We live and work from home in a quiet leafy area on the edge of The Gully on the edge of Katoomba. 

Yet on a semi-regular basis different neighbours, unannounced, choose at times to suddenly start up loud machinery to break that peace and quiet.

Due common courtesy would be for a neighbour to inform nearby neighbours of pending machinery racket, but instead they couldn’t give a rats about imposing their noise pollution on neighbours.

Here are a few example snippets:

Monday · 24 Feb 2025 · 08:20…

 

 

Thursday · 20 Mar 2025 · 13:22…

 

Tuesday · 22 Apr 2025 · 08:36…

 

And, all this unwelcome noise culture is not just from selfish discourteous neighbours and their contractors.

Also, we cop similar machinery noise outside our window from:

• Blue Mountains Council – roadworks, footpath works
• NBN Internet concrete sawing for trenching optical fibre
• Sydney Water
• Electricians and other trades
• Endeavour Energy’s – vegetation contractor Asplundh or Active Tree Services
• Even RAAF low-flying its Hercules and Globemaster transport aircraft from Richmond Airbase at a close 500 feet directly over our home  
• And other private aircraft thinking they can flout the 1000 foot minimum altitude over built-up areas like ours  (we know the low altitudes since we hold a commercial helicopter license)

 

All unannounced.

Perhaps Richmond Air Traffic Control Tower wouldn’t mind if one was to buzz the tower unannounced?

 

 

Postscript:

‘Iceman’ recognition:

 

 

Within just a minute’s walk from The Habitat Advocate base we happened upon some wonderful local wildlife. 

It was a native Blotched Blue Tongue Lizard in this case (scientific species name Tiliqua nigrolutea).   It was 10th February 2025 (summer) in the late hot afternoon around 6:30pm AEDT, so the sun was still up in the western sky; this given sunsets in late summer at this time of year are as late as 8 pm, some two hours hence.   So, this happenstance timing made sense, but a rare sighting these days.

 

 

Upon our initial sighting, this lizard had been laying in the middle of the footpath sunning itself – being a cold-blooded lizard (‘ectothermically’ that is; not the human malice variety).

This one we think is female – telling from the comparatively small head size and its thicker tail root.  It was not a native Shingleback Lizard (scientific species name Tiliqua rugosa) since such species has a stubbed tail land prefers the habitat plains inland from the Great Dividing Range, and are not found in the Blue Mountains region, whereas Blue Tongues are. 

The location was on The Gully’s urban periphery, yet wholly environmentally within the broader Gully Water Subcatchment, where The Habitat Advocate is based.  So nice to see wildlife in one’s neighbourhood – we share local wildlife’s neighbourhood.  

We provide hyperlinks below to further information and clearer images about this lizard species.

Anyway, it was a pleasurably welcomed and encouraging sighting.

Such sightings however are increasingly rare around these parts these days due to Council’s habitat destruction – pretty much since Council has existed since its origins in Katoomba in 1890, then in 1947 re-branding itself Blue Mountains City Council from being a two adjacent regional municipality/shire councils.   Then from November 2000 after the Blue Mountains region was declared an international World Heritage Area, this local Blue Mountains Council has bizarrely extolled its contradictory perceived virtues of being a city within a World Heritage Area – what espousing urban sprawl development and high-rises amongst Eucalyptus habitat?

We bought our house in 2000, which had there since the 1920’s.  So, we did not build into bush, but rather it was long existing ‘in-town’, and so technically we just recycled and renovated it.  It had had only lawn back and front, but since 2001 we have created an onsite forest and restored much local habitat on site, So, no more grass and we then gave away our lawn mower!

One also recalls that on 13th February back in 2017 around 5:30 pm during a 47^o Celsius unseasonal heatwave weather event across New South Wales, observing a large native Eastern Brown Snake (scientific species Pseudonaja textilis) of almost 2 metres in length scurrying across the scorching road surface of our street into the cooler shade of our forested front garden.  Well, we chose not to garden or water there for a week afterwards and warned our neighbours.  However, we immediately reported this snake sighting to the volunteer-based Wildlife Rescue Service (WIRES) for safety guidance and we spoke to one of their trained snake catchers who gave us helpful and reassuring advice over the phone.

Also, when we first moved in where we are, one had to contend with a native Blue Mountains Funnel Web Spider (scientific name Hadronyche versuta) ground nest in our then unkempt backyard, also unfortunately the native Brown Broadfooted Marsupial Mouse (scientific name is Antechinus stuartii) family over the back fence that we observed, eventually sadly perished.

But it beats living in increasing sprawling concreted, treeless sterile Sydney human megalopolis.

 

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References:

 

[1]   ‘Blotched Blue-tongue Lizard‘,  2020-11-20, by Australian Museum (Sydney), ^https://australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/blotched-blue-tongue-lizard/

 

[2]   ‘Shingleback Lizard‘,  2025-04-14, Australian Museum (Sydney),  ^https://australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/shingleback-lizard/

 

[3]   ‘Blue Mountains Reptiles‘,  ^https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/12346

 

[4]   ‘Blue Mountains City Council‘, by Data.NSW, 2020, NSW Government, ^https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/organization/about/blue-mountains-city-council#:~:text=In%20May%201946%20Katoomba%20was,the%20Blue%20Mountains%20City%20Council.

 

[5]   ‘Snake Advice‘, Tuesday, 2017-10-10, WIRES, ^https://www.wiresmembers.org.au/seasonal-animal-advice/snake-advice

 

[6]   ‘World Heritage places – Greater Blue Mountains Area‘,  Australian Government  (its departments change like the wind),  ^https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/world/blue-mountains#:~:text=History%20of%20World%20Heritage%20listing,session%20on%2027%20June%202013.

 

[7]   ‘Fauna Watch – Winter is not the time for hunkering down for Antechinus!, 2019-08-19, by Anne Carey, Bushcare Blue Mountains (Fauna, Natives), ^https://bushcarebluemountains.org.au/fauna-watch/

 

Blue Mountains native nursery eviction threat…

by Steven Ridd

 

 

The Habitat Advocate has sadly learned about a governmental threat to evict this much loved and valued local community volunteer-run nursery business in Katoomba in the Australian Blue Mountains region, successfully operating onsite since 1999.

This author learned about this from off the grapevine, else we should have otherwise learned about this news development from reading our local Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper.   Yet, that valued weekly newspaper informing locals about Blue Mountains goings-on has been denied us for some years.  The paper has not been distributed to our Katoomba Falls Creek residential precinct since long before COVID – like for the past 5 years or so!   

An unviable newspaper business model for these times?   One notes that the newspaper’s distribution statistics have been removed from this newspaper’s print masthead for some time (Read a harbinger of the Gazette’s pending closure)

Moving on… a few weeks back a Blue Mountains friend informed us about this news of the nursery, then kindly dropped around his copy of the Gazette issue dated Wednesday 15th January 2025. 

This is the front page article with the legendary Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service (‘Wildplant Rescue’) on the front page we read:

 

‘Eviction day looms for Wildplant Rescue nursery’ 

 15th January 2025, by Jennie Curtin, BMG journalist) 

‘Time is running out for the Wildplant Rescue nursery at Katoomba.

The volunteers have been told they have until the end of April to find a new home, after the owner, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), cited maintenance costs and fire safety issues.  (Author:  aka the landlord’s wanton neglect of this bushland site for decades, and a rubbish slack ulterior motive excuse to flog off the site for profit to a developer for housing – truth telling!)

The department wants to sell the site, which used to be adjoined to the now-closed and re-purposed Clairvaux Children’s Home adjacent and which is in need of repair, restoration and safety features. 

 

The entire Clairvaux Community Services site has long been neglected by the NSW Government for decades.   Dozens of abandoned and vandalised buildings by ACRC snuggled in nativve bushland, now warrant demolition.   They contain asbestos interior fabrication wall lining from the 1970s.

 

 

The cost of setting up elsewhere is beyond the means of the volunteer-run nursery, which rescues local native species from building sites and propagates them as well as other rare and difficult natives.  It sells the plants to home gardeners as well as council, landscapers and Bushcare organisations, providing the income to keep going.

The volunteers are desperately hoping the department changes its mind and gives them a permanent lease on their small section of the site.  The only alternative, said president Verity Harris, is to find a benefactor with deep pockets.   “If there’s a good millionaire out there with a plot of land …” she said hopefully.

The group had talks with council about a possible site during the planning of the old Katoomba golf course precinct. But a spokeswoman for council said “a plant nursery is not a permissible use on this site under the current zoning, and an amendment to the LEP would be required to include this and other additional uses.  That would be a lengthy process including making a submission to the state government and further public consultation.”

The DCJ said it recognised the important service the nursery provides in protecting threatened species but a land condition audit of the site in 2020 found that it was not fit for purpose and was not safe for long-term use because of its fire zone.

DCJ:

“Tenants of the site were notified of the need to vacate the site in 2021 and since then almost all have relocated.  DCJ has not provided formal notification to the nursery to leave the site whilst we continue to assist them to find a new home.”

The nursery has operated at the site since 1998.  Although it receives no funding, Ms Harris acknowledged that DCJ did not charge them for rent or for water and electricity.

One of the difficulties with an unknown future is that no forward decisions can be made.  The group recently spent money on new benches for the plants but don’t want to install them in case they have to take them down.  There is also a greenhouse which is lying unassembled for the same reason.  “The uncertainty is really quite crippling,” Ms Harris said.   Volunteer Frances Scarano said the group only propagates native plants from the Mountains to ensure genetic purity.  “We extend the diversity” of plants grown in Mountains gardens as well as giving wildlife more food and shelter sources,” she said.’

 

 

There’s a local Blue Mountains community story in this.

The above news item conveys more than a harbinger of pending closure; rather it tells publicly (about time, frankly) of an existential threat to the future of the Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service (Wildplant Rescue) not just from its current site, but because it has nowhere else to go, from its very existence – termination of the whole not-for profit business, of its local volunteers and of its support base membership – the lot facing oblivion!   

[NOTE:  An “existential threat” refers to a danger that could lead to the complete destruction or a permanent and severe degradation of something.  It’s a threat to the very being or future potential of something – aka Wildplant Rescue in this case.]

Wildplant Rescue continues to be a long-established successful not-for-profit local business very popular in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of Australia and founded and run by its volunteers, and with a strong long-standing membership backing. 

Wildplant Rescue photo gallery:

We reckon this eviction threat to Katoomba’s much loved native nursery is yet another example of the distant NSW Government’s bureaucratic insular mindset and its ongoing anti-social culture of destroying local small businesses for the greed of selling off public land (native bushland) that it controls on a entrusted custodial basis on behalf of the community.  This eviction threat is bureaucracy selfishly seeking to profit from more bushland asset sales for inevitable housing development.  It is not good government.   

This closure threat to this unique endemic native plant nursery is unnecessary, unfair, contrary to the departmental landlord (DCJ’s) community focuses, and down right politically motivated by the incumbent NSW Minns Government bureaucracy and his politicians.  The NSW Government’s eviction threat is wrong and unjustifiable.  It’s threatened eviction of Wildplant Rescue is for non-genuine grounds.   Yet hypocritically, the incumbent NSW Minns Labor Government publicly has stated: 

“Landlords could be fined for making up a “non-genuine reason” for punting a tenant under NSW laws to scrap no-grounds evictions”.

[SOURCE: https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/8709944/landlords-face-fines-for-non-genuine-eviction-reasons/ ]

 

This has been an election policy of Labor Chriss Minns before the NSW state election on 25th March 2023.   Subsequently, as Premier, Minns is overseeing his own government department, DCJ  as landlord using non-genuine reasons for punting Wildplant Rescue as tenant at the Clairvaux Community Centre site. 

 

DCJ’s Eviction Threat Facts:

(from our research)

1. Wildplant Rescue has been an active nursery business tenant at the site since 1998, so for a continuous 27 years;
2. DCJ has/does not charge(d) Wildplant Rescue for rent, for water nor electricity.  Yet this has been a mutual agreement between landlord DCJ and tenant –  since DCJ has from the outset acknowledged that Wildplant Rescue is a local not-for-profit organisation providing a highly valued community service – rescuing Blue Mountains native plants from development sites, propagation local native plants (including threatened species) and participating in key roles in the local Blue Mountains bush regeneration industry.  Further,  DCJ has over the years seconded the community support of Wildplant Rescue to ’employ’ youth offenders under undergoing criminal rehabilitation within the community, and WildPlant has obliged (although its petty cash box went missing a few times – subsequent measures are that no cash it kept on premises such that so little of it ever was);
3. DCJ for decades has chosen not to maintain its Clairvaux site in outer Katoomba.   It is this systemic bureaucratic failure by DCJ which underlies how now the dilapidated state of the buildings across its owned Clairvaux property site in outer Katoomba has been continually neglected and allowed to deteriorate by DCJ.  (See our recent ACRC photo gallery below); 
4. That DCJ’s outsourced site audit in 2020 reported that many buildings were not fit for purpose, remains wholly the responsibility of the DCJ as ongoing landlord for its systemic neglect of the buildings across the site.  It is no way any fault of the long standing good tenant, Wildplant Rescue;
5. The site is dominated by bushland, so it is in a bushfire zone, but then this is an ideal site for a native plant nursery – juxtaposed next to native bushland.   It  is not an appropriate site for social housing, which would  necessitate many hectares of intact native bushland to be first bulldozed, and considerable environmental harm and cost to DCJ;
6. DCJ’s eviction reasons to Wildplant Rescue are on spurious, non-genuine and unreasonable grounds.   So much for Labor Chris Minns’ no grounds eviction ban election promise.
7. On 24 October 2024 the NSW Parliament passed the (NSW) Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 2024. The legislation is now the (NSW) Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024.  Relevant to Wildplant Rescue’s tenancy eviction threat, despite it being a business tenancy and not a residential tenancy, we raise pertinent sections of this new (NSW) Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024.  Why should not the same principles apply to a not-for-profit tenant?  That analytical article is pending on this website.   We thank readers for their patience.  We believe that no other website of journalist is covering this details issue as we are.  We seek the truth in such topics always.

 

 

Aboriginal Cultural and Resource Centre derelict – photo gallery:

And who seriously, would turn on the ACRC’s private fire hydrant and leave it running for weeks…months to waste precious drinking water?

We took a video of this upon our visit to the DCJ’s Clairvaux Community Centre site on Sunday 30th March 2025.

 

 

 

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DCJ’s eviction threat of Wildplant Rescue is a conjured bureaucratic notion for an impractical social housing estate white elephant in bushland some 2km outside Katoomba

 

It’s all a political ruse!

Wildplant Rescue’s nursery site occupies a very small parcel of rural bushland covering less than half a hectare.   The nursery is situated on a western boundary off Oak Street Katoomba as part of the quite sizeable 8 hectare DCJ Clairvaux bushland site. 

The Clairvaux site is geographically located within The Gully Water Catchment on the western edge of the regional township of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains region of Australia.   The nursery site is within native Eucalypt bushland and is some distance from Katoomba’s high street, which is more than 2 km away and an uphill walk. 

 

 

So, the Clairvaux site location is not exactly convenient to shops nor amenities and the only public transport an hourly bus service into town along Oak Street.  So the site suits being a place to propagate native plants, which is what Wildplant Rescue does and has been doing successfully on a shoestring budget consistently since 1999, so now twenty-six continuous years. 

 

A recent walk around of Wildplant Rescue’s current site by this author:

 

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Yet management has known about this eviction threat since before May 2020…

 

Let the truth be known – the founder of The Habitat Advocate and as Editor of this website, Steven Ridd, is a local of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains since 2001, so far, here for 24 years and going nowhere.    

Consistent with the conservation tenets of The Habitat Advocate organisation, Steven had been a committed and active member of Wildplant Rescue on and off since 2009, having first initiating contact with committee member Alison Hatfield back in April 2008.   Steven’s association included volunteering in various capacities and then joining the management committee.  It was an on-and-off participation as work and family priorities permitted such volunteering contributions, as many juggle with.

 

 

 

 

Back on Thursday 26^th February 2009, Steven attended his first meeting of Wildplant Rescue’s Management Committee Meeting, as a guest.   Minutes of that Management Committee Meeting of Thursday 26^th February 2009 are provided below. 

Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue is a community group and nothing herein is personally private, but only about this community-based not-for-profit organisation.  It’s website is appropriately in the public domain.  The Habitat Advocate Editor, Steven, remained a member of Wildplant Rescue on and off for more than a decade.   

However, Steven’s association with Wildplant Rescue abruptly ended upon him initiating his email letter of membership resignation from Wildplant Rescue to the management committee on 1st July 2020.  His reasons are twofold, as follows: 

 

ACTION 1:   Previously, on 24 June 2020, this author, at the time continuing to be on the Wildplant Rescue Management Committee had responded in an email to the committee thus:

“EVICTION THREAT

Importantly as well, Wildplant Management Committee needs to immediately respond to the notification of the imminent threat of eviction from its ‘lease’ at Clairvaux Community Centre 14 Oak Street Katoomba as warned by the NSW Department of Community & Justice (so-called) on 7^th May 2020, per Verity’s email.

It would be responsible to inform the membership of this threat ASAP.

Kind regards,

Steven”

 

However, the management committee decided NOT to follow Steven’s advice to issue a “broadcast’ email of this existential threat to the membership.. “until they had more definite information from the DCJ.” 

 

(2)  Two days later on 26th June 2020, Steven added in another email to the management committee:

“I re-emphasise that waiting for a governmental department formal response in writing may just well be an eviction notice.

This will place Wildplant Rescue in an invidious position with little wriggle room to negotiate or to seek a delay to consider options.

I have recommended to the Wildplant Committee they need to seek legal advice and to utilise the current government grant funding to finance such legal advice so as to be on the front foot, rather than waiting for the inevitable so to speak.

I do not see a reason for keeping this critical news from the Wildplant membership, who may well be able to assist the Committee somehow, or at least given an opportunity to do so.

As volunteer representatives of Wildplant Rescue, the committee should not feel compelled to take on this burden of the threat of eviction themselves and with it the likely folding of Wildplant with it, given no alternative site has been so far found viable.  I wish to add…as a committee member my dissent in not informing the membership of this predicament. They would be shocked to learn and if it were to eventuate without their knowledge, hold the committee to account and condemnation.  I am prepared to be a whistle-blower on this to the membership by July 14.  Surely the committee can come up with a responsible announcement to the membership that is informative without being alarmist.

I have the future viability of the Wildplant organisation and spirit foremost in my mind; whereas committee members can come and go.”

 

Steven Ridd as Founder, Conservation Consultant, and Editor of this website realised the existential threat by the governmental landlord to the very viability and future of Wildplant Rescue.  For the Management Committee members not to alert the membership and fight the government eviction went against the craw – against the very raison d’etre of The Habitat Advocate – publicly challenging ‘Government Greenwashing‘.

 

(3)  So, on 27th June 2020, Steven emailed his broadcast email to the 66 active members of Wildplant Rescue thus:

“Hello Wildplant Membership,

As a current voluntary member of Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service and serving on the management committee, I wish to express my repeated concerns since receiving an email from the President on May 8^th 2020 about a serious risk to the viability of our organisation.  I have tried my darndest multiple times within the committee communication that the broader Wildplant membership be made aware of this situation, but I have been unsuccessful, and only accused of “bullying” by the President, which I totally reject.

I refer you to the President of Wildplant Committee to explain.
My commitment and heart is with the conservation spirit and viability of Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service Inc.”

Sincerely,
Steven Ridd”

 

(4)  After then receiving a threatening email response from the president alleging “data breach” of Steven’s broadcast emailing to the members, Steven reflected upon his membership of Wildplant Rescue and on 1^st July 2020 emailed the committee stating he would not be renewing his membership.  (All email correspondences are retained on file).  

So that episode is approaching five years ago now.   Yet sadly, the same threat of governmental eviction by the same NSW Department of Communities and Justice still looms dark over Wildplant Rescue’s very existence.

 

(5)   This disturbing experience has affected us.  So we write this truth telling to share…

 

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This nursery’s landlord?  …NSW Department of Communities and Justice – seriously?

 

As mentioned above, the Clairvaux Community Centre overall property site is owned by the New South Wales (state) Government (through its delegated and so-called ‘Department of Communities and Justice‘ (DCJ). 

We remind readers that the ‘NSW Government’ essentially translates to being the authorised custodian on behalf of the citizens of New South Wales.  Australia is a democracy.  Assets of this state government are indeed the assets of the State and thus belong to this states citizens.   

 

Eviction for social housing out ‘woop woop’..?

This much valued Blue Mountains community run not-for-profit venture frankly threatens to unjustifiably cause its permanent demise.   Bloody why?!

Yet the current incumbent NSW Minns Labour Government’s Department of Communities and Justice has threatened designs on the site to flog it off for ‘social’ housing development. 

What a ridiculous notion!   The site is over 2km from Katoomba’s high street, so not exactly accessible for social housing such as like dilapidated northern Lurline is adjacent to Katoomba High Street. 

The site is not suited to planned housing development and certainly not for government so-called ‘social housing‘ concept. 

There are more sites in town near shops and the railway station far more suited for such government-funded social housing.   Whereas Wildplant Rescue is located over 2 km from town so every resident would need a car for starters.  It would require considerable costly demolition of many buildings, the killing hundred of native trees and bulldozing bushland to replace it with a conurbation of unneeded new housing – so another white elephant for the Blue Mountains.

The DCJ claims that the centre tenanted by the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Cultural Resource Centre has significant accessibility and bushfire safety non-compliance issues that are not able to be remedied under the property’s existing land zoning.

“The Department of Communities and Justice is committed to funding Aboriginal community controlled organisations to provide programs and services for the local Aboriginal community,” a spokesperson told the Gazette.

“DCJ recognises and appreciates the important work that the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Cultural Resource Centre undertakes in the community, and has been working with the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Cultural Resource Centre to assist in sourcing and transitioning to a more appropriate property.

“DCJ remains committed to working collaboratively with the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Cultural Resource Centre to assist them in their goal of providing services to their local community.”
At the Blue Mountains council meeting, the mayoral minute was supported unanimously. The council intends to write to the Department of Communities and Justice; Stronger Community Ministers; the Minister and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; and Trish Doyle, state member for the Blue Mountains, advocating for investment in the renovations required so the NGOs can continue to operate from the DCJ’s Clairvaux Community Centre.

Since 1999 our nursery has been located at the Clairvaux Centre, which is Govt property in the portfolio of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) The property was surplus to their requirements since the children’s homes closed in 1988. It was abandoned and derelict until Katoomba Neighbourhood Centre (KNC) got a licence from DCJ in 1998 to use the site for community groups. We moved in in 1999. KNC withdrew from the licence in 2009 and since then we have just remained on site developing the nursery, being totally ignored by the DCJ until they suddenly appeared in 2020 threatening eviction. While departmental decisions were still ongoing, we secured an official short term licence (lease) to continue operating on site for a further 15 months. This lease expired in September 2024. We have sent several requests for this term to be extended but now we have been verbally informed we will definitely be evicted soon, probably at the end of April.

 

The situation….

The DCJ have advised they wish to divest themselves of this property since they have determined that we are not a community organisation they can support and so they wish us to vacate by April this year. They tell us they have already offered the property to BMCC who have declined to accept without substantial accompanying funds to upgrade the premises, fair enough. KNC did massive work to upgrade the site for all the community groups to move in. Since then the residents of Clairvaux have done their best to keep the place operational but it definitely is in need of a major upgrade.

BMCC have indicated that we could be included in the Planetary Health Initiative on the old Katoomba Golf Course, but all we have so far are words, no action, and now we are running out of time! Moving a nursery is a huge endeavour and would take so much of our time and resources that without major assistance we may not be capable of achieving this!

Why bother to save us?….
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how valuable our nursery is to the whole Blue Mountains community. We are a unique nursery growing and supplying real local natives which are mostly not available anywhere else. By supplying genetically sound local plants for thirty years to gardeners, council and bush regenerators, we have helped to connect our community to the bush and increase indigenous biodiversity. We also provide an opportunity for all our volunteers to find companionship in worthwhile and fulfilling volunteer work. We work with local schools and join in all the local environmental education events.

(Given all that, one wonders how we don’t fall under the auspices of the Department of “Communities”?)

It is a fact that we receive no regular support or funding from any source at all for this important work! We have been serving the community and our environment since 1995 by our own efforts only.

In 2015, the NSW Parliament’s Member for Blue Mountains Trish Doyle MP, wrote a letter to the Minister for Communities on our behalf asking for the Minister’s help to find a permanent home for us.

We had a meeting with representatives from the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) yesterday and they have allayed our fears of sudden eviction by stating that we will not be just ‘thrown out on the street’ come the end of April, but that we MUST relocate from the site “as soon as an alternative is found”. They have assured us they are still working hard to find a solution. (So this is the same situation since at least 2009!)

I hope the DCJ and the Minister may have more influence than us to come up with an alternative site, since in the more than 20 years we ourselves have been looking none has so far been identified. If no other site at all is identified we may still be forced to close.

So the situation is still grim for us as no other locations can be identified at this stage. If you have any solid ideas or any sphere of influence to help us find our forever home, (or have a spare billionaire in your pocket?) then please send us an email to bmwrskat3@gmail
And please keep sharing our petition and watch here for updates
We are all hoping for a miracle!

Yet, this is government hypocrisy, since directly across Oak Street from where Wildplant Rescue’s nursery has been for 26 years at number 14, is Blue Mountains Council’s bankrupted golf course.
Who plays golf in 2025?

In the process this same DCJ department has given no consideration to the future of this long-standing successful not-for-profit nursery business.  Wildplant Rescue since 1999 continues to It provide a much valued native plant service to the local community.

The Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service nursery and its office building occupies just a relatively small portion of the overall old ‘Clairvaux’ site situated on the southwestern bushland outskirts of Katoomba township site.   

The nursery is amongst a few other community-focused small business tenants.  However, over the years many of the former tenants have long departed and many of the remaining buildings are long abandoned and have been left to become derelict and vandalised.   There is no indication that the governmental landlord (DCJ) maintains the site or the buildings.

 

 

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A brief history of this ‘Clairvaux’ site – ‘Home’ of Horrors:

 

The overall old ‘Clairvaux’ site is an asymmetrical odd squarish shape between Oak Street and Cliff Drive bounded by Hall Street (street access), Cedar Street, Violet Street, Ficus Street and Cliff Drive.  See recent aerial photo map below.   

It is estimated that the overall area approximates 80,000 m² ( 8 hectares).  [NOTE:  113 Cliff Drive, Katoomba, NSW 2780 has a land size of 69,662 m² (^SOURCE) – so this raises the question that entire land parcel ownership between Oak Street and Cliff Drive remains is unclear.  Was a portion sold off?]   

The overall site (shown below) is characterised as being half remnant bushland and half sports fields and from researching Google Maps and onsite ground-truthing also dotted with about two dozen dispersed dwellings. 

The original building of the fibro-cement/asbestos clad NSW Government ‘Clairvaux Children’s Home‘  would seem to date back to the 1960s.  Various other brick and tiled dwellings of different but consistent style seem to date to the 1970s.   Many of the 1970s dwellings appear unkempt, else abandoned, derelict and indeed a few have been vandalised and left open to the elements.  There is also signs of illegal squatting. 

Clairvaux photo gallery:

 

There are currently multiple tenants, dominated by the Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC) over about three quarters of the site.

 

Clairvaux Children’s Home had been established at this site outside Katoomba NSW by the then NSW Government’s Child Welfare Department in 1969.  At the time, other state institutions like Mittagong, Brush Farm and Werrington Park were becoming overcrowded, so Clairvaux was opened (outside remote Katoomba) to house another 24 ‘wards of the state‘. 

In the beginning, the Home provided accommodation for boys who were described as having “intellectual disabilities”.  However, over the years, regrettably paedophilia rape stories emerged about the boys’ mistreatment and horrific sexual abuse.  Clairvaux Children’s Home had been allowed by the NSW Government to become an “offending institution”…

 

“Clairvaux Childrens Home was ultimately closed in 1990, remembered only by the boys (now men) who lived there.  In 2014, the grand old building was repurposed into the Clairvaux Community Centre and now serves as the operations centre for a wide range of community-based charities.”

[SOURCE: ‘Offending Institution: Clairvaux Children’s Home’,  ^https://kelsolawyers.com/au/institutions/clairvaux-childrens-home/]

 

We reproduce the published article of Kelso Lawyers herewith:

 

“Offending Institution: Clairvaux Children’s Home”

SOURCE:  ^https://kelsolawyers.com/au/institutions/clairvaux-childrens-home/

 

“Clairvaux Children’s Home was established at Katoomba NSW by the Child Welfare Department in 1969. At the time, other state institutions like Mittagong, Brush Farm and Werrington Park were becoming overcrowded, so Clairvaux was opened to house another 24 wards of the state.

In the beginning, the Home provided accommodation for boys who were described as having intellectual disabilities.
Clairvaux was closed in 1990, remembered only by the boys (now men) who lived there. In 2014, the grand old building was repurposed into the Clairvaux Community Centre and now serves as the operations centre for a wide range of community-based charities.

But what happened behind closed doors between 1969 and 1990 was disturbing, to say the least — but you won’t hear about it in the news. The boys’ complaints were brushed off by their houseparents and other members of staff on-site.

As wards of the state, they had nowhere else to turn. They lived out of sight of the community. They didn’t have a voice.
In this article, we share the story of one individual who suffered at the hands of a cleaner who worked at Clairvaux.

Active paedophiles roamed the grounds

Image: Care Leavers Association

 

A former resident of Clairvaux (who remains unnamed for privacy) was only six-years-old when he arrived at Clairvaux as a state ward. For the next 10 years, he was sexually abused weekly by a cleaner named “Darryl” who the victim remembered had red hair — a recognisable, memorable feature.

The victim was often sexually abused in Darryl’s work shed, located near the Home’s pool.

Darryl subjected the child to anal penetration every single time.

Believing that someone would help him or at least send Darryl away, the victim told his houseparents, Mr and Mrs Brady, about what was happening to him. Rather than reporting Darryl to the police, they ignored the complaints and the cleaner continued to work there… and continued to abuse the vulnerable child.

The victim then tried to report the abuse to the woman who cooked in the kitchen. She at least sent the child to be checked over by the nurse but again, nothing was done to help him.

With nowhere left to turn, the victim ran away many times but was caught every time.

Eventually, the Department removed him from Clairvaux and sent him to Reiby Youth Justice Centre, followed by Mt Penang Training School. This was a common practice for boys who were considered “difficult to manage”.

Reiby and Mt Penang are known for their harsh discipline and rampant sexual abuse. For this particular victim, moving to Reiby and Mt Penang was not a “light at the end of the tunnel”. Safety was not a luxury enjoyed by the boys who lived there.

If you were abused at Clairvaux, we want to hear your story

So little information is known about Clairvaux and the boys who lived there. Their stories have been lost in time — many are too scared to come forward and tell their stories. This is not uncommon; around 60% of survivors never disclose their experiences with abuse. Many are ashamed and fear they will not be believed.

There are many grown men who still haven’t spoken about their abuse by Darryl the red-haired cleaner, other on-site staff or by their own houseparents.

At Kelso Lawyers, we want to hear your story. Our specialist lawyers have helped hundreds of survivors achieve compensation across Australia. We will lend a sympathetic ear and most importantly, we will believe every word you say.

From here, we will make the compensation application process as simple and stress-free as possible. It is our goal to ensure you achieve the best possible outcome and achieve your own personal breakthrough.”

 

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The home buildings have been abandoned ever since.  They are situated off Cedar Street, at a quite separate location to the Wildplant Rescue nursery which is accessed off Hall Street over 250m around the corner.

Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service is wholly a community service.  It is the first of its kind in Australia, conceived and founded by local Blackheath village residents Mikla Lewis and Naturalist Wyn Jones in January 1993 to be a community driven, not-for-profit organisation, based in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales to help protect and promote the natural values of the Blue Mountains.   It operates to rescue and re-home wild native plants, and to propagate these in its  substantial dedicated in order to supply a range of locally endemic plants to local community bushcare groups, landscapers and to the local Blue Mountains Council for ongoing native habitat rehabilitation projects. 

Copy on an early newsletter to members ‘Wildplant Press:

The Blue Mountains region, despite being mostly world heritage listed in 2000 continues to come under housing land use development pressures from hundreds of building permits issued every year, with most of the development affecting unspoiled native vegetation.   

“Block by block, the bushland nature of the Blue Mountains urban area was being slowly but steadily lost, replaced by exotic gardens which deprive native wildlife of food and habit and create huge weed problems in surrounding bushland and National Park.    As the group evolved, the original idea of rescuing native plants developed into a bigger plan. The group became aware of the importance of protecting wildplant and wildlife communities in the Blue Mountains on a broader scale than solely rescuing condemned wildplants.  The collection of seeds and cuttings for propagation and on-selling to the local community was added to the concept.  The facilities at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden were used for propagation of rescued seeds and cuttings, which were then cared for by group members in their own gardens.”

[SOURCE:  ^https://www.wildplantrescue.org.au/about]

Indeed, the website of Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service was made possible by the Federal Government’s Stronger Communities Grant.

As well as engaging dozens of local community volunteers, the nursery also employs disabled young people as well as youth offenders undergoing rehabilitation and community re-adjustment through various governmental programmes.  These would all cease if the DCJ bean counters get their way. 

So what the hell is the Minns Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) thinking by destroying a community project – seriously?

DCJ’s website motto:  “We work with children, young people, adults, families and communities to support vibrant, sustainable and inclusive communities.” 

Is this seriously hypocritical or what?  DCJ’s threat to shut down this community nursery. 

What a hotch-potch of disconnected public service functions the DCJ is!  It combines a legal justice type portfolio with community services.  Cop this disparate mixed bag of its portfolios in DCJ’s Executive Structure:

1. Social Housing
2. Disaster Welfare
3. Courts and Tribunals
4. Victims Services
5. Child Protection
6. Disability
7. Seniors
8. Women’s Safety
9. Youth Justice
10. High Cost Emergency Arrangements
11. Law Reform
12. Volunteering
13. Sentencing
14. Disease Testing
15. Jury Service
16. Domestic Violence
17. Anti-Discrimination
18. Custodial Services (Prisons)
19. Legal Services
20. Public Defenders Office
21. Solicitor General
22. Aboriginal Outcomes
23. IT Services
24. Financial Performance and Transformation
25. Compliance
26. Anti-Slavery
27. Infrastructure and Assets

It’s a miscellaneous bucket list, and may as well be badged ‘Other’.

The last one here is managed by  Katherine Tollner.  She’d be the one going after  WildPlant Rescue in cahoots with Financial Performance and Transformation’s Bronwyn Roy and Social Housing’s (Homes NSW) Rebecca Pinkstone.   And how is Wildplant Rescue not recognised given that DCJ has a Volunteering programme?

Combined, DCJ’s has a bloated army of staff currently numbering 24,000 with a annual spend of $17 billion according to its 2024 annual report!  That is 13% of the NSW Government’s annual spend of $130 billion according to the Audit Office of New South Wales website.  It spends more than it earns.  Its accumulated debt is $137 billion, with official forecast annual interest payments on debt to be (conservatively) $8.6 billion for 2027-28.   So, Macquarie Street under the Liberal-National Coalition or Labor/Greens spends half of DCJ’s budget on interest repayments.

Well, Macquarie Street knows how to spend taxpayers’ money like proverbial drunken sailors.  It has programme sub-departments to conjure up new programmes to ensure it spends all it gets annually, so its budget doesn’t fall in subsequent years.  [NOTE:  One is familiar with the NSW governmental bureaucracy, having contracted as a management accountant for multiple NSW Government departments for over a decade].

In the case of the building that houses Wildplant Rescue’s administrative office and other separate outbuildings on the old Clairvaux site, the DCJ has neglected building maintenance and proper upkeep for many decades. 

DCJ’s current so-called Executive Director for its Infrastructure and Assets portfolio since Sep 2019 (less lockdowns),  Katherine Tollner, has three months governmental experience in a property portfolio as Executive Director Property, Fleet & Procurement at NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure  (Jul 2019 – Sep 2019).

 

The NSW Minns Labor Ministry includes this Department Communities and Justice, so-called (DCJ).   But under Premier Minns, it is a mish mash mega department of unrelated portfolios as follows:

1. Attorney General: The Hon. Michael Daley SC, MP
2. Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Disability Inclusion: The Hon. Kate Washington MP
3. Minister for Youth Justice: The Hon. Jihad Dib MP
4. Minister for Corrections: The Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP
5. Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness, Minister for Youth: The Hon. Rose Jackson MP
6. Minister for Veterans: The Hon. David Harris MP
7. Minister for Seniors, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault: The Hon. Jodie Harrison MP  

So not one minister is accountable.  Which one is in charge of the eviction threat?  This mega department is supposed to be about ‘communities’ as its name suggests. 

The three non-government organisations that are the tenants at the Clairvaux Community Centre are:

1. Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service, the native plant nursery
2. The Blue Mountains Aboriginal Culture and Resource Centre (ACRC), which has been at Clairvaux for 27 years and claims “to provide crucial support services to the local First Nations community”
3. Leura Day Options, a disability support service provided by Greystanes Disability Service

These are each COMMUNITY based services.  Hello!

It’s website About Us page reads:

“We work with children, young people, adults, families and communities to support vibrant, sustainable and inclusive communities.”

 

 

 

 

SOURCE:  ^https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/about-dcj.html

At Clairvaux COMMUNITY Centre, the tenants facing eviction are a COMMUNITY nursery, an Aboriginal COMMUNITY centre and a disability support centre for disabled members of the local  COMMUNITY.

What hypocrisy!   The DCJ is also supposed to be about justice, as the name suggest – but it seems it’s more like ‘injustice’.

 

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Council’s Centre for “Planetary Health” – seriously again?

 

In 2022, Blue Mountains councillors voted unanimously to oppose the eviction of the community groups that use Clairvaux by the DCJ!  The mayor will support Trish Doyle’s appeal to the Minister to reconsider.

That same year, the Blue Mountains Council purchased the adjacent defunct Katoomba Golf Clubhouse situated on 30 hectares of public land (long controlled by Council), Council decided to re-branded it a ‘Centre for Planetary Health‘…whatever that means. 

 

We point out that Blue Mountains Council had over previous decades, owned the public land of the Katoomba Golf Course, in its entrusted capacity as a custodian on behalf of the citizens of the Blue Mountains local government area it represents in trust.  But the various golf course club operators had gone bankrupt and ‘sympathetically connected’ councillors had bailed them out using ratepayer funds. Say no more.

During the time of 2022, as part of Council’s community consultation outreach invitation, Steven responded to Council in writing proposing that a small portion (1/2 hectare) of the old golf course site be considered by Council allocated to Wildplant Rescue’s nursery, given the imminent threat of the nursery’s eviction from its current site.  The current nursery site directly across the street from the old golf course at 14 Oak Street covers about that size. 

This relocation literally just across the street, would be the most convenient option for Wildplant Rescue out of other flagged site options considered, if eviction became imminent and unavoidable.  Other considered options had been Planet Ark’s former site in Wentworth Falls (north side) off 321 Blaxland Road and the original proposed site for the nursery at the old and disused Blackheath Tip (2 hectare) site off Ridgewell Road, situated about 600 metres along the road from the Great Western Highway, just east of the locked road gate for the Hanging Rock Parking Area.  See map below. 

 

 

 

Recall the lead newspaper article above:

 

‘The group had talks with council about a possible site during the planning of the old Katoomba golf course precinct.  But a spokeswoman for council said:

 “a plant nursery is not a permissible use on this site under the current zoning, and an amendment to the LEP would be required to include this and other additional uses.  That would be a lengthy process including making a submission to the state government and further public consultation.”….

 

 

In 2022, Blue Mountains City Council has voiced its concern over the threat of eviction for three community non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the Clairvaux Centre in Katoomba.

At the council meeting of February 22, Labor mayor Mark Greenhill introduced a minute that detailed how the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) intends to end the lease of the Clairvaux Centre-based NGOs because of renovation costs.

“We need to stand up for those affected NGOS, they operate significant community support services to the Blue Mountains,” said Cr Greenhill. “When I heard about this I was horrified.”

Ward 1 Labor councillor, Suzie van Opdorp, who has an association with the Clairvaux Centre that extends back to the 1980s, also voiced her concerns over the eviction threat.

“These groups are feeling very anxious about their future,” she said. “As anyone would know who has lived and worked in the Mountains, there’s a scarcity of affordable office space for community organisations … These groups are really going to struggle if they’re put out to the open market to look for accommodation – some of them may not survive.  It’s clear the facility is worth a lot of money. Our state government has gone about selling lots of publicly owned assets, and I can imagine it would be very tempting to sell this off.”

Ward 2 Greens councillor Brent Hoare and Ward 1 Greens councillor Sarah Redshaw also expressed their disappointment with the proposed eviction, Cr Hoare accusing the state government of “demolition by neglect”.

Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) have finally answered our questions regarding our suggested involvement in the Planetary Health Initiative on the old Katoomba Golf Course.

BMCC have now clearly stated that this is not a viable option for us because of zoning and other issues which would take years of process to remedy, if at all.  They have also confirmed they have no other suitable site available within their portfolio to which the nursery could be relocated. Despite expressing their concern and saying they really value our contribution to the community, they say they can do nothing more to help us.

Yet local Blue Mountains Council has its new ‘Centre for Planetary Health‘ notion situated immediately across the road from Wildplant Rescue’s current site!

This relocation option beckons – more anon.

 

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References:

 

[1]  ‘Eviction looming‘, 20250115, Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper, p.1, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/8863682/wildplant-nursery-in-katoomba-faces-uncertain-future/?msg=login

 

[2]  ‘Eviction Update‘, Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue (website), ^https://www.wildplantrescue.org.au/blog/eviction-update

  

[3]  ‘NGOs may have to leave Clairvaux Centre due to renovation costs‘, 2022-03-18, by A.B.M. Smith, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/7651440/clairvaux-eviction-threat/

 

[4]  ‘Plans still afoot to fix Blackheath tip‘, 2021-07-27, by Jennie Curtin, Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/7352079/tip-clean-up-still-pending/

 

[5]  ‘Eviction Threat for Wildplant‘, 2025-01-08, ^https://www.wildplantrescue.org.au/blog/eviction-threat-for-wildplant

 

[6]   ‘Landlords face fines for ‘non-genuine’ eviction reasons‘, 2024-07-28, by Jack Gramenz and Callum Godde, Australian Associated Press, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/8709944/landlords-face-fines-for-non-genuine-eviction-reasons/

 

[7]  ‘Heritage for housing‘,  2021-09-13, Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper,  ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/7413951/heritage-for-housing/?msg=login

 

 

[9]   ‘Offending Institution: Clairvaux Children’s Home‘,  Kelso Lawyers website,  ^https://kelsolawyers.com/au/institutions/clairvaux-childrens-home/

 

[10]   ‘Landmark Win For Renters: NSW Rental Reform Bans No-Grounds Evictions and Caps Rent Increases‘, 2024-10-25, by Christine Lai, CityHub, ^https://cityhub.com.au/nsw-rental-reform-no-grounds-evictions-capped-rent-increases/

 

[11]   ‘Changes to rental laws‘,  NSW Government  (Minns Labor), 2024-10-24,  ^https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/fair-trading/changes-to-rental-laws

 

 

When we bought our 1920’s cottage bungalow in The Gully Catchment (Katoomba Falls Creek Valley) back in 2000, it was run down and surrounded by lawns front and back. 

Since then over the past nearly 25 years, we removed all the lawn, renewed the dilapidated fences, annexed the verge with a fern rockery, terraced the front and planted many trees (including a Mountains Blue Gum), hedging and what has now become a micro temperate rainforest with now 17 tree ferns under an established canopy.  The image above is one of a number we planted in Spring.

The birds have come back – crimson roselas, king parrots, magpies, currawongs, a few sulphur crested white cockatoos, bower birds, wattle birds, seasonal koels, New Holland honey eaters, thornbills.

Whilst we have not sought to re-establish the local forest ecology, our small plot is contributing to  the ecology fringe buffer between The Gully and the surrounding township of Katoomba.

Welcome to Australia.

We are not about inculcating divisiveness of this local, national and global conservation cause.  That’s for nasty politics with ulterior motives – we stand well clear of such lot.

 

 

So, following the loud noise disturbance from the Katoomba Carrington Hotel on Saturday 26th October 2024, and from our failed attempt to chat with the hotel’s festival organiser, who immediately ordered us off his premises, we notify local Blue Mountains Council on the following Monday 28th October when Council is back at work.

We lodged a Customer Service Request (CSR 514828) to Council and request a dialogue about this matter. 

This Carrington’s owner had setup some brass band with additional amplified music situated in the guest car park that played over towards adjoining residences, rather than having previously utilised their approved festival space (of equivalent size) on the other side of The Carrington’s grounds in the more suitable bustling retail heart of uptown Katoomba just off high street Katoomba Street.

We received no response from back from Council by Wednesday 30th October.   So we emailed out complaint to Council in writing as follows, and this isn’t the first time we’ve raised this intrusively loud amplified noise issue with this Carrington owner. 

 

 

Attention:  Council’s Programme Leader for Health and Compliance

 

RE: Noise Complaints – Carrington Hotel amplified music | CSR 514828/13 Feb 2024 | CSR 558418/28-Oct-2024

I hereby again complain a second time to you about the amplified noise coming from The Carrington Hotel premises…

PLAY:  >Brass Band Playing from Carrington Car Park

 

Last time, on 13th February this year I had previously raised this noise problem with both The Carrington management via its Reception and then local Council.   A day later I happend to then receive a phone call from one of the joint owners of the Carrington Hotel identifying himself to me as Michael Brischetto.   I explained to him about my genuine concerns about the very loud amplified music audible from my place and our conversation then was amicable.

Now we have another noise disturbance incident. 

All I seek in this matter is a right to quiet enjoyment of where I live in an historical and typically quiet residential neighbourhood. I am concerned about this new noise becoming a precedent and a more frequent occurrence if not nipped in the bud.

My records and expressed concerns support my real worries about what this ‘new noise’ pollution could lead to, to risk destroying our peaceful home environment:

 

1.  I refer to my email to you 7th March 2024 about the loud amplified music noise at The Carrington Hotel car park off Parke Street in Katoomba, and also from last Saturday 26th October 2024.

 

2.  This loud noise was clearly audible to me at my home, being situated three streets away to the west in Kundibar Street. The noise started in the morning, and on and off, continued into the night. The first I heard it, it was a loud small brass band playing with a heavy bass guitar reverberating deep sound that was audible from inside my home. I happened to have been ill that day and I was asleep in bed, and this noise woke me up.

 

3.  This amplified noise could be heard as far away as Waimea Street in The Gully, more than 250 metres away westward through this residential precinct.  I had a walk around the block that day and I confirm this. [See attached ‘Residential Proximity to Noise Map’]

 

 

4.  I then went to inspect where the noise from coming from and found it emanating from The Carrington Hotel’s car park off Parke Street, used again for a music festival – this time The Carrington’s own ‘Oktoberfest’ festival involving live bands (amplified music) and selling beer in The Carrington’s car park.

 

5.  Again, as a local resident, I consider it highly inappropriate and disrespectful that amplified noise be allowed to occur adjacent to residential homes and audible into the back streets beyond.

 

6.  Generally, The Carrington Hotel’s owners permit public access on site to the Grounds, Front Verandah, Reception, the Cocktail Bar, its adjoining toilets, Lounge and Dining spaces. On this particular Saturday, public access was granted to the car park’s upper level where the festival was taking place under a large marquee. So as a member of the public I was free to walk around the grounds and the upper level of the car park and to freely take ‘tourist’ photos.

This I did.

 

7.   I noticed the event’s signage on the day read that it was open to general public. I also read the event promotional banner above the car park lower-level eastern entrance read ‘Free admission’.

 

8.   As supporting evidence, I attach photos I took last Saturday on foot as well as my audio recording (software of which does not reflect the true loudness of the actual volume).

 

9.   For your reference, also as supporting evidence I attach copies of excerpts of The Carrington’s public website specific to this event ’Oktoberfest’. SOURCE: ^https://thecarrington.com.au/whats-on/oktoberfest/ [Accessed: 30-Oct-2024]

 

10.  My understanding is that The Carrington a few years back (perhaps 2015) gained Council approval to double the size of its car park by converting it into a two-storey car park. But this car park second-story development was surely not approved as a venue for holding festivals, concerts, serving alcohol and encouraging large crowd gathering, nor for playing loud amplified music. Is this the case?

 

11.   The Carrington’s website advertised this event to occur between 11am and 9pm on the Saturday. Did Council give approval to The Carrington Hotels owners for this event and amplified music?

 

12.   The juxtaposition of this car park is directly across the street from residential homes.  Indeed, these homes at situated in a heritage housing conservation precinct dating back to the 1870s.  It includes heritage listed ‘North’s Estate’ which pre-dates The Carrington Hotel opening of 1883.  This Norths Estate’ is where I live and have done so in residential quiet enjoyment continually since 2001.

 

13.   The current owners of The Carrington Hotel date their ownership to 2004.

 

14.   I request a copy of council’s consent conditions for this car park development, since I am an adversely affected neighbour to this development use.

 

15.   Did Council approve the use of the car park for festivals including loud amplified noise that could be audible into the adjoining residential area many streets away?

 

16.  On this occasion, I walked up to the pedestrian entrance to this festival in the car park and met a man in a silly pixie hat and costume wearing sunglasses (my photo attached) there gatekeeping the festival’s entrance, who then identified himself as one of the joint owners of The Carrington. It was Michael Brischetto again.

I expressed my concerns to Mr Brischetto politely about the loud amplified noise, pointing out that I live just a few streets away.

But he was quite rude to me, refusing to listen to me, and recalled my previous complaint from the February festival and realised I was the same person who had complained then.

Mr Brischetto then immediately ordered me to “Get off my property!”  So I immediately did so.

 

17.  So, having tried to reason with Michael Brischetto unsuccessfully, I now complain to Council about this noise.

 

18.  As before, I request such loud festival events not be staged in The Carrington’s purpose-built car park off Katoomba’s Parke Street, but rather at the dedicated grassed lawn area (below), which has been successfully used previously for such festivals as the Lady Luck Festival (of the past 14 years) , which is more appropriately located off Katoomba Street in the heart of retail Katoomba, some 200 metres east of the car park.

 

 

I am sure that both The Carrington Hotel owners and Council could readily work together toward a mutually suitable arrangement for such ongoing festivals, so as not to upset local residents like me and my family by it using its unintended car park near homes.

 

19.  This time, I request Council actually contacts the owners of The Carrington about this matter, notifies them of my complaint and that Council does something to address it, ideally prohibit such loud amplified music from being played from its car park off Parke Street please.

 

20. I am prepared to go public on this matter, and indeed pursue this matter legally.

 

Sincerely,

Steven Ridd
Conservation Consultant

W: https://habitatadvocate.com.au/
T: 02-4782 1300

 

We have just been notified by IP Australia, the Australian Government’s official registry of intellectual property (that is, governing Australian trademarks, patents and designs, etc. by home grown Australians) that The Habitat Advocate branded logo (image above) has just been legally registered in Australia. 

On the record, this is from 30th September 2024. 

 

So, we’re pretty happy with this, just quietly.  That’s why we’re happily informing the whole Planet! 🙂

 

A moment of indulgent reflection, if one may…

 

Well, it’s been a while for us.  

Steven John Ridd is the founder of The Habitat Advocate, an environmental conservation advocacy website, championing the cause of the rights of native habitat. 

Born in Melbourne, then having travelled on sabbatical, and then having relocated from renting in expensive eastern Sydney’s Randwick out to regional Katoomba in the natural Blue Mountains in 2001, I first registered the business name ‘The Habitat Advocate‘ with the then NSW Department of Fair Trading at Parramatta and the domain habitatadvocate.com.au together back on 10^th May 2006.  A date close to my heart. 

I have used the motto for The Habitat Advocate publicly since 2001, and the logo since 2006.

I felt I needed to protect both; this is especially since recently on Google, the use of the word ‘habitat’ and the term ‘habitat advocate’ have become popularised terms used by unrelated others for other purposes.  May be they just liked the concept.  I did back in 2001 before the trend, because of its genuine natural meaning that was understandable to many, rather than use more highfalutin scientific terms like ‘ecology‘.  

So, I commissioned this particular image to be painted by professional wildlife artist, Lyn Naismith, back in 2006 and I invaluably hold her original artwork.

I conceived and designed the logo to be of Australia’s most threatened endemic top order predator in the ecological food chain, the Tigerquoll.  I wanted to convey the message of the ongoing threats to native habitat.  So, I felt it necessary that the logo image convey reality of being threatened, rearing up on a dead tree branch with nowhere to retreat in its native habitat.  

Ecologically, if top order predator communities subsist healthily, then that is a positive signal that the broader localised ecology is healthy as well.  That is why we chose the Tigerquoll symbolically.

And we prefer the name Tigerquoll rather than the more lame academic descriptive term of ‘Spotted Tailed Quoll’.   That is, we wouldn’t suggest anyone try to pick up and cuddle a Tigerquoll without being ripped to shreds.   It’s just like we wouldn’t suggest anyone try to pick up and cuddle an Australian native Brush-tailed Possum with is strong sharp claws and territorialness.  Tigerquolls eat Brushtailed Possums for breakfast, if you know what I mean.

 

So, I sincerely thank Lyn for reading my sentiments in this respect exactly, to her credit.

The Tigerquoll remains an endangered native Australian Tigerquoll (Scientific name: Dasyurus maculatus).  Further reading:  http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=75184

Bureaucratic wheels turn slowly, but now I own the image as a registered logo.  There is one held in captivity in Healesville Sanctuary, but since it is nocturnal, no visitors get to see it in its enclosure by day, and the sanctuary is closed by night.  Crazy idea that.

 

 

From our personal experience, we would NOT describe The Carrington Hotel as being a good neighbour in Katoomba where we live.

On Saturday late morning 26th October 2024, from where we live in The Gully Catchment of Katoomba, we were dozing at home as not feeling particularly well.

Suddenly, we then get this pounding deep bass sound reverberating from somewhere not far away.  It was so loud that it became impossible to sleep through.  Where was it coming from?

Ours is a quiet residential neighbourhood set in the oldest heritage precinct of the Blue Mountains.  Our street dates to the 1870s, even before The Carrington Hotel of 1883 up on the hill.

So we get up and dress to investigate the noisy racket.   We shortly find the source just three short streets away.   We reproduce two samples below, but the volume is ten times louder that what the AMR software on our iPhone has captured.  Most of the band playing sounds out of tune.

Noisy Carrington Hotel – car park festival

 

And we discover some beer fest going on!  

 

It’s that bloody Carrington Hotel again, thumping its amplified festival music from what is supposed to be its large car park rooftop on nearby Parke Street on the top of the hill in our township of Katoomba.   

We had previously raised our concerns about a similar car park festival episode directly with one of The Carrington’s joint owners on a previous occasion back in February 2024, when some other concert started up on top of the same car park playing loud amplified music (multiple large stage speakers pointing in direction of our home) so audible as to be heard down into The Gully, half a kilometre away.  

On this occasion, 26th October, it was some blood brass band amplified up at full volume, again!   WTF!

Yet there are residential homes just across Parke Street, just metres away from the stage where the band is playing, like ours about 300 metres away from the now fabricated temporary stage.

This is what we heard and saw on the car park second storey upon our investigation after having just woken up…

 

This is just not fair!  A festival with loud amplified music set up juxtaposed to residential homes?   It’s so selfish and arrogant and it’s not right.  It’s hardly respecting the rights of immediate locals like us to our quiet enjoyment.  It’s a noise impost.

And it’s also so unnecessary that this particularly large accommodation hotel with options of utilising its multiple internal entertainment spaces and on such an extensive site, should resort to re-purposing its purpose built guest car park into a festival venue and so cause annoyance to locals immediately across the street (Parke Street) and on to adjoining quiet back streets like ours within earshot. 

We say this because The Carrington Hotel has ready onsite access also to a similarly sized level grassed area at the front of the hotel site just off retail Katoomba Street.   The Carrington has long used this level open lawned space for various festivals and events.  It’s a perfect location in the retail heart of Katoomba!

 

So, then why move the Carrington’s marquee from here in town to the rear car park opposite residences?

Today, unable to sleep and feeling a bit crook, we approached the entrance to the car park festival and briefly expressed our concerns to some bloke in a pixie hat and joker costume about the loud amplified noise and that we lived just a few streets away.   The bloke happened to be one of The Carrington’s joint owners in disguise.  He promptly got agitated with one’s comments and then immediately ordered me to leave his property, as in “bugger off”!  

 

 

As a Katoomba resident where we live since 2001, we provide some instructional background.

A few years back, Blue Mountains Council granted The Carrington Hotel development approval to double the size of its car park off Parke Street on its very large site.  The approval was to build a second storey car park above the existing car park so as to double off-street parking capacity for its in-house guests.  This followed substantial renovations of many rooms which so increased the hotel’s accommodation capacity.

We have no problem about The Carrington Hotel’s enlarged car park being used as a car park for its staying guests.  The investment into restoring, upgrading and diversifying the Carrington continues to wonderfully appreciated for Katoomba.  As long locals we know of no other tourism establishment that has done so this this extent.   This is a credit to its joint owners.

The car park concrete structure is about the size of a narrow-elongated  basketball court and further dominates the hotel’s 4 storey high-rise landscape on top of the hill in uptown Katoomba.

 

 

But why a decision for a remote miniature Oktoberfest festival in Katoomba outside Sydney, when there has long been a huge one in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens annually every October attracting thousands?  It’s held on the very same day on the 26th! 

So why the hell would tourists in Sydney not conveniently head close by to the real big deal in Sydney, to instead choose a 4-hour return train ride to The Carrington car park in Katoomba for a half-pint to bad music?  No chance!

 

A big double storey concrete car park is one thing, but then we discover they’re starting to use it for ticketed music festivals and even lease it out to independent festival organisers.   So they’re profiting from festivals despite never having had such Council approval to do so.   We would have objected had the development application plans included converting the car park into a venue for external festival hire. 

This is the car park in question showing its driveway entrance off Parke Street.  The brass band is playing behind the car park gates on a stage behind the calico screen inside the temporary marquee. 

 

The following aerial view of this precinct in Katoomba (Google Maps) shows the relevant juxtaposition of The Carrington hotel with its car park used as a band stage (shown in red), plus the  remaining section of the car park for audience seating and outdoors drinking of German beers in large jugs. 

It also shows the proximity of the residential housing and also the similar sized garden lawn (yellow rectangle) situated within the Carrington grounds off Katoomba Street.

 

 

 

So why doesn’t the Carrington simply return to using the Council-approved outdoor entertainment space it had purposely re-developed on its flat lawned area right in the retail heart of Katoomba, rather than pissing off local residents to the west of the hotel.

Some big business people presume they can do what they want and bugger everyone else?   Perhaps the owners would benefit more by investing quality time researching negotiation pathways with local Council to mitigate the costs of returning to utilising the grassed area for events as before and the Carrington’s similarly sized large ballroom.  But diversifying into illegally using the hotel’s guest car park to hock for event leasing to external festival organisers for a pittance return?   

Indeed the event is promoted as “free admission” as per the banner outside (see below).   So what its the point of this event?  The musicians would not be performing for free.  Only the beer it seems, is for sale.   So the whole thing appears to be a loss making exercise.  Is this for the indulgence of the pixie who just likes getting dress down and drinking beer?  Or is he just wanting to piss off the neighbours?

 

Of course, while the car park has been leased out, many of The Carrington’s in-house guests will be denied the brochured off-street parking, so be relegated to use Council’s on street paid parking, costing over $100 per day.  We suggest this pet project to annoy locals is a false economy.   So as Katoomba long-time locals, we wont be frequenting The Carrington any time soon.  The actions of The Carrington are so unneighbourly.

The big concern we have is that this illegal use of the car park repurposed for festivals, risks setting a precedent for drunken crowds and on a more frequent basis.   The toilets are not convenient to the car park.  The only toilets are well inside the hotel itself, passed reception, passed the bar if you now where to find them.  So what is preventing drunken party goers after downing a full German beer jug or three, desperate for a leak, taking advance of the adjacent brick walls of the adjoining Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and the front fences of local homes to urinate into the wee hours.   There are no toilets in the car park.  Is the car park a licensed venue to serve alcohol?  We’ve not heard.

What is to come if this is allowed to snowball into a more regular Carrington Hotel Booze Fest, fuelled by incoming bus loads of yobbos on bucks nights.

Surely, no Katoomba local here wants this problem.  The festival lease brain-snap for a re-purposing of the car park needs to stopped in it tracks before it morphs out of control!

 

 

Where is local Blue Mountains Council in all this?

 

Comment:

 

Judy Harding: 

“I text the Carrington saying I was considering staying there but have been told it’s too noisy because of the bands playing in the car park so I have decided to stay in Leura.” 

 

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References:

 

[1]   ‘Katoomba now Australia’s booze capital‘, 2021-02-21, ‘Mountains Drums’ blog, Nature Trail website, ^https://naturetrail.com.au/blog-post/katoomba-now-australias-booze-capital/

 

[2]   ‘Oktoberfest in the Gardens‘,  Botanic Gardens of Sydney,  ^https://www.botanicgardens.org.au/whats-on/oktoberfest-gardens, Australia’s biggest and best Oktoberfest celebration returns to Sydney in 2024,    Abstract: “Inspired by a love of the traditional Bavarian festival and great beer.  Oktoberfest in the Gardens Sydney features two massive beer halls, authentic German food stalls, roving performers, sideshow alley, silent disco and an eclectic mix of entertainment and competitions across multiple stages throughout the afternoon and evening.  Taste your way across Europe with a large selection of imported German beer, cider, wine and a range of other beverages.”

 

[3]   ‘Oktoberfest‘, The Carrington Hotel, ^https://thecarrington.com.au/whats-on/oktoberfest/

 

[4]   ‘Lady Luck Festival‘,  The Carrington Hotel website, ^https://thecarrington.com.au/whats-on/ladyluck/

 

This is yet another example of neglected stormwater runoff maintenance by Blue Mountains {city} Council.     Its in-creek water pollution trap (vane style) device is situated just above Katoomba Falls (left of photo). 

 

 

This pollution detritus trap has, from our very local experience over two decades, been typically full of destroyed native vegetation debris caused by (a) torrential rain events, and (b) bushland clearing (deforestation).  It has also been observed typically full of siltation from (a) upstream creek bank erosion through Maple Grove, (b) from housing construction sand and graded topsoil, and (c) from unfiltered urban stormwater waste ignored by Council since it was established first as the Municipality of Katoomba in 1889. 

We have lived in The Gully Water Catchment since 2001.  The Gully Water Catchment includes all land with watercourses and natural drainage flowing to Katoomba Falls, and we have taken a keen interest in this natural place.  

 

From our observed experience as local environmental activists, Council’s ongoing management culture is such that it focuses on the capital works projects, obtains external grant funding (usually from the NSW Government) but then fails to budget and resource the ongoing maintenance of such capital works projects.  This Baramy Trap is another case in point.

We repeatedly observe this pollution trap full and overflowing for months at a time, so the trap overflows and the continuing detritus flows downstream into the downstream Kedumba River to supply Greater Sydney’s drinking water to Sydney’s artificial Lake Burragorang for Sydney and a Greater Sydney so scarily morphing beyond.  Currently this pollution trap has been full of sand sediment for many months.   

The above photo shows the concrete ramp down to the pollution trap for access by a small front-end mechanical loader designed to remove the sand and debris pollution into a waiting tip-truck.  

 

Council is supposed to maintain it and clean it out on an ‘as-needed‘ basis periodically, but it doesn’t.  The following is an extract of Baramy’s terms and conditions for this pollution device once installed.  

We obtained a copy of these terms and conditions back in 2004 when The Friends of Katoomba Falls Creek Valley Inc. (the Friends) sought a quote for a similar but smaller pollution device (4 m long x 2.1 m wide) previously to be constructed in the same creek further upstream.   Baramy’s quote came in at $26,000 and we referred this initiative for action/grant funding to Council – it being the custodian of this community land and the creek water catchment.  But Council ignored it.  

In this case Council is the “customer” having paid to have this much larger device constructed by Baramy Engineering in this different location much further downstream.  It would have cost Council double, constructed probably around 2005 from one’s memory.  

Council’s culture 

Council has form of having its other non-environmental priorities, such as its latest newfangled ‘Planetary Health Initiative’ to showcase its environmental stewardship, when it is just more greenwashing.

Previously, all such debris, sediment and stormwater pollution into the creek used to just flow over Katoomba Cascades and further downstream over Katoomba Falls into the Kedumba River below and southward through the Jamison Valley.   

 

 

 

By the way, Upper Mountains sewage design (Katoomba, Leura, Wentworth Falls) back between 1907 and the 1990’s also flowed by iron piping down into the Jamison Valley to the former Leura Sewage Treatment Plant (historic image below) situated just by Leura Falls Creek between Echo Point and Sublime Point.   The iron piping still can be seen along hiking tracks down the escarpment – the reason for the hiking tracks actually being first constructed. 

We estimate that the current sand quantity filling this particular Creek Pollution Trap would be twenty cubic metres at least.  We reported the problem to Council the day we took the first photo above – receiving Council’s Customer Service Request reference #533082.

We’re not the only locals having noticed this particular in-creek pollution trap full.  Here’s another documented event of the very same pollution trap in February 2020.  It was during the start of Australia’s East Coast Low events associated with the La Niña oscillating weather pattern:

This pollution trap’s exact location is situated beside Cliff Drive in Katoomba on the southern (downstream) side of the road at the road culvert over Katoomba Falls Creek.  See the aerial photographic map below showing the yellow star.  

 

This in-creek pollution trap was constructed by Baramy Engineering Pty Ltd of Katoomba for Council.   

 

The construction timing was a few years or so following The Greater Blue Mountains Area (1 million km²) being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list on 29th November 2000.   Katoomba Falls flows into the Jamison Valley within this World Heritage area.  The Jamison Valley, below these falls (and others) is also part of the drinking water catchment leading to Warragamba Dam supplying an ever-expanding Greater Sydney (current population approaching 5.5 million) adjoining the Blue Mountains region.   

It is the researched opinion of The Habitat Advocate that this World Heritage listing was more about the human utility of protecting the value of Sydney’s drinking water in perpetuity, than it was about protecting the Eucalyptus forests of the Blue Mountains. 

 

Notably, the sand type in this pollution trap appears to be not the naturally river sand, but consistently all the same light colour of Concrete Sand type used commercially in construction.

 

 

Concrete Sand is a coarser sand variety, pivotal in construction use to create strong and durable concrete structures.  It’s typically made from crushed quartz, which gives it a rougher texture, enhancing the binding properties in concrete mixtures. This sand type is indispensable for laying robust foundations, constructing driveways, and forming sidewalks.  This is exactly what is going on in The Gully Catchment upstream of this creek pollution trap.

Whereas the natural creek-bed of Katoomba Falls Creek is comprised of small pebbles.  This editor knows this from being local to Katoomba Falls Creek Valley and having voluntarily performed Streamwatch quality monitoring of Katoomba Falls Creek for five years (2004-2008) on behalf of the Friends of Katoomba Falls Creek Valley, Inc. reporting to the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) within the New South Wales Governments Sydney Water department. 

 

Council doesn’t analyse the sand to determine its source.  Council doesn’t fine the polluters and issue a stop work court order.  Council doesn’t employ a hydrologist or geotechnical engineer on its books.     Yet where is all the housing constrution taking place in the Blue Mountains?   Upstream of the World Heritage area.

In our view, Council is unfit in delegated stewardship as custodian of the geographic plateau of the Blue Mountains Local Government Area (LGA) atop the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area from its atrocious record of failings.   So long as this pollution control device is full and overflowing, sand and debris is flowing downstream over Katoomba Cascades and Katoomba Falls into the Kedumba River.   Parks Service (‘NPWS’) doesn’t monitor pollution levels or water quality in Kedumba River down in the Jamison Valley.

Council doesn’t enforce sediment controls are housing development sites upstream in The Gully Water Catchment (Katoomba Falls Creek Valley).

There are current two large housing subdivision sites contribution to sedimentation of the creek.

 

1.  Katoomba Golf Course – ‘Yarrabee Katoomba’ – a 24 townhouse subdivision

 

 

2.    21 Stuarts Road, Katoomba – massive housing subdivision

Some 13 odd hectares of fragile native bush surrounding an upland brook between Stuarts & Wellington Roads is to be bulldozed into a 53 cluster housing subdivision.

 

 

Council care factor?   Zilch.

 

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References:

 

[1]   ‘Concrete Sand: Essential for Structural Integrity’, ^https://www.constructor.net.au/breaking-down-the-different-types-of-sand-used-in-construction/

 

[2]   ‘Flood photos: Three-day drenching‘,  2021-03-24, Blue Mountains Gazette, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/7178181/flood-photos-three-day-drenching/

 

[3]   ‘Police to co-ordinate evacuation of visitors trapped in Megalong Valley following landslip‘, 2024-04-04, by Damien Madigan, Blue Mountains Gazette, ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/8580550/blue-mountains-flash-flooding-warning-ses/

 

[4]  ‘Katoomba Baramy Trap‘, Maple Grove Reserve, February 2020, video by David King, ^https://www.facebook.com/dingodarbo/videos/maple-grove-reserve-katoomba-baramy-trap-february-2020/783187302176658/?_rdr

 

[5]   ‘Pollution Control Device‘ quote prepared for ‘Frank Walford Park Bushcare’ (Friends of Katoomba Falls Creek Valley Inc), 2004-09-27, by Baramy Engineering Pty Ltd, 7 pages.

 

[6]    ‘Leura Sewage Treatment Works‘, by Ask Roz Blue Mountains, Tourist information centre, ^https://www.facebook.com/AskRozBlueMountains/posts/historic-snapshot-leura-sewage-treatment-works-what-were-they-thinking-if-you-ha/3724364867606906/