Exhibition of Preferred Project Report

Att: Director, Metropolitan & Regional Projects North

Department of Planning & Infrastructure

Dear Sir/Madam

Exhibition of Preferred Project Report

Lot 156 Creek St, Hastings Point

Applic No: 06_0153

I ..................................................................object to the proposed development as outlined in the Preferred Project Report.

I have recently attended a field trip to study.................... at Hastings Point, a quiet unique hub centered in the midst of five vital ecosystems. The locality contains important habitat for a diverse array of native fauna and flora. Certain areas have high conservation value and contain a number of endangered ecological communities and regionally significant vegetation communities. The Wallum heath land rich in extensive and endemic bio diversity, a Rocky shore unrivalled along the east coast for it's diversity of both habitats and biota and accessibility for both scientific and school educational investigations, A classical Mangrove and Marshland habitat rich in enclaves that support at least 3 of the 5 known species of Mangroves .The Cudgera creek system that swings suddenly parallel to the coast makes the infusion of beach dune successional flora, heath land and Mangrove sea marsh a beautiful and remarkable yet fragile ecologically integrated environment. The retention of remnant vegetation and their associated buffers establishes the basis for a network of habitat links and/or corridors within the area.

It is the unique nature of Hastings Point that has made it the perfect home for biological and ecological investigations to fulfill school syllabus requirements. Such topics offered in the programs are Species Identification -Biological basis for plant and animal adaptation-Food webs and interactions- Behaviour -Ecology and biodiversity-Eco synergisms-Distribution -Habitat selection -Taxonomy -Symbiosis -Prey predator relationships -Population control-Eco logical and Biological Homeostasis-Human Impact, Courses in Introductory to Advanced Marine Biology. This has created over the past 40 years a visitation rate to Hastings Point of approx 3,500 school students per year. More than fulfilling syllabus requirements however, each student takes with them an indelible impression on his/her psyche that nothing else except the dynamics of original wilderness could hope to implant.

Although relatively pristine however the dubiously progressive encroachment of development is now becoming obvious, ugly and compromising. Its continuation will undoubtedly threaten the sustainability of the only feature and factor that makes Hastings Point, Bogangar and Pottsville one of the most unique