Locals Celebrate Protection Of Killalea State Park
Late last year, Shellharbour locals rejoiced when Killalea State Park was taken out of the hands of the existing leaseholders to be managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
On Sunday, the same locals gathered at the hill overlooking The Farm and celebrated the win. As music played, a stall gave away 'Save Killalea' T-shirts for free. "We don't need these anymore!" said the vendor with a smile.
On a rare sunny day, various people spoke about the events that led to the State Government revoking the lease from Reflections Holidays Parks and handing it to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Among the crowd walked NPWS officers in their distinct bottle green jumpers with light green shoulder pads.
New signage as you enter Killalea
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson spoke about being approached by the Save Killalea Alliance who told her what Reflections had in mind. "It was a no brainer," said Watson. "We've got a pristine piece of coast here."
Watson was the first politician to raise the issue of stopping development at the park in the parliament. "It was your collective voices that travelled up the hill to Parliament House, that were heard by every MP in the building," Watson told the crowd.
She said she would work closely with NPWS to make sure the future management of the park met the community's expectations.
Also speaking was Chelsea Mahony, daughter of Ray Mahony who couldn't attend. Ray Mahony opposed the introduction of fee for access in 1995, and then had a hand in every campaign thereafter. The Shellharbour protest movement was generational.
As development encroaches, locals fight for the last patches of open space
A recurring message was to never take Killalea for granted again. Despite the NPWS assuming control of the land, this battle-hardened cadre of suburban activists swore they'd be alert to any clandestine developments, which is how the Reflections development got so far.
In 2016, the State Government sought to reduce costs by offloading it to the private sector. This raised the eyebrows of a few old hands. "Privatisation by stealth," was how it was described at the time. Sure enough, in 2019 Reflections proposed a 200-seat conference centre, restaurant, and luxury eco cabins.
The old hands kicked into gear - in one way or another they've been fighting this battle since 1995 - and reignited the Save Killalea Alliance. They exercised networks, pushed contacts, and sought coverage wherever they could - including a record-breaking paddle out in May last year that assured them of media coverage.
Many people were involved in the campaign, few of them as much as Chris Homer. On the strength of the campaign, Chris put his hand up to run for council and got elected as Mayor. Raised in Shellharbour, no-one surfs the local reefs as deep as Chris. It's why he's been called the mayor of Shellharbour - a title that's now been formalised.
A victory salute from the Mayor was responded to by a jovial crowd
Taking the stage, the Mayor deferred to all the people involved, saying the victory was the work of many: "Surfers came together, the ecologists came together, the coastal lovers came together."
"We can really see our environment is under threat, an environment on the edge of a major city and we are growing," said Mayor Homer "But people want to come here. They want to come and experience what we have experienced, and we want to leave that for our children, the experience, as well."
As of July 1, the 260-hectare park entered the management of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) as a Regional Park, protected under the NPWS Act. From August, the NPWS will start consultation with the community to develop a new plan of management for the park.
Comments
Bloody good stuff people. Hope you are smiling because it can't happen with out your efforts. Congratulations to all who make an effort to protect something from the past to future . A massive success for all who enjoy and will use this space in the future surfing or not. Big ups and respect again for making it happen. The community will be forever grateful of the efforts that have been put forth and the preservation of a local space.
Oh and fuck privatisation by stealth
Beautiful. Of the people, by the people, for the people.
EPIC!!!!!...
I used to surf The Farm in the mid 70s. One of the joys was being met at the gate by the lovely blonde"surf cowgirls" with their well worn hats, boots and leather money belt into which they collected entrance fees. I assume they were from the family that owned or whatever the land we passed over to get to the waves. No one complained.
I am also confident the NPWS will do a good job of managing the land that is now clearly public land - as they do with over 10% of the State's often most remote, inaccessible and difficult to manage pieces of land with conservation values.
Sleepy Shellharbour has been decimated by developers. I can see why the locals were so keen to preserve this spot.
Never been there myself but sounds like a wonderful outcome.
Well done to all those involved.
I drive through the park to get to Mystics regularly and I am already seeing signs of improvement. Reflections, who managed the park before let the the track down to the beach get completely trashed with mud and trees blocking the steps down making it pretty dangerous, especially for older people and families who try and access the beach. Lots of work still needs to be done managing the lantana that's strangling most of the trees. The whole area was neglected, I am guessing since Reflections realised it's not going to be a money maker for them with the community backlash against their conference center idea.
congratulations to all..a community effort, unification of which has many knock-on benefits, I'm reminded of: "The struggle of the people against power is the struggle of the memory against forgetting" Milan Kundera.
On that point.
I once heard a surfer state that the fight for Killalea was futile because the Shellharbour area was already defiled with the Shell Cove estate and man-made marina. I heard that statement and a part of me felt the same way. I recall driving the old highway bends looking across the paddocks down to Red Sands, which are now suburbs all the way from the new highway to the shore, and thinking to myself 'it's all ruined'.
Having been there last Sunday I can rebut that earlier point of view in a number of ways.
For one, my kids don't know that those suburbs were once all paddocks - they'd roll their eyes if I ever broke out in old man talk about 'paddocks as far as the eye can see' - however they DO KNOW that Killalea is untouched. Giving up on Killalea means giving up on everything till every patch is developed. This fight was as much for the next generation as anyone else.
When surfing The Farm, no buildings are visible in any direction. Sure, the quarry is not far over the northern hill, and the new housing estate is not far away from the western brow, but ostensibly every view inland is green. As Chris Homer said on Sunday, that sense of escape is good for the soul. It's intangible but we feel the benefits. That's also something worth fighting for.
On Sunday, as the speakers rotated, old boy Homer stood at the back of the stage often with his back to the speakers, staring down at the valley and the beach. For all I know he may have been wondering about the footy scores, or what he was supposed to pick up from the shops on the way home, but I like to think he was simply savouring the view knowing it would no longer be violated.
Memory could no longer be undermined. This was the view forever.
Hey Stu like that, resonates.
Great work!!!! Yeeew!
Awesome effort by all involved! Yes Homer is a charger from wayback and has always dominated the slabs around there and just a super nice humble guy. He still rips, always a pleasure to surf with.
Brilliant, fantastic community effort. A real good news story. Well done to all involved..
Hey Stu, do you know what this means for current and it seems former commercial activity in the park? There is a small surf shop in a shipping container, a can/bottle recovery depot and an education centre inside the park boundary. And the former- The Farm Markets used to be a huge event pre covid and has since shut down and doesn’t seem to be returning..
Hey Suchas, the container surf shop was still running the other day. While it is possible to run commercial activities in a NP - most parks have kiosks for example - they're usually subject to a tender process.
It's early days, so perhaps they're seeing out their initial lease?
Just generally on the theme of the story - there is a massive rental shortage in Australia but there are apparently 1,000,000 homes not permanently occupied as they are holiday homes or airbnbs - based on Oz population my guess is that would have to be 3-5% of all dwellings. The housing tax system needs to change to discourage owning non-permanent residences, then you take away the underlying problem and a lot of untouched coastal areas away from the cities won’t be under as much threat of development.
What does this mean for minnamurra beach? Although i rarely used to surf beach breaks on south coast NSW, that was one of my fave breaks, comparable to reefbreaks but usually funky conditions. Im sure shell cove etc developments have screwed the beaches there up. I heard one guy from shell cove saying "you're not even local you don't live in shell cove".Half my old Sydney relatives now live in Shell Cove, one a Qantas pilot like his dad, but a good surfer, used to say to me "south coast is for westies".
The whole beach falls within the park so it's included in the changeover to NPWS.
It hasn’t been screwed up. Most of the crowds are on Friday to Sunday from people road tripping down the coast, but it’s a strange place, sometimes it’s pumping and it’s just the regular crew, other times it’s 2ft and rammed. I think it being a little bit harder to drive by and check keeps it a little more chilled, that and when it gets above 3ft it’s starts to get quick and heavy. Basically the same it’s been since I started surfing.
Cool, cherish the land and it’s wildlife!! Awesome effort. Every creature will enjoy this victory!
The beauty of this result is that it was not just driven by us surfers, pretty much every part of the wider community saw how rotten the situation was and stood together with great leadership by Chris. Well done to all involved.
I’m rapt that Killalea has been transferred to NPWS, I live local & can already see some care going back into the park. We must always be vigilant because whilst ever we have that million dollar view, someone will try to make a million dollars out of it, we can’t let our guard down. As in a previous article Killalea had been savagely hit with beach erosion over the Winter & old locals are saying since the sand dunes at the back of the beach were consolidated & grown over the beach has never been the same as those dunes were a reservoir of sand to replenish the beach in times of erosion. I hope NPWS has some expertise in this area & could possibly help get the Farm back to its former glory. I realise all beaches copped a hiding in those storms but the Farm seems to have suffered particularly bad