Bushland marked as environmental offset for new Sydney airport bulldozed for car park

An area of heritage-listed bushland that formed part of the environmental offset for the western Sydney airport has been bulldozed for a car park at a new defence facility.

The main offset for the clearing of critically endangered Cumberland plain woodland is about 900ha of bushland at a defence site in the suburb of Orchard Hills.

The site, known as Defence Establishment Orchard Hills, is an explosives storage and training facility that is listed on the commonwealth heritage register because it is almost entirely vegetated with endangered woodlands.

Federal environment department officials had already questioned the credibility of offsetting habitat destruction for the airport with heritage-listed land the government already owned. Now, the most recent offset delivery report produced for the federal infrastructure department reveals a small section of the heritage bushland was cleared for a car park for a new naval guided weapons facility at the Orchard Hills site.

The clearing was identified by an independent reviewer who audited the Orchard Hills offset.

Under the development conditions, the infrastructure department must file annual reports on its progress in delivering the environmental offsets. The reports are years behind, with the 2020 review only recently published.

The independent review is attached as an appendix and notes that inspection of the site had found a recently cleared construction compound and temporary development within bushland that had been mapped as poor condition Cumberland plain woodland.

They also recommended that an investigation be launched into how development came to occur within the offset, to ensure it did not happen again.

Lisa Harrold is the president of the Mulgoa Valley Landcare group and was a member of an expert group that provided advice to the infrastructure department when it was preparing the offset plan.

Harrold has been vocal about her disappointment in the decision to use Orchard Hills as the main offset when it was already on the heritage register and had been promised as a permanent conservation site by both major political parties as far back as 2007.

The spokesperson said the department had robust monitoring systems in place for the airport offsets and work on the next annual report was under way.

He said the bushland at Orchard Hills was the best remaining example of the woodland, and its listing on the heritage register meant governments were obliged to manage and protect it.