WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation will be unable to assess a new clearing permit until the trial process concludes.
A Heidelberg spokeswoman said the quarry would provide a vital local resource for the residential construction industry in Perth at a time when demand was high, and sand available locally low.
Heidelberg Materials is known for best practice banksia woodland restoration work across Perth, including in Gnangara; but can the city’s black cockatoos wait for restoration work?
The quarry commencement had been delayed due to approvals processes, lower market demand, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The spokeswoman said the mine would supply building sand for local housing developments, not silica sand for export as had been reported in other media.
She said sand would be excavated from site and transported unprocessed to customers to further reduce dust generated on site, and that supplying sand locally reduced the need for long-distance transport, minimising congestion and emissions on Perth roads.
“Heidelberg Materials adopts an environmentally responsible approach when undertaking clearing at operational sites and holds a proven track record in biodiversity restoration,” she said.
“Heidelberg Materials and Kings Park Science have collaborated for almost 30 years to be at the global forefront of best practice for post-mine restoration outcomes. Since 1995, more than 400 hectares of leases have been returned to banksia woodlands across the Swan Coastal Plain.
“As part of its commitment to restoration and offsets at Oldbury, Heidelberg Materials will sequentially restore the 11.6 hectares of clearing area, improve the condition of an additional 0.9 hectares through restoration, protect and manage 11.6 hectares of remnant vegetation in perpetuity under a conservation covenant, and provide a financial contribution to purchase 35.46 hectares of remnant vegetation, which includes habitat for black cockatoos.”
Heidelberg Materials co-authored a Banksia Woodland restoration guide in 2017, Banksia Woodland: A Restoration Guide for the Swan Coastal Plain (UWA Publishing), detailing best practice in restoration outcomes, synthesising knowledge derived from research and development conducted alongside Kings Park and Botanic Garden and the University of Western Australia.
However, Morrow said the community did not feel offsets in other parts of Perth would help cockatoos find food.
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“It’s going to take 20 years to get this area back to where it was,” he said.
“The best rehabilitation is to leave it alone.”
Save the Black Cockatoos spokesman Paddy Cullen said it was not good enough for the government to give extra funding to wildlife centres to deal with starving birds.
“We must also do our best not to steal their food supply,” he said.
“The destruction of the banksia woodlands and the jarrah forests has fragmented and degraded vast areas of the black cockatoos’ breeding and feeding areas. It is a pointless exercise to go through the motions of constructing a black cockatoo recovery plan if there is no intention to save their habitat.
“This is just managing them to extinction.”
DWER confirmed it had advised Heidelberg Materials that new flora, vegetation and fauna surveys would be required for its clearing permit assessment, as well as shire planning permission.
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