Residents celebrate approval for road through wildlife corridor where koalas were just spotted

The long-awaited Dunns Creek Road will run along the route first approved more than a decade ago, bisecting a biodiversity conservation site, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council has decided.

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The shock decision to build through the Wandiyali-Environa Wildlife Sanctuary and abandon the five other routes proposed earlier this year was made by the council at an extraordinary meeting held on Wednesday, October 21.

Carolyn Larcombe says the council's decision is "personally shattering". Picture by Keegan Carroll

Wandiyali-Environa Wildlife Sanctuary conservation manager Carolyn Larcombe said the decision was "personally shattering", and she was disappointed the council had voted against its own staff recommendations, which had last week advised that no road should be built at all.

"We were not expecting it. You never really know what's going to happen, but this was quite a deviation from them," Ms Larcombe said.

Ms Larcombe said she could not understate the disruption the project would cause to the site, where koalas had recently been recorded for the first time in decades.

"This proposed option doesn't cut straight down the middle, but it may as well. It bisects all that conservation area," Ms Larcombe said.

Residents celebrate decision

Chair of the Jerrabomberra Residents Association Margot Sachse said residents left the council meeting with a "great sense of relief".

The decision was the culmination of years of work between the community of Jerrabomberra, which was taking the brunt of increased traffic in the area, and Fernleigh Park, which the newly proposed roads would run through, Ms Sachse said.

"We don't want to destroy the environment, but we can be world-leading in finding a solution where we protect the environment and the community gets their key piece of road infrastructure," she said.

A road connecting Googong with the Monaro Highway had been in the works for more than a decade, as the growing population led to increasing traffic.

In 2015, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council identified the route passing through the Wandiyali-Environa sanctuary - then with no biodiversity protections - as its preferred route.

However, it failed to gazette the plan, and a year later the land became protected under a biodiversity stewardship, making development on the site significantly more difficult.

Both the NSW environment minister and the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust have since advised the council that building the road in the stewardship area would not be supported.

While the route officially remained on the list of options for Dunns Creek Road, and continued to be popular with locals, the council had been frank that it was a near impossibility.

Shock amendment introduced by mayor

More than 700 residents had made submissions to the council ahead of the meeting, the majority of which opposed the routes through Fernleigh Park.

The extraordinary meeting was called for the council to vote on the abandonment of any Dunns Creek Road in favour of improvements to existing road infrastructure.

However, during the meeting, mayor Kenrick Winchester announced an alternative amendment had been sent to councillors earlier that afternoon.

That amendment recommended the council vote for the original route, reaffirming the position it took 11 years ago.

Cr Winchester said he "simply cannot support" the idea of walking away from a Dunns Creek Road, saying it was owed to the residents who would continue to bear the brunt of the increasing traffic.

"We cannot change the past, and unfortunately we now find ourselves attempting to secure a way forward on the road project," he said.

Cr Winchester said he would work to gain ministerial consent to the development on the basis that there were no reasonable alternatives.

The amendment was agreed to by 10 of the 11 councillors.

Councillor Katrina Willis, the lone dissenter, said "We cannot protect nature by destroying it".

"The odds of getting approval to build a road through the sanctuary or adjacent ecological land are near zero, and rightly so," Cr Willis said.

"As the city's population continues to grow, we need to rethink how and when we move around it and through it.

"We need new thinking to meet the challenges of rapid species decline, habitat loss and global warming."

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