Callala is loved for bays, beaches, wetlands, estuaries, salt marshes and a friendly village atmosphere - all surrounded by a coastal forest where endangered greater gliders and many other unique Australian animals live.
But plans to clear 40 ha of forest for a 380-lot subdivision will shred the fabric of this community and destroy critical habitats for endangered plants and animals.
Shoalhaven lost 85% of the region's forests, with countless millions of animals incinerated, during the black summer bushfires. The surviving land has future potential far more valuable than real estate for a fortunate few.
We cannot afford to throw Callala's future away through greed or poor planning. Join the mission to grow Callala sustainably for all to enjoy the beauty, peace and diversity of life here.
These sliding photo interpretations show the potential impact of sprawl on Callala's forest.
We've got work to do to right this wrong. But it's worth it.
In 2022, Callala locals, neighbouring villages and several organisations vehemently opposed the proposed residential rezoning of Callala's Glider Forest in 1002 state government submissions - 97.4% of the total - urging protection for the Halloran-owned forested land, and for Callala's future.
But our community was ignored and in October 2022 rezoning was approved for the 40ha of mature coastal forest - habitat for at least four species of gliders including the endangered Greater Glider.
May 2023 - Shoalhaven Council withdraws the site's Biodiversity Certification application.
Jul 2024 - Shoalhaven Council requests the NSW Planning Minister to rezone the site for conservation.
Oct 2024 - Minister Scully refuses the rezoning request, but advises conditions for a Planning Proposal for conservation zoning.
Clearing Callala's forest cuts deeper than the death of a few fluffy animals. Greater Gliders are iconic but endangered Australian native marsupials that indicate a healthy ecosystem. Like many other native species also living in Callala, greater glider populations are plummeting from habitat loss, especially after the horrific 2019/20 bushfires that obliterated 85% of Shoalhaven’s forest, incinerating millions of animals. Greater gliders need 6-12 old hollow-bearing trees per hectare. Yellow-bellied gliders need multiple species of trees for feeding and nesting. Likewise the birds, bats, macropods, reptiles and more.
Across Callala, half the houses were empty at last census. Adding 380 new houses will not help solve any housing shortage. The developer will release lots gradually over 10-12 years to maintain high demand and prices, attracting investors building coastal holiday homes. Property prices are already too high here for struggling families or first-home buyers. Callala is far from jobs, transport, hospitals and schools. With development near city centres, Shoalhaven is already on track to meet housing targets. Rather than turn Callala into another car-dependent concrete suburb, we should revitalize our villages with more residents in existing homes.
We enthusiastically support buying locally in Callala's family businesses. But Callala's village character is not about shopping and our small businesses rely on tourists who come for the peace and quiet. Roads are constantly under repair. Public transport is extremely limited. Callala's stormwater system is regularly strained. It is already difficult to get a doctor’s appointment. During holidays, stretched infrastructure snaps, most notably around the boat ramp where cars and trailers queue, engines running, along narrow residential streets. Developers profit from greenfield subdivisions, but the extra hidden costs to residents and councils are massive.
Enlarging Callala significantly increases bushfire risk. The RFS predicts more frequent major bushfires and say they won’t have resources to protect the extra people and property. The developer offers no protection or fire-fighting capacity and climate change is further aggravated by clearing mature forest. Flooding risk is a major concern for Callala. Repacing porous, well-vegetated native landscape with hard surfaces of roofs, driveways, roads and gutters will massively increase the volume and velocity of stormwater run-off that already inundates homes and threatens the Callala Creek wetland, including the Black Swamp area and the road access.
Halloran plans include the exchange of 517ha of partially degraded land in the Lake Wollumboola watershed – unsuitable for development anyway – as a "bio offset" for the right to clearfell 40ha of mature, ecologically rich coastal forest. The purpose of the environmental offset scheme is “to improve or maintain net biodiversity values”. But this subdivision will result in the massive loss of vital habitat for endangered Greater Gliders, Gang-gang Cockatoos and the Bauer’s Midge Orchid plus vulnerable Yellow-bellied Gliders, Eastern Pygmy-possums, Glossy-black Cockatoos, and Greyheaded Flying-foxes.
Professor David Lindenmayer, a celebrated forest ecologists and marsupial expert, warns, “populations of Greater Gliders have declined dramatically. It is now extremely difficult to find this animal. When habitats are disturbed, animals don’t move, they simply perish.”
The land around Callala Bay was earmarked for development by Henry Halloran more than 100 years ago but was spared when his pipedream, Jervis Bay City, fizzled out. But the Halloran Trust remains keen to profit from it.
Despite overwhelming opposition (97.4%) from community and local organisations, Halloran/Sealark convinced the then State government to rezone 40ha to General Residential in 2022. As justification, they cited the Jervis Bay Settlement Strategy 2003 (JBSS), which nominated 35ha (not 40) of Halloran land in Callala Bay as a “potential new urban release.”
However, the Halloran subdivision fails to meet specific JBSS requirements. It lacks protection for endangered species such as Greater Gliders and Gang Gang Cockatoos, no habitat corridor is proposed, and the entire 40 hectares, including old-growth forest with vital hollow-bearing trees, will be razed, resulting in "a complete loss of all biodiversity values" as acknowledged by the developer’s Biodiversity Certification application.
A Shoalhaven Council report by the accredited Biodiversity Offset Scheme assessors concluded that “the current design/footprint of this development should not be supported.”
As part of the application to rezone the Callala forest for subdivision, the developer was required to apply for biodiversity certification, supposedly to integrate biodiversity conservation planning with land development.
Although "bio-cert" is intended to happen before rezoning, the previous State government rezoned the forest as residential without any bio-cert approval! And against 1002 submissions.
Callala Matters smelled a rat and our freedom of information request to the Shoalhaven City Council turned up the detailed report by Council’s Environmental Services team evaluating the Halloran biocert application.
The professional evaluation was not shared with the elected Councillors and was not included in Council’s submission to the State. When we brought it to the attention of Council, they voted to withdraw the application for biodiversity certification.
The report by accredited Biodiversity Offset Scheme assessors identified serious deficiencies in the bio-cert application due to incomplete surveys using obsolete methodology from 1995.
Sealark's consultant is working on a new biodiversity certification application under modern methodology but it has not yet been lodged. If Callala Matters had not discovered this hidden report and made it public, the bulldozers would be clearing our glider forest already.
Henry Halloran acquired thousands of hectares of property on the South Coast more than 100 years ago, of which the Halloran Trust still owns 2,760 ha. In their paper, TOWN PLANNING AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AUSTRALIA, HENRY F HALLORAN, ‘BUILDER OF DREAMS’, Professors Robert Freestone and David Nichols describe Halloran:
“as an entrepreneurial ‘booster’ of the value of private land ownership … co-opting planning discourse and techniques to the advantage of a private commercial agenda...”
Hundreds of purchasers bought into Halloran's Shoalhaven schemes, but few homes were built and from 1964 Shoalhaven Shire Council began to acquire land in the area through acquisition from rates arrears, advising landowners that "it would be in the best interests of the area if this land remained open space".
According to Freestone and Nichols,
"A 1975 Commonwealth Government report, Development Pressures on Jervis Bay, signposted the dangers of unrestrained boosterism and land speculation in a pristine area. A Commonwealth review flagged growing resistance to environmentally degrading land uses. It pointedly critiqued the plan by Realty Realisations Pty Ltd – formerly Henry F. Halloran & Co – to create a resort in the area of Vincentia and its recommendations echoed the Shire's opinion that the area was better left in, or restored to, its natural state.
“Even if his promotion of numerous estates around NSW veered towards elaborately disguised chicanery, the outcome was roughly the same as in conventional premature subdivision: few profited from his schemes, aside from Halloran himself.”
According to its website, “the Halloran Trust is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to provide financial support derived from Sealark’s property development services to charitable beneficiaries, including in the Shoalhaven region.” Halloran has long since capitalised on its subdivisions and is now worth $109,688,046. Last year the trust had a total income from investments of $1,191,667 and gave $250,000, or 21%, to its beneficiaries.
Registered as a charity in 2022, Halloran Trust's total annual donations are less than the sale price of one lot.
Halloran’s two biggest beneficiaries are the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, which houses over 10,000 items in the Halloran Business Archive, and Sydney’s Scots College private boys school, whose total assets last year were $194 million.
With no apparent sense of irony, Halloran earmarked its $100,000 gift to Scots College for “rewilding” a section of Bannockburn, its campus near Culburra, just a few kilometres away from where they intend to clearfell nearly 100ha of healthy, mature forest in Culburra and Callala.
Warren Halloran donated $10 million to establish the University of Sydney Henry Halloran Research Trust whose stated mission is to advocate for liveable cities and sustainable development.
We acknowledge the Jerrinja people, the Traditional Custodians of this land. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging and recognize their ongoing connection to the land, waters, and culture.
This land has always been and always will be Aboriginal land.
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