NEW SOUTH WALES

Location: Sandon Point Wollongong

Threat:     Development for housing

Sandon Point is an area of 60 hectares of magnificent coastal land containing significant Aboriginal sites which is under immediate threat of intensive housing development. Parts of the site have been used for industry, but most is covered with forest, grassland, and wet land habitat.

The land provides the only remaining green corridor between the Illawarra escarpment and the sea in the northern Illawarra. Situated at the juncture of three waterways, Sandon Point provides habitat for a number of threatened species of plants and rare birds and animals and could provide habitat corridors to encourage the re-introduction of local species now lost to the area.

Development proposals at present include the building of some 700 dwellings on the land. This will reduce habitat, pollute water ways, disturb Aboriginal sites, and remove the opportunity for this land to be restored to the community as a natural reserve.