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In December, we provided the candidates of the major parties in both the Blue Mountains and Penrith Electorates a comprehensive environmental questionnaire.

Additionally, we said that if asked, we would provide our questionnaire to candidates from the minor parties and independents who had formally nominated. Only the Animal Justice Party's candidate for the Blue Mountains took up that offer.

Responses closed on 20th February.

Responses received are set out, by electorate, as follows -

• Blue Mountains Questionnaire responses
  
  
• Penrith Questionnaire responses

We have chosen several of the major issues confronting the Greater Blue Mountains and analysed the Blue Mountains candidates response to them. Here's our Analysis of the Candidates' Response.

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Business will include receipt of reports, adoption of annual accounts, and the election of President, Management Committee members and other office holders, and the appointment of an auditor.

Here's the Management Committee Positions and their Duties & Responsibilities and a Nomination Form.

Please contact Madi Maclean, Tara Cameron or Don Morison if you wish to discuss any of the positions or be nominated. Here's their contact details.

Our Stealth Campaign - "Wilderness is Sacrosanct”

The AGM will be followed by the showing of a 30 minute documentary film on the Society’s 2004 Stealth Campaign.

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Stop the Development Application (DA # 294/18) to turn Bell Quarry at Newnes Junction into a Waste Management Facility for Sydney’s waste for 15 years!

Both Lithgow City Council and the Blue Mountains City Council do not support this proposal BUT the decision is NOT theirs!

Instead the “Western Regional Planning Panel” will decide our future.

Email your submission to Mr Graeme Faulkner, General Manager, Lithgow City Council at council@lithgow.nsw.gov.au

For further details, here's an ad on behalf of the local communities prepared by the owners of Yengo Endangered Wildlife Reserve.

Here's the Society's submission.

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Bats... they are not blind, do not get caught in your hair and do not suck your blood! Bats are a very misunderstood species, yet are crucial to life on earth.

Come and learn more about bats at the Blue Mountains Bat Night. There will be bat talks, lots of fun batty activities for all; learn about flying foxes and our fascinating microbats. Why not come dressed as a bat! Katoomba library is also going batty staying open late and having even more batty activities. This really is a Bat-Fest!

The only true flying mammal, there are over 1,200 bat species in the world making up almost a quarter of the world’s mammal species. Australia has around 80 different species of bats. At this event you also will be able to hear microbat calls after dark live via a bat detector and meet a Flying Fox!

Enjoy a bat talk with local ecologist Marg Turton and flying fox expert Tim Pearson as well as other bat scientists and aficionados. There will be the popular Bat Cave for kid’s activities such as mask-making and more. Also badge making and temporary bat tattoos. If you get hungry with all this action, support the local RFS at their sausage sizzle.

Here's a leaflet  -   Read all about Bats of the Blue Mountains.

This event is proudly supported by the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Blue Mountains City Council, Blue Mountains Library and the Australasian Bat Society.

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Katoomba Airfield is located at the end of Grand Canyon Road in Medlow Bath. It is completely surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park. This strategic location has been important for bushfire fighting and other emergencies.

The Department of Industry (Crown Land and Water) is currently considering issuing a new long term lease over Katoomba Airfield at Medlow Bath to a private commercial operator.

A short term ‘licence’ was issued to a private commercial operator on 1 February 2018.

The Department advised that community consultation will be undertaken prior to the issuing of any long term lease.

Visit our Katoomba Airfield Lease webpage.

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Sitting on the southern escarpment, Radiata Plateau with its outstanding topography is the last remaining undeveloped peninsula-plateau in the upper Blue Mountains.

Home to rare and threatened species, culturally significant and a magnet for the local outdoor community, Radiata Plateau, towering high above rolling valleys has been in the making for millennia.

Here's the Open Letter to the Hon. Gabrielle Upton, NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage published in the Blue Mountains Gazette on 5th December.

Visit our Leave Radiata Plateau Wild webpages.

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In October 2018, the NSW Government passed legislation to allow the flooding of World Heritage listed national parks by raising the wall of Warragamba Dam.

If the dam wall is raised, 4,700 hectares of World Heritage listed National Parks and 1,800 hectares of declared Wilderness Areas will be forever scarred from sedimentation, erosion and invasion of exotic plants.

Raising Warragamba Dam will inundate 65 kilometres of Blue Mountain's wild rivers.

Visit the Save The Blue Mountains Wild Rivers website.

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One of the most beautiful and intricate sandstone landscapes in Australia - dramatically coloured escarpments and headlands, slot canyons, cave overhangs, ancient sand dunes and the complex arrays of internationally significant rock turrets known as pagodas.

Huge plant diversity, including more than 1,000 species and 33 different vegetation communities (15 of which are threatened or poorly conserved), ancient montane heathlands; nationally endangered upland swamps and a unique species of snow gum.

Learn about the amazing Gardens of Stone, why it needs protecting and how you can help our campaign.

Visit our Gardens of Stone webpages.

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The Society believes that the Western Sydney Airport and its attendant infrastructure and associated industries poses a very real threat to the GBMWHA. And as a result, the Airport is a threat to the Blue Mountains communities, tourism and businesses.

The principal impact on the GBMWHA and Blue Mountains communities of the proposed Western Sydney Airport is aircraft noise.

See more on our campaign against Western Sydney Airport