Ask councillors to save rare bush

Last week I saw a glossy black cockatoo on the Catholic site on the corner of Veron Rd and Hillview St Woy Woy.

It has a distinctive low-pitched call, and its tail is bright red.

I've recorded these birds several times in this vicinity, feeding on casuarina trees like the ones on the Catholic land.

Not many people have seen this rare cockatoo which is vulnerable to extinction.

And sometimes people confuse it with the yellow-tailed black cockatoo, which has a loud wailing cry.

This week I heard the barking owl again just a few hundred metres from this site.

This owl is also listed as vulnerable to extinction.

l've recorded it in this vicinity over a hundred times in the last two and a half years.

Its favoured habitat is vegetation along watercourses, and so the Catholic site is ideal territory.

Its prey includes small mammals like bandicoots.

Because these animals will be destroyed by this development, the barking owl's food supply will decrease.

A month ago I saw a bush stone curlew nearby.

Other wildlife facing extinction have also been recorded on this site or nearby, eg swift parrot, grey-headed flying fox, regent honeyeater, powerful owl, turquoise parrot.

Last April night walkers would have heard the grey-headed flying foxes as they fed on the Catholic site's tree blossoms.

The DA to build luxury retirement villas here is due to come before Council's first meeting in February.

This is the second DA by this developer to Council, with the first one having been rejected by the Land and Environment Court.

Council spent many thousands of dollars to have the development proposal rejected.

This site comprises the endangered plant community of Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland (UCSW).

With only 12 sites left in the world, this development is a threat to its survival.

And because this is one of the larger UCSW remnants, its protection and restoration is significant.

As Justice Bignold said in his determination, with so little UCSW left, any fragment is significant.

I urge readers to ask Gosford Councillors to vote against this development.

I am happy for them to cut out and send a copy of this letter with their request, and to contact me on 4341 9301 for further details.

Shirley Hotchkiss Umina