It's hoped a vital Koala habitat and important ecosystem at Port Stephens can be saved from development.
A six hectare parcel of so-called "surplus land" which includes a part of the wetlands was sold by the Department of Education last year to developer, Paul Unicomb.
He lodged a development application with Port Stephens Council in September for a duplex on the site.
The sale has angered residents who held a mass rally at the site last month, attended by about 200 locals who called for Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald to be sacked for his failure to intervene to stop the sale. He later admitted it was a mistake.
The Greens are calling for a compulsory acquisition of the land by the state government, while state Labor has promised to buy back the land if it wins government, which could potentially give a massive financial windfall to the developer.
Duty MLC for Port Stephens, Catherine Cusack says both sides of politics and state bureaucrats have dropped the ball in allowing the sale to proceed in the first place, with petitions taken up which were never tabled in parliament and information about the high conservation value of the site never communicated to the Department of Environment.
She's also refuted claims that the land is for sale and the government has knocked it back.
Catherine Cusack says high-level talks are under way at a bureaucratic level to find a way to restore the land to public ownership, but this could take some time to achieve.
"I know this is frustrating for people but I'm certainly prepared to be patient and (I'm) absolutely focused on doing everything I can to protect these (wetlands) and ultimately restore it to a consolidated public reserve, protected in perpetuity," she said.
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| Overhead View Showing Portion Of Mambo Wetlands Sold To A Private Developer Picture trra.com.au |
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| Residents Attend At Protest Rally In October Picture: Port Stephens Examiner |
