New – The Green Book website
Recent comments
- Glenys Brown on Hunters Hill gardens open for inspection
- Roslyn Gibb on Have your Say on the Proposed Changes to Woolwich and Huntleys Point Ferry Routes
- Petra weber on Inclusive playground in Boronia Park: CAUTION
- Carly on Guided tour of Gladesville Hospital
Links
- Australian Conservation Foundation
- Australian Heritage Photographic Database
- Bushland and biodiversity
- Discover Hunters Hill
- Environment Defenders Office (NSW)
- Gladesville Community
- Glebe Society
- Green Book
- Habitat Network
- Historical photographic collection Ryde Library
- Hunters Hill Bushcare Volunteers
- Hunters Hill Council
- Hunters Hill Historical Society
- Lane Cove Bushland and Conservation Society
- National Trust of Australia
- Nature Conservation Council NSW
- Ryde Hunters Hill Flora & Fauna Preservation Society
- Sydney Living Museums
New – The Green Book website
Another blow to heritage in NSW
ArchitectureAU says “The environmental protection and management functions of the office will be moved to an enlarged “Planning and Industry” department, while the heritage functions of the office will be moved to the arts portfolio. Speaking to reporters on 2 April, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, “We’ve moved heritage into the arts, because heritage and the arts have a very strong focus.”
The article goes on: “The office has existed in its current form since 2011, first under the Department of Premier and Cabinet and then under the Department of Planning and Environment from 2014. It is responsible for the management and preservation of the state’s natural and built heritage. It provides expert and independent advice on heritage issues through the Heritage Council of NSW.
Penny Sharpe, acting leader of NSW Labor and Shadow Minister for Environment and Heritage, took to Twitter to criticize the decision. “The premier said she would make the environment a priority,” she said. “Her actions today show that this was untrue.”
Nature Conservation Council CEO, Kate Smolski, said in a statement, “This shrinks the status of the Office of Environment and Heritage further and appears designed to reduce it to providing back-office functions enabling development.”
As noted it the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 April 2019:
One senior staffer told the Herald OEH had often provided a dissenting view to Planning, such as when new housing projects in the Sydney Basin threatened the dwindling natural reserves. Remaining koala corridors, for instance, were among the habitats at risk. Work that had previously been conducted by inhouse OEH experts was being diverted to external consultants – a process staff worry will accelerate with the bureaucratic overhaul now under way.
Kate Smolski, was also quoted as saying, “Under a previous Coalition government, the environment was downgraded to an office and has suffered ever since due to the gutting of staff, the subordination to other departments and the junior position of the Environment Minister.”