The former ADI site at St Marys is a woodland remnant of the Cumberland Plain that stretches from Windsor in the north to Picton in the South and east/west from Parramatta to Penrith. South Creek and Ropes Creek flow through the ADI Site and they meet just outside the northern edge of the site.

The ADI Site gets its name from the Australian Defence Industries Ltd (ADI) a Commonwealth Government Business entity that used the property as a munitions factory from 1989 to 1993. The ADI Site and the area now known as the Dunheved Industrial Estate were resumed from private ownership for the war effort in the 1940s and 1950s. The site was known from the 1940s as the St Marys Munitions Filling Factory until the name change to the ADI Site in 1989. The munitions factory employed hundreds of local workers right up until it closed.

The NSW State government has given general endorsement to the development and in January of 2001 it gazetted Sydney Regional Environmental Plan 30 (SREP 30) zoning the site suitable for urban, industrial and other uses. 630 ha of the site was also zoned Regional Park.

In November 2001, two weeks out from the Federal election, the Federal Government, ended years of speculation by announcing that the entire 828 ha of the ADI Site that had been listed in the Register of the National Estate by the Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) in 1999 would be spared from development. Although this was packaged by the Federal Government as a gift to Western Sydney and an example of their commitment to protecting the environment, the truth was really that Robert Hill, the Federal Environment Minister, was obligated by Section 30 of the Australian Heritage Commission Act to protect the National Estate.

The NSW Governments SREP 30 shamefully ignored the fact that 828 ha of the ADI Site had been listed by the AHC in 1999. The States 630 ha Regional Park zoning contained 74 ha of non-AHC listed land; in fact SREP 30 zoned 272 ha of the 828ha suitable for urban development. The Federal Governments November 2001 announcement to increase the area to be conserved meant that amendments to SREP 30 would be required, it also meant that SREP 30 would need to go back on public exhibition for comment.

Lend Lease Development Pty Ltd now owns the 1535 ha site having purchased it from the Federal Government in June 2004 for between 105-118 $million. Lend Lease and the Federal Government formed a Joint Venture partnership in 1994 to develop the ADI Site. Details of the Joint Venture Agreement remain confidential despite ADI RAG’s efforts to obtain details through an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Although Lend Lease now own the ADI Site and the joint venture partnership no longer exists, in 2002, an agreement, the St Marys Development Agreement, was co-signed by the joint venture and the NSW Government stating, amongst other things, that areas of the ADI Site to be set aside for Regional Park and Regional Open Space will be transferred to the NSW Government (DEC and DIPNR). In effect this means that Lend Lease only owns developable land and the rest remains in public ownership through the State.

The 2001 announcement by the Federal Government to protect the 828 ha of AHC listed lands meant that an extra 272 ha of conservation land would be added to the 630 ha of land zoned Regional Park by SREP 30, effectively bringing the total area to be protected to 902 ha. Everyone, including Lend Lease, was stating that a Regional Park of 900 ha (round figures) would be created. However, the 2002 St Marys Development Agreement divides the Regional Park into Part A, Part B and what they call the RNE land (Residual National Estate Land). Part A is 850 ha, Part B consists of two facilities still being utilised and the RNE Land is 50 ha of Register of the National Estate land that the State may accept as Regional Park. Part A and B will be accepted by the State but the State will explore if the RNE Land is to be included in the Regional Park. They will explore this option during the drafting of the Regional Park Plan of Management.

The devil is in the detail of the St Marys Development Agreement. Not only did Lend Lease have to transfer land at no cost but they also had to provide funding for the Regional Park. The adequacy of the funding package was negotiated between NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service bureaucrats and Lend Lease. A leaked letter from the NPWS revealed that NPWS wanted $10 million to establish the Regional Park yet in the St Marys Development Agreement Lend Lease only have to provide $6.9 million. ADI RAG believes that this funding shortfall is the reason why the NSW Government is trying to reduce the Regional Park down to 850 ha. They want to chop off 50 ha off the Regional Park so that they have a park with nice smooth boundaries that is cheap to manage.

The official line from Lend Lease and the State is that a Regional Park of only 850 ha will be created.

In July 2003 Dianne Beamer, the Assistant NSW Planning Minister, announced that the Eastern and Dunheved Precincts would be the first areas of the ADI Site released for development. Blacktown Council would be the consent authority for the Eastern Precinct. In December 2004 Lend Lease were given final development approval by Blacktown Council and have commenced subdividing and clearing parts of the Eastern Precinct in order to build the first suburb, ‘Ropes Crossing’.

Remarkably the NSW Government has allowed Lend Lease to proceed with developing the ADI Site without SREP 30 being amended. They have stated that SREP 30 will be amended when the Plan of Management for the Regional Park is ready and final conservation boundaries have been determined.

The NSW Government has put the needs of Lend Lease and their development timeframe ahead of the protection of the environment. Lend Lease have already commenced development of the ADI Site with no plan to protect the conservation values of the Regional Park in place. The Plan for the Regional Park will not be ready until 2006. This can hardly be  considered a model of ecological sustainable development when the protection of the environment is merely an afterthought.

The ADI site contains six vegetation communities; four are Endangered Ecological Communities (close to extinction) Cumberland Plain Woodland (EEC), Shale Gravel Transition Forest (EEC), Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark Forest (EEC) and Sydney Coastal River Flat Forest (EEC), as well as Castlereagh Scribbly Gum Forest and Freshwater Wetlands. (NPWS 2004)

The site contains threatened plant species including; Dillwynia tenuifolia, Micromyrtus minutiflora, Grevillea juniperina, Persoonia nutans, Pultenaea parviflora and Pimelea spicata. An endangered population of Marsdenia viridiflora also occurs. (NPWS 2004)

The Site contains threatened fauna species including; Common Bent-wing bat, Greater Broad-nosed bat, Black Bittern, Speckled Warbler, Diamond Firetail, Cumberland Land Snail, Koalas and Green and Golden Bell Frogs may also occur. (NPWS 2004)

The entire site was listed at a State level in the NSW National Trust Heritage Register in 1996 for its contribution to biodiversity conservation, its rare and endangered species and its contribution to water quality. The Australian Heritage Commission interim listed 1100 hectares of the site on the Register of the National Estate in 1997. This area was, however, reduced following objections made by Lend Lease. Final listing, of 828 hectares, was announced in October 1999.

Air pollution is a critical issue in Sydney’s West, with asthma rates higher than other areas. Western Sydney suffers from a geographic disadvantage because air pollution carried into the area from the east on prevailing winds is trapped at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Protection of natural areas as our ‘lungs’ is critical to managing our worsening air pollution. Extending urban sprawl into our remaining greenspace will only worsen the health of the community.

The Hawkebury Nepean Catchment Management Trust (abolished in 2001 by the State government) wanted the ADI site declared a Biodiversity Reserve for conservation of species and ‘the protection and enhancement of the health of South Creek and its catchment environment’. In the Mt Druitt / St Marys Standard of 25/11/98 the Trust’s Chairman John Klem described South Creek as ‘probably the most polluted creek in the country’ and stated, ‘History tells us that even with all the technology and good intentions the development will have an impact.’

ADI RAG has never wavered from the believe that the best possible environmental and social outcome for Western Sydney was that all of this land should be retained in public ownership and protected as a Nature Reserve/Regional Park. The undeveloped site plays a critical role in the region as a habitat for fauna and flora, its function as ‘lungs’ in Western Sydney and its potential to further improve water quality in the area

Protection of the whole site as a Nature Reserve/Regional Park was supported by many environmental groups including the Nature Conservation Council and National Parks Association, and was supported by the guardians of our waterways the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Trust (HNCMT) and South Creek Catchment Management Committee before their abolition by the State government in 2001.

Penrith Council, before the 1999 council election when Labor took control, once opposed the development of the ADI Site. Council applied to the Federal Government for both Federation funding and Heritage funding to save the whole site. Cr Beryl Stevens stated in the Penrith Press of 23/2/99 that Penrith has one per cent of Australia’s population and should receive its fair share of any funding. This funding was rejected.

Penrith Councils position to buy back land that the taxpayer already owned was questionable but the right intent was always there. Sadly that advocacy is a distant memory with today’s Labor dominated council hell bent on ensuring Lend Leases development plans proceed unhindered. Several Penrith Councillors are still fighting for the best outcome for the community and have indicated a willingness to question Lend Leases development plans.

The Federal Government having sold the ADI Site now has no say in its development. The Keating Labor Government did the deal with Lend Lease that locked in a development outcome in 1993/1994 and in 1996 the Howard Liberal Government took up were Labor left off and shepherded Lend Lease through the rest of the process. The NSW Government has been fixated on facilitating development of the since day one, Blacktown Council the same.

The only hope of more of the ADI Site being saved from development rests with Penrith Council. And that would depend on them reversing its policy of supporting Lend Leases development.

ADI RAG formed in 1993 yet the development has only just started in December 2004. The life of the development is some twelve years. Our experience over the last eleven years has been that; when governments and big business with similar ideologies and aims unite, outcomes to advance those ideologies and aims are pre-determined in advance of formal planning and democratic processes. Planning decisions that are anti-community and anti-environment continue to be the norm for this development.

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