Rodney Stevens
Maclean residents are concerned that a valuable remnant paperbark forest behind Wherrett Park that is classified as a conservation zone and visited by threatened species is under threat from two adjacent sites that require metres of fill before construction can commence.
The CV Independent visited neighbours of the development sites to hear their concerns, visit the sites and observe wildlife in the C3 Conservation zone.
This pocket of forest provides important wetland bird habitat in regionally significant biodiversity conservation land that also supports birdlife in the nearby Forest Red Gums and Grey Gums in Iona Close.
An independent biodiversity development assessment has identified that these trees provide homes for a variety of vulnerable and threatened bird species including the Little Eagle, the White Bellied Sea Eagle, the Eastern False Pipistrelle, the Barking Owl, the Powerful Owl and the Masked Owl.
It was suggested that tidying up the area in Wherrett Park overlooking the C3 zone and installing ‘bird hides’ for birdwatchers, some picnic tables and chairs plus a footpath could create an attraction for Maclean.
Council began work on a footpath on the levee wall last week.
Neighbours who have lived in the area for decades told the CV Independent when the first subdivision application for what was known as Pipers Glen was lodged in 2006 it was originally for 25 blocks, which, over the years has been revised to 157 blocks and is now known as River Glen.
The site, a former sugar cane paddock, was sold to a developer in the early 2000’s, neighbours said.
Truckloads of fill were dumped on the land northeast of the Wherrett Park netball courts by both the previous and current developers.
The current signage on the site links to Southport QLD based Wharton James Developments, who neighbours said stopped work on the site about 12 months ago.
“It’s a ghost development – nobody knows what’s happening and who’s running it,” a neighbour said since work stopped on the site.
In 2022 an application for a 16-lot subdivision with 13 townhouses, retaining walls and related earthworks was lodged by Nash Project Management with Clarence Valley Council for lot 50 Iona Close, Maclean.
The site is behind the Wherrett Park playing fields and adjacent to the conservation zone that will require up to 3 metres of fill to build the land up above the 1 in 100-year flood level.
Neighbours are concerned that despite this application later being withdrawn, the potential of development on the site remains.
Neighbours pointed out that at least 7 watercourses filter down from the Maclean hills into overgrown and clogged drains that have had little maintenance in decades, then into a stormwater detention pond in Wherrett Park between the two development sites that is also clogged with vegetation and operating below capacity.
When the 2022 floods inundated the area, neighbours said it highlighted the importance of an effective, efficient stormwater detention basin.
In 2022 Wherrett Park was swamped by one metre of stormwater that flooded the canteen, the storage shed and destroyed thousands of dollars of supplies and sporting equipment.
“It took at least 10 days to pump out the stormwater from the 2022 floods in Wherrett Park,” one neighbour said.
“Council have since undergone some remedial drain work; upgraded the stormwater pump and have planned to install a heavy vehicle concrete path on the Wherrett Park levee but much more thought and work is urgently needed.
“Neighbouring residents, some who have lived here since 1978, said they had never seen so much water in the park before the 2022 stormwater flooding happened.”
Concerned about the ability of the existing flood mitigation measures to cope with the volume of stormwater in extreme rainfall events, residents said they would like to see the engineering detail on flood management for the River Glen site including the combination of flood and stormwater events.
Residents are relieved the Clarence Valley Council is currently devising a Plan of Management for Wherrett Park which is due to be finalised by October.
“It will be excellent to have a comprehensive, site-specific management plan for what is a very complex and vitally important area of Maclean,” one concerned neighbour said.
When the CV Independent contacted Wharton James Developments marketing manager, via phone and email she advised “Wharton James Developments sold the company and its interest in the River Glen project long back.”
It was suggested contacting the new owners Global Capital Property Fund, but the CV Independent could not get an answer to phone calls or a reply to emails about the company’s plans for the site.
On June 20, 2024, in the Federal Court, Justice David O’Callaghan instructed the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ASIC to freeze the assets of United Global Capital Pty Ltd and Global Capital Property Fund Limited.