Council Refuses Go Ape DA!!!

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“We had to give them a share of turnover“, he says, but in return he benefited from the fact that basic infrastructure was already in place – with water treatment plants, cafes, loos and car parks in most of the forests. “That was the real beauty of the deal.” (Tristram Mayhew, founder of Go Ape in the UK, in Tristram Mayhew: how I shook £1m from the money tree in MoneyWeek)

“We’re trying to set up 12 Go Ape courses in Australia by 2012.” (Tristram Mayhew in My Week: Tristram Mayhew of Go Ape at managementtoday.com).

Bidjigal Reserve (previously known as Excelsior Reserve and Darling Mills State Forest) is a 300 hectare corridor of protected public bushland along Darling Mills Creek and its tributaries, in The Hills Shire of north-western Sydney.

With towering eucalypt forest, weathered sandstone cliffs, sparkling creeks and sheltered rainforest gullies, Bidjigal Reserve is an island of natural habitat in the heart of the Hills area. 370 native plant species, over 140 native animals, myriads of birds, spectacular varieties of native orchids and a diverse show of fungi makes a walk through Bidjigal Reserve an interesting, relaxing and educational experience. (From the Hills Shire Council’s leaflet on Bidjigal Reserve)

Bidjigal Reserve, The Hills Shire, Sydney

The Hills Shire Council is currently considering a development application, DA 36/2010/HA, lodged by Adventure Forest Pty Ltd, to construct a Go Ape “high rope forest adventure course” within Ted Horwood and Bidjigal Reserves. Details of the Go Ape development can be found on the Proposal page; the planned location of the course can be seen more clearly by looking at the larger image of the course layout.

The Bidjigal Reserve Action Group (BRAG) is a collective of concerned residents who oppose this intrusive commercial development within the unique and environmentally sensitive Bidjigal Reserve. In the longer term, we want to see the Reserve preserved as a quiet sanctuary in the heart of Sydney.

The Upper Parramatta River Catchment Trust’s information sheet on the Darling Mills Creek says:

Look - nothing but what comes naturally

In the Fauna Impact Study for the Darling Mills Creek Stormwater Management Study, Mount King Ecological Surveys concluded that “the bushland of Darling Mills Valley is of regional conservation significance as it includes plant communities and species which are of restricted distribution in Western Sydney. It is an important habitat for an unusually high number of plants which are inadequately conserved in Western Sydney.”

The greatest opportunity for this corridor is the adequate protection and enhancement of the existing biological diversity. The corridor provides the highest diversity and the largest area of habitat in the Upper Parramatta River Catchment. The most significant quality and use of this corridor is the experience of a completely natural landscape and associated ecological processes…. Compared with other cosmopolitan cities of the size and population of Sydney this is a rare opportunity.

As detailed on our objections page, the members of the Bidjigal Reserve Action Group are concerned that the Go Ape proposal will have a devastating effect on the flora and fauna within the Reserve, and will adversely affect the natural amenity of this tranquil haven.