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The Blue Mountains City Council is holding a Threatened Species Day. Events include talks, kids activities, an Eco-Cinema, environment market and art displays.

Here's a brochure with more details.

For information on threatened species of the Greater Blue Mountains, go to the Society's Threatened Species webpage.

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This maybe the last chance to have Radiata Plateau acquired by the NSW Government and included in the national park system, safeguarding the Plateau’s biodiversity and heritage values and ensuring ongoing public access.

Our goal is 500 letters sent to the Minister in 20 days! So far, we know 50 letters have been sent to the Minister but we need more - much more.

The Minister needs to hear how important Radiata Plateau is for the community and why it should be purchased.

Go to the Leave Radiata Plateau Wild website to download suggested text for your letter to Minister Kean. You should personalise your letter as individual personalised letters carry more weight with politicians than form letters or emails.

Instructions on where to send your letter can be found here.

The Society has already written to Minister Kean, as well as other politicians. Here's our letter to Minister Kean.

Many people have approached the Society about commencing a crowd funding campaign to purchase the Plateau. The Society is actively looking at options for crowd funding – more on this soon.

The Society and the local community have campaigned to have the Plateau included in the national park system for over thirty years. We see management by the National Parks and Wildlife Service as the best option to conserve in perpetuity the Plateau’s biodiversity and heritage values and ensure ongoing public access. However, if the Minister ultimately says no to purchase we are looking at alternatives such as partnering with other conservation not-for-profits such as Bush Heritage.

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Katoomba Airfield is a public land inholding in the Blue Mountains National Park sitting above the Grand Canyon and Grose valley.

There is a long history of agreement from Blue Mountains City Council, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Crown Lands that the airfield should be incorporated into the Blue Mountains National Park with continued use for emergency purposes.

Instead the Dept. of Industry is considering granting a commercial lease over the airfield to a private aviation tourism company for things such as helicopter scenic flights.

A petition with over 12,000 signatures has been presented to state parliament and was discussed on 1 August.

The public submission period closed on the 4 August with over 1,500 submissions being received by the Dept.

At its 27 August meeting, the Blue Mountains City Council voted against a commercial lease.

For more information, visit our Katoomba Airfield Lease webpage or that of the Katoomba Airfield Community Group.

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Earlier this year, up to 4ha of native vegetation and trees was clear-felled on Bodington Hill, Wentworth Falls (next to Dillinger’s Nursery).

This is the site of the controversial ‘Flora and Fauna Park’ which was the subject of a major community campaign opposing the development 30 years ago. "The Croc Park".

The developer told the Blue Mountains Gazette that the plan is for a $30 million dollar "five to six star" wildlife park development with 40 hotel rooms,

Here's more information on this, the "Zombie DA" that underpins it and the Society's actions.

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Our Destination Pagoda movie was shown to a full house at Mount Vic Flicks on 2 July.

We are now reviewing options for the next screening.

To support the Destination Pagoda vision for a Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area, write a letter to the Hon. Paul Toole, Member for Bathurst and Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, seeking his support for our detailed reserve establishment plan called Destination Pagoda. Mr. Toole’s electorate includes the Gardens of Stone unprotected area.

Here's how to send a letter.

It's very important that Mr. Toole hears from supporters on this proposal. The proposal is at a critical time.

Destination Pagoda proposes a world class tourism and conservation reserve on Lithgow’s doorstep. A new reserve, called the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area, will complete Myles Dunphy’s visionary 1932 Blue Mountains National Park scheme.

A key design element of Destination Pagoda is the creation of low-key visitor opportunities close to Lithgow beside upgraded existing road access linked to the town. The gentle plateau terrain with its distinctive pagoda rocks contain many sites for a variety of family-suitable, low-key visitor facilities that combine to give Lithgow’s Gardens of Stone great potential to attract visitors interested in experiencing nature.

The beauty of the Destination Pagoda scheme is that new visitor facilities can be established beside pagoda landscapes of great scenic beauty around Lithgow that are need of restoration and rehabilitation, while more remote, pristine landscapes are protected.

The forests next to Lithgow are amongst the most diverse in NSW and contain 84 threatened plant and animal species, including the Blue Mountains Water Skink and Giant Dragonfly, as well as 16 rare and threatened communities. They deserve effective conservation management by the NPWS.

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

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