High lights a lowlight
I wish to highlight yet another Wollongong Council backed development that is eroding the beauty of Thirroul and Bulli. It concerns the excessive lighting at the new Bulli Southern Gateway building, on the F6 at Bulli Tops.
The building, yet to be opened, has an excessive number of halogen uplights fitted all around the building, with the lights burning all night on the structure. It is a huge waste of energy and is an even bigger source of light pollution. The lighting is so bright when seen from our location in Thirroul that it is an intrusive nuisance at night. This is a new building in an environmentally sensitive area, the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation area, so there really should not be such excessive lighting in sensitive bushland with abundant wildlife.
The car park is also lit by halogen lights which are not even angled downwards but at a sideways angle that spills light in all directions, even dazzling on coming traffic on the highway (the F6). It is very poorly designed in all ways. When the fog sits on the Bulli Tops the effect is worse, it is the brightest light source in the area. I have spoken with other local residents of Thirroul and they agree it is an eyesore on the (once) beautiful escarpment at night. Locals seem to have had no consultation or say in this project or the impact on the amenity of our area.
With our coastline being destroyed by development it seems the escarpment is also under attack.
Mike Beachly
Minister rejects rezoning
It’s good to see Federal Minister Garrett reject a proposal to rezone up to 1200 residential allotments near Vincentia at Jervis Bay.
Once again it was a situation where land speculators bought land with the seller promising the hope that it could be rezoned residential at a later date. Come in gamblers.
But the Minister said it could not proceed because of the unacceptable impacts on threatened species. How it would have isolated Boodoree National Park wildlife corridors.
Hopefully the speculated land zoning tries around Helensburgh and district of the 7d Hacking River Catchment will have the same rules applied by the Minister.
But here it is more so. You have the Royal National Park and Garrawarra State Conservation Park both on the National Heritage List with individual sort zoning changes in amongst them in the new Draft Wollongong LEP 2009.
Both areas instrumental in the wildlife corridor to the Illawarra Escarpment and Woronora Plateau. The Hacking River, which empties into the Sutherland Shire LGA, is already severely affected by silt run off from industrial sites around Helensburgh.
To entice more threats of land release would bring complete ruin to this catchment and endangerment of wildlife.
We must keep all these affected areas safe as E2 – Environmental Conservation, not bow to the whims of a few gamblers who lost.
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