching to Parliament House. Be part of state-wide action.

Click here to access earlier Campaign Releases

Download Word document
Download PowerPoint document

Download Word document
Download PowerPoint document

Download the 10MB movie file (courtesy of Channel 10)

Catherine Hill Bay has reached the national airwaves. Ian McNamara, from the ABC's national program Australia All Over, visited Catherine Hill Bay on 6th February 2008. He recorded conversations with a number of locals and played these over the following two Sundays. The plans by developers Rose Group and Coal&Allied  for Catherine Hill Bay he thought were “criminal” and would destroy this special place on the coast of NSW . Telephone calls came from Tasmania , Western Australia and Victoria wondering how such destruction was being allowed to take place.

Attached ...An expert panel has knocked back plans for a major redevelopment at Catherine Hill Bay on the Hunter Coast.

Locals claimed the proposal would have destroyed the area's unique features, special significance as a heritage and environmental site, and public access to the beach and lake

Download the 5MB audio file excerpt from the show (courtesy of 2GB)

The Huntlee and Catherine Hill Bay projects should be abandoned.

But he does something more. He describes what happened at Catherine Hill Bay as a ''land bribe''.

With that one phrase, that one b-word, the judge crystallised the adverse public sentiment towards so much of the planning process in NSW: big developers make big donations and get rich from approvals for big projects.

Click here to access earlier newspaper coverage

POLICY POSITION – Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association ( 24 September 2006 ; amended 24 th February 2008 ).

1. This Catherine Hill Bay community meeting supports the intention of government to create a National Park on the Wallarah Peninsula comprising areas in each of the large land holdings held by Coal and Allied and Rose Group.
2. The community acknowledges that such an outcome may involve some limited, sympathetic development, as per the Lake Macquarie Council Heritage and Conservation guidelines as they stand today. Any development is to be resolved through detailed planning and community consultation.
3. Careful location of any proposed development is crucial, and this meeting believes that any proposed development should be restricted to south of Montefiore St and at the western end of Colliery Road . The community's support is conditional on separation of the development from the heritage village and conservation areas, and preparation of appropriate Conservation and Land Use Management Plans for the proposed development sites.
4. In this regard the community again notes and endorses the undertakings of the Minister for Planning, Mr Sartor, to appoint a community reference group and a design review panel (with professionally qualified nominated representatives of the Progress Association) to oversight development plans. The community notes and endorses the Minister's confirmation that Catherine Hill Bay village and adjoining landscape, from coast to western ridges, will be given State Heritage listing.
5. We will continue to press forward and operate in good faith with Coal and Allied even though reports on community consultations as conducted by Coal & Allied at workshops, regional forum and charette process misrepresented community views and the results of these were misleading. The community expresses our disappointment that Rose Group has made only minimal attempts to consult with the community.
6. Again the community asserts that the current negotiations to achieve the outcomes sought by Government and community should not be subverted, or corrupted, in a way that permits development similar to that which has been properly rejected by the local Councils and/or the Land and Environment Court .
7. At Catherine Hill Bay Rose Group and Coal & Allied Pty Ltd have proposed development in the heritage village and Coastal Zone, similar to that rejected by Lake Macquarie City Council, the Court, and community. RoseCorp's proposal for the Moonee Colliery site and Coal & Allied's proposal for Middle Camp appear to be contrary to all relevant State planning policies.
8. The community believes that an ”historic opportunity” to provide an outstanding environmental and conservation outcome for the Lower Hunter will be lost if the Government permits development that is contrary to a raft of State regional and planning policies and is against the public interest.
9. The community is grateful for the widespread support it has received for its campaign to protect Catherine Hill Bay and acknowledges its role as caretaker of a place that is special to many thousands of people.

In early September Minister Sartor chaired a briefing at Catherine Hill Bay during which two large owners, Coal and Allied (a subsidiary of Rio Tinto) and RoseCorp, made over view presentations of their intentions (with no detail).

The briefing was attended by representatives of Lake Macquarie and Wyong councils, and representatives of the Catherine Hill Bay , Nords Wharf and Gwandalan communities.

On 24 September the Catherine Hill Bay community met to consider the issues and carried a resolution setting out the community's views on what was reasonable development at the Bay, and how to go about it.

Neither the community nor Progress Association is opposed to development.

The resolution was conveyed to Government three weeks before the announcement of the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy, and is shown in the Resolution of 24th September 2006 below

All coastal communities face potentially dire consequences as the State Government changes established planning policies and processes to give development rights to coastal lands where no such rights exist under "the rules".

The Wallarah Peninsula Alliance put the case for the coastal communities at the NSW Coastal Conference at Coffs Harbour on 7 November 2006.

Read the speech, and view the powerpoint presentation (10MB)

The WPA protest letter is attached

Read the resolution of the Nature Conservation Council condemming this development

Read their letter opposing this development

Sydney Morning Herald - 4th September 2009

Facts speak with many voices on Catherine Hill Bay

The Land and Environment Court has reminded the State Government that deals with developers must not come before plans for the people, despite what Frank Sartor says ("Let's have a little sanity - and a new planning act", September 3).

Consultation is the key to development plans in any area, and the National Trust supports Justice David Lloyd's judgment that the entire consultation and subsequent determination in the Catherine Hill Bay case was biased by the "land bribe".

Two years ago the National Trust called on the minister for heritage to place Catherine Hill Bay on the State Heritage Register. We again ask the minister, Kristina Keneally, to list this significant heritage site before considering any further development proposals.

John Neish Executive director, National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney

Sydney Morning Herald - 4th September 2009

Frank Sartor attempts to vindicate the decisions he made as planning minister. He notes that the planning strategy for Catherine Hill Bay was ''well received'', but does not mention the public opposition to development in the area.

The fact that Sartor ignores the wishes of the many citizens who rejected the proposed development shows the extent of the divide between the elected leaders of this state and its electorate.

Deborah Pelser Killara

Sydney Morning Herald - 4th September 2009

"Let the facts speak for themselves," says Frank Sartor. Well, they did, and Justice David Lloyd was listening. What he heard them say was bribery and corruption. The answer is not a new planning act but a new government that will not seek to legitimise bribery in development approvals.

John Murphy Sydney

Sydney Morning Herald - 4th September 2009

Here is a policy matter for Barry O'Farrell (''Time for O'Farrell to open the barrel'', September 3). Will he undertake to save Catherine Hill Bay from destruction?

Geoffrey Williamson Woollahra

Sydney Morning Herald - 3rd September 2009

Has Simon Mansfield (Letters, September 2) actually been to Catherine Hill Bay? It is a complete 19th century mine-built town, with very few variations to the original streetscape. The only other example in NSW, to my knowledge, is Hill End, a vibrant and appreciated heritage-protected town. Would an AVJennings home be considered appropriate there, let alone 600 of Rosecorp's dinky-style houses?

The fact that Catherine Hill Bay is on the coast should not be an excuse for its destruction.

Elisabeth Goodsall Wahroonga

Sydney Moring Herald - 2nd September 2009

Congratulations are due to the Land and Environment Court judge, whose decision in the Catherine Hill Bay case should clearly demonstrate to developers and the ALP the difference between public interest and private gain (''ALP donor housing project scuttled by court'', September 1).

Sound urban development involves compromises between economic, environmental and social goals, reached through a genuinely transparent and participatory process. In this case, Frank Sartor seems to have sadly confused a "closed door" deal with the rigours of open negotiations. I can only hope the current planning minister will remove the stench of deal-making between the development lobby and politicians.

Not every group that protests against development is right. But it makes the case for balanced urban development much harder when the Government's intentions are automatically assumed to be suspicious or biased.

Gary Moore Balmain

Sydney Moring Herald - 2nd September 2009

Now that the Land and Environment Court has ruled the Catherine Hill development illegal, can someone please tell me the difference between a ''donation'' and a ''bribe''?

Gary Gibbs Rozelle

Click here to access earlier letters

The Catherine Hill Bay Community Survey has been conducted every four years since 1994 and provides an informed and comprehensive record of community attitudes over almost 15 years. Click here to view the results.

Available now : A booklet "Protecting the Wallarah Peninsula" is available. Please click here for more information about this booklet, and how you can obtain your free copy.