Council's forest proposal prompts bitter feud in Aussie suburb
The 36-acre Westleigh Park site was formerly fenced off by Sydney Water, but purchased by council in 2016.
A quiet Australian community has been split after its council proposed developing a critically endangered forest into a mountain bike circuit.
Riders have welcomed the plan, which would see an unsanctioned network of tracks north of Sydney declared official and better managed. But environment advocates argue the move could threaten a forest that is already one step away from extinction.
“A virus” is how Katrina Emmett describes the tracks which now stretch deep into Westleigh Park. An aerial map of the park shows a 9km maze of dirt paths cutting into the forest —some of which were created 50 years ago.
Ms Emmett is working with an advocacy group to fight a proposal by Hornsby Shire Council to develop sections of bushland into sporting tracks. But she's also concerned about the wider ramifications of the project across the state. “The plan basically rewards illegal activity and encourages it to occur more often and in other places,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
Why is the critically endangered forest being developed?
The 36-acre Westleigh Park site was formerly fenced off by Sydney Water, but purchased by council in 2016 in response to “increasing demands upon existing open space”. Council says its plan will protect biodiversity, minimise impact to creeks, and support environmental sustainability.
Westleigh Park was previously used as a fire testing ground, resulting in the area being partially contaminated with PFAS foam and asbestos. However, it is also home to a small conservation area that’s internationally significant.
How do mountain bike riders help the environment?
Mountain bike use in conservation areas remains controversial, particularly in leafy suburbs north of Sydney. There have been a number of unrelated incidents in which cyclists have been injured by sharp objects laid on tracks.
Dr Simon Kean from advocacy group Trail Care told Yahoo riders don't degrade pathways anymore than walkers do and believes they have improved the health of forest in Westleigh Park. He argues cyclists help:
Remove garbage
Pull out weeds
Discourage illegal car and motorbike use.
Dr Kean believes riders are not the problem when it comes to destroying forests across NSW. “I'd suggest that most of these sorts of forests haven't been threatened by mountain bike trails, they’ve been threatened by being flattened for houses,” he said.
Originally from New Zealand, where mountain bike trails are more widely integrated into forests, he struggles to understand why Sydney remains divided on the issue.
Is there a solution that could please conservationists and riders?
The park contains a section of the world’s last remaining Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest — only 0.5 per cent of its original range remains intact. The ecological system is supposed to be federally protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and has been assessed as critically endangered.
This listing means this type of forest is one step away from extinction, warns NSW Greens parliamentarian Sue Higginson.
She argues the community has a responsibility to do “everything” it can to protect and rebuild the Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest. “There's very little of it left on the planet. It’s a unique ecological happening,” she told Yahoo.
Ms Higginson believes historical management of Australia’s forests since white colonisation has resulted in a lack of publicly accessible green spaces and this causes conflict over what remains. “We’re all the same people, because we do love nature, and we all want to engage with these beautiful areas,” she said.
Instead of allowing mountain bikes into the critically endangered landscape which has forced locals into what she calls an “absurd melting pot of conflict”, she wants to integrate their pathways into degraded areas that needs to be regenerated.
Hornsby council took public submissions on the development of Westleigh Park until April 9 and is now considering how to move forward with the proposal.
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