Flora & Fauna Survey & Ecological Assessment (pdf. 5MB)

Flora & Fauna Survey & Ecological Assessments – 35 Water Street Wahroonga
1.2 Site History
The Subject Property (Lot 1 in DP 375262) is part of a historic property known as Rippon Grange. The
Property is 2.1318 hectares in size, with frontages to Water Street and Young Street and is located within the
fully developed residential suburb of Wahroonga. The Property is currently zoned Special Uses 5(a) Hospital
Rippon Grange was constructed as a two (2) storey private dwelling in 1898 and is the main building on the
Subject Property, although a number of significant outbuildings and important landscape elements remain in
situ. Rippon Grange has been classified by the National Trust of Australia (NSW), and it is also listed as an
‘Indicative Place’ on the Australian Heritage Commission’s Register of the National Estate.
In the early 1950s, Rippon Grange was donated to the NSW State government for use as a Hospital,-and it
continued to serve this function - latterly as the John Williams Respite Care Centre - until 2002 when it was
declared ‘surplus to needs’.
In 2005, the State Property Unit of the NSW Department of Commerce commissioned a preliminary
investigation of ecological issues and an opportunities and constraints study (UBMC February 2005), which
identified the presence of ~2,600 sq metres (0.26 ha) of simplified and modified Blue Gum High Forest on
the Property.
On June 30 2005, the Subject Property was acquired by Waterbrook Pty Ltd with the intention of
redeveloping the Property under State Environmental Planning Policy (Senior Living) 2004. Subsequent
ecological surveys carried out on behalf of Waterbrook (UBMC February 2006) confirmed the findings of the
earlier ecological investigations. At that time, Blue Gum High Forest in the Sydney Basin Bioregion was listed
under the Schedules of the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (hereafter ‘TSC Act’) as an
‘Endangered Ecological Community’, and as ‘Threatened’ under the Commonwealth Environment Protection
of Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (hereafter ‘EPBC Act’).
Since the acquisition of the Subject Property by Waterbrook in mid-2005, the ecological status of the Blue
Gum High Forest has been reviewed by the NSW Scientific Committee established under the TSC Act; with
this community now being declared as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community (‘CEEC’)’ (see Final
Determination 20 April 2007, Appendix 1). Of most import, the criteria for identifying the Blue Gum High
Forest ecological community were also amended, thus providing for a larger proportion of the Subject
Property to be reclassified as BGHF.
As the result of these changes to the legislation, Ku-ring-gai Council and the then-National Parks & Wildlife
Group of the Department of Environment & Climate Change 4 (‘DECCW’) required Waterbrook to review and
reassess the extent of the remnant BGHF extant at 35 Water Street, Wahroonga.
Subsequent investigations by Smith & Smith on behalf of Ku-ring-gai Council (December 2006) then revised
the area of BHGF extant on the Subject Property from the original 2,600 sq metres (0.26 ha) mapped by
UBMC (2005) to 6,350 sq metres (0.64 ha) (see Figure 1.2).
4 DECCW is now the Office of Environment & Heritage within the Department of Premier & Cabinet.
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