Cumberland Plain Woodland

The construction of Western Sydney Airport involves the destruction of 359 hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland. This woodland is a nationally-listed threatened ecological community and it's being lost due to clearing and development pressure and now is just reduced to small remnants. The government has approved biodiversity offsets for this woodland as part of the approvals process but we now know that the proposal is to use native vegetation at the Defence establishment in Orchard Hills as an offset for the destruction of woodland at the airport site. But guess what? The native vegetation at Orchard Hills is already conserved and is being remediated under Australian government biodiversity protection legislation. The Minister for