Local residents’ group Friends of Tumblebee, assisted by the Environmental Defenders Office NSW, will this week take the plight of the critically-endangered regent honeyeater to the NSW Land and Environment Court.
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Experts believe there are only 350 to 400 birds remaining, a decline of over 80 per cent in the past 18 years.
Friends of Tumblebee president and Cessnock Greens councillor James Ryan said the Hunter Economic Zone industrial estate is one of only two places in NSW that the regent honeyeater has been recorded as successfully nesting in the past 10 years.
The group is asking the court to rule that the clearing of approximately three hectares of bushland in the 870-hectare Hunter Economic Zone industrial estate will put the species at greater risk of extinction.
“In my opinion the bushland should not have been rezoned in the first place,” Cr. Ryan said.
“We are asking the court to find that in such a sensitive case as this, every development, no matter the size, has to take into account the cumulative impact on threatened species.
“We are also asking the court to make a finding that impact assessment on critically-endangered species, like the regent honeyeater, should be more precautionary given such species are on the brink of extinction.”
