IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section A

Abstract

Sydney’s unusual morphology, a city circumnavigated by its two largest rivers, the Hawkesbury-Nepean (Deerubbin) and the Georges (Toggerai) creates the opportunity to bolster a unique Koala Blue-Green Belt. The south western edge of Sydney (Macarthur Region) is home to arguably the only thriving colony of Koalas in New South Wales (NSW). However, a major threat on this peri urban edge, is opening up as Sydney’s largest new residential area takes shape. As part of this process, innovative and fast tracking governance measures are being used by the NSW government to streamline development approvals, while at the same time numerous studies have investigated Koala corridors requirements for this area. New governance instruments developed by the NSW Planning Department – such as the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan (CPCP), a regional landscape-scale undertaking – aim to ready the land for residential zoning and more efficiently address biodiversity issues. At the same time, the Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineers, along with the Campbelltown Council’s Koala Plans of Management (KPoM), advocates for wide Koala corridors. The science and planning guidelines generated out of these investigations identify Koala corridor parameters: widths, frequency and integrity, that are located along riparian zones and the broader catchment. The final result is a landscape outcome that can be assessed objectively for its Koala habitat and connectivity efficacy. Totemic and ‘Rights of Nature’ approaches offer indigenous guidance, moral authority, and local lore rooting the concept. While ‘Rights of Nature’ opportunities too extend novel protective possibilities along a river. Thus the vision of Sydney’s Koala Belt anchors a Blue-Green Grid while completing perhaps a world first city circumnavigation walk – the Sydney Koala-Whale Circuit, as it links up Sydney’s existing Whale Walk along Sydney’s Harbour and Coast to the rivers.