A housing subdivision in a seaside South Australian town with a severe housing shortage has been halted by the Native Vegetation Council because of the high diversity of plant species on the property, along with wombats and two rare birds.
Key points:
- Robe has a rental housing shortage, with many holiday homes hired out through Airbnb
- A proposal to subdivide land for 18 houses has been rejected twice
- The owners are appealing the decision to the Supreme Court
Its Robe landowner is appealing the decision in the state’s Supreme Court.
TLD Robe Pty Ltd said a judge in the Environment, Resources and Development (ERD) Court misunderstood the term “high level of diversity of plant species” and wrongly found that the “likelihood” of wildlife using the land was sufficient to meet the test of its “significance” as habitat for wildlife.
It said the judgement should be overturned, allowing the subdivision for 18 houses on Davenport Street.
Robe is well known as having a shortage of rental housing, with many houses hired out through Airbnb rather than to long-term renters, leaving no place for service workers to live.
The company that wants to develop the inland, 1.6-hectare site is owned by Warren Tucker, Robert Lawrie, and Graham Davey.
They bought the land in 2021 for $1.7 million and applied to subdivide it in August last year.
Their application was refused two months later by the the District Council of Robe after advice from the Native Vegetation Council opposing the plan.
The Native Vegetation Council is a state government body that assesses applications for land clearing in South Australia.
Large variety of plants on site
Experts for both the developer and the Native Vegetation Council submitted a joint report to an appeal to the ERD Court agreeing there were 33 native plant species on the site.
They also said that it could be home to the rare common wombat, as well as the beautiful firetail bird and rufous bristlebird, although none of them had been seen there.
TLD Robe’s lawyer, John McElhinney, said their wording that the site had “a very high level of plant species diversity” may not satisfy the legal test of “high level of diversity of plant species”.
But in his judgement, handed down in June, Senior Judge Michael Durrant disagreed by saying the phrase meant “the relevant land has a greater than normal number of native plant species”.
In the second halt to the development, he said it was “likely” that the land was a “significant” habitat for wombats and the two birds.
Common wombats live in South Australia’s south-east and are much rarer than southern hairy-nosed wombats.
Company says court ‘erred’
TLD Robe lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court last month.
It called for the ERD Court’s decision to either be overturned or for the case to return to the ERD Court with new directions from the superior court.
“The ERD Court erred … in that it wrongly concluded the phrase ‘high level of diversity of plant species diversity’ means ‘a greater than normal number of native plant species’,” lawyer Alison Field wrote in the notice of appeal.
No date has been set for a Supreme Court hearing.
A proposal by the District Council of Robe to swap land at the Robe Golf Club for a retirement village near the site was rejected by the golf club last year.
However, a subdivision for industrial land was approved on Davenport Street in 2022, with the Native Vegetation Council saying it was already infested with weeds.
Loading