‘Say No – AGAIN’ to Satterley's dangerous and destructive Urban North Stoneville Plan
Welcome to Save Perth Hills Inc, (SPH) -
Western Australia’s longest-running Community campaign.
SPH is based in the Shire of Mundaring. Our mission is to ensure our increasingly bushfire-prone Community, along with Perth Hills’ bio-diverse environment, is respected and safeguarded against dangerous and destructive development.
We will not accept putting profits ahead of bushfire safety.
SPH was established in 1991 in response to a sprawling and isolated suburban-style townsite plan for Stoneville.
The plan was wrong in 1991. In 2022, it’s potentially deadly. Our challenging climate no longer permits thousands of people crammed inside bushfire-trap zones.
Yet the landowner, the Anglican Diocese, and their developer, Satterley, persist with their plan they call ‘North Stoneville’.
Urbanisation of this land has been denounced for decades by the Community, Shire, Councillors, WA and Federal politicians, DFES, and our highest planning authority, WA Planning Commission.
Now, after more than 31 years, we ask you to join us, as the final showdown unfolds...
Second Chance Plan is Here!
SUBMISSION INFORMATION FOR AMENDED STRUCTURE PLAN SP34 - NORTH STONEVILLE
Our information is designed to help you select topics and information that are relevant to you for your submission, (letter), to WA’s Department of Planning. We urge you to use our words as a ‘guide’, and where possible, use your own words - and experiences, as you write your submission. Include one, or as many points as you like, and speak from your heart!
Please stay in touch or contact us via email saveperthhillsinc@gmail.com to be added to our mailing list.
On 15th March a bus load of SPH supporters stopped off at Satterley’s West Perth HQs – delivering a loud ‘We are saying NO - AGAIN!’
We then made our way up to Parliament House presenting our petition of 2,500 signatures to Greens’ Dr Brad Pettitt MLC and Labor’s Lorna Harper.
Our Petition, which so many of you have signed, supported the Wooroloo Bushfire Inquiry recommendation that DFES be the final decision maker on housing developments approvals, like North $toneville, in Extreme Bushfire Zones
DONATIONS - we are at the point in our campaign where donations are going to be critical – advice doesn’t come cheap... But every cent counts as an investment in our Perth Hills. As always – we’re deeply grateful for your amazing generosity that has continued to enable the actions of the group.
Donate Direct to: BSB:633 000 Acc: 160715942 OR
Containers for Change: Save Perth Hills ID Number: C10307279
Darlington Review
Outstanding, brilliantly written and comprehensive coverage from our friends at the Darlington Review - highlighting ALL the reasons to hop on the SPH Bus on the 14th March to tell Nigel Satterley we’re ALL Saying NO - AGAIN! (See previous post).
>>>> BUS Details >>>>
BUS for trip to Parliament House (via $atterley’s office) to hand over our latest Petition leaves Sculpture Park Mundaring at 9am, returning 1pm (latest). Email saveperthhillsinc@gmail.com to book your FREE seat!
If you'd prefer to meet us there - join us at Parliament House by 11 am!
JUST WOW - WHAT A RALLY
2000 people!
2000 NO’s…
Quote of the Day!…Dr Brad Pettitt MLC Greens - on the madness of $atterley’s North ‘$toneville’:
‘So many layers of stupid’.
The official NO’s today came from:
Dr Wayne Gregson - ex DFES Commissioner
Bob Brown - Eco Legend
Save Perth Hills Chair Peter Brazier
Brad Pettitt MLC Greens
Simon Cherriman -Scientist
Greg Rankine - Local resident
Paige McNeil - former SPH Chair
Jane Hammond - Black Cocky Crisis film maker
Nolan Hunter - First Nations Voice
Andrew Wallace - Hills teenager
Cleo Williams - Hills teenager
...AND THANK YOU to our AMAZING Community - 32 years STRONG! Turning up today sends a message AGAIN! That North $toneville MUST NOT PROCEED!
We’ll post details soon on how to ‘SAY NO - AGAIN!’
Images : Zac Williams ZW Photography
North Stoneville - The Problems
‘North Stoneville’ contains 13 registered Aboriginal archaeological sites that would be destroyed by Satterley and the Perth Diocese.
The site is severely constrained for development with limited bushfire evacuation options, restricted water supplies, no infrastructure or services and within ember attack reach of John Forrest National Park.
It sits in a proven Extreme Bushfire Zone of Mundaring Shire, rated in 2018 as ‘Australia’s 5th highest bushfire risk Shire’.
http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/State-of-the-Climate-2018.pdf
Land-owner - Anglican Diocese of Perth
Developer - Satterley Property Group
Plan - 1,500 houses, 4,000+ people, 2 schools
‘North Stoneville’, between Stoneville and Roland Roads, is 555 hectares (1,373 acres), 150 hectares bigger than Kings Park, and covers more ground than New York’s Central Park and London’s Hyde Park, combined.
The Anglican Perth Diocese owns it, after Queen Victoria ‘gifted’ the land to the Church in the 1800s. Satterley, and the Anglican Diocese, are joint venture partners in ‘North Stoneville’.
The site features ‘high to excellent value’ (Dept of Environment WA), Hills forest, native vegetation and endangered wildlife habitat, as well as grazed land.
Wooroloo Bushfires- February 2021
DFES INCIDENT PHOTOGRAPHER SEAN BLOCKSIDGE.
Devastating bushfires have burned on and around ‘North Stoneville’ including in 2003, 2008, and 2014 destroying more than 60 homes and changing hundreds of lives, forever. The 2021 Wooroloo Bushfires, Perth Hills’ worst bushfire emergency which destroyed 87 homes, burnt within 5-kilometres of ‘North Stoneville.’
More than 200 hectares would be bulldozed despite being a recognised international biodiversity hotspot and prime habitat for endangered species including black cockatoos and chuditch.
‘North Stoneville’ would generate 11,200 extra traffic movements every day (80,000 a week), on Stoneville Road.
‘North Stoneville’ – The Community Responds
The ‘SP34’ Structure Plan blindsided the Community when Satterley unfurled it on December 18, 2018 giving the Community just 3 weeks, over Christmas, New Year and school holidays to respond.
SPH activated the Community with a major information campaign. Three weeks later, on the January 10, 2019 deadline, an unprecedented 957 public submissions were received by Mundaring Shire -almost 100% against ‘North Stoneville’.
In August 2019, a Special Council Meeting was held at Mundaring Arena - WA’s largest-ever Council meeting attended by 1,200 residents.
Council unanimously REJECTED SP34, primarily, because of the scale of environmental destruction, and insurmountable bushfire and evacuation dangers.
January 2, 2019 Bentley Park Rally
August 2019 Special Council Meeting
Less than 12 months later, in July 2020, WA’s Planning Commission (WAPC) upheld Council’s rejection – finding ‘North Stoneville’ contravened four State Planning policies. (refer timeline below)
July 2020 - WAPC Rejects Plan
The Hills and Our Health
While Satterley and the Anglican Diocese drag their doomed environmentally destructive ‘North Stoneville’ plan through exhaustive and expensive taxpayer-funded appeals, the undisputable evidence grows around the benefits of our natural environment on human health.
In July 2022 the Australian Government released a study providing ‘evidence on the influence of the natural environment on human physical and mental health in Australia'.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/natural-environment-and-health
This evidence supports SPH's position for a safer social and economic direction for Perth’s Hills, that respects the environment for all the good it can offer, while managing inevitable and increasing challenges that climate change brings.
Rather than see the Hills as the last bastion for urban sprawl, we must respect and protect this sensitive environmental region, which is a water catchment, the 'lungs' of our city, a key emissions buffer - and a prime tourist destination.
Our city's backyard is a rich bio-diverse environment of natural beauty, and a welcoming – and necessary, refuge from the stresses of high-density suburbia. ‘North Stoneville’ symbolises outdated – and dangerous planning.
Please sign up, donate and help us to -
Save Perth Hills.
Once It's Gone -
It's Gone Forever!
Timeline - Dec 2018 - Oct 2022
Dec 18 2018 - Satterley gives the Community just 3 weeks to comment on its 'North Stoneville' plan
Jan 10 2019 - 957 submissions received by Shire - almost all strongly objecting to the plan
Aug 2019 - more than 1,200 people witness Mundaring Council unanimously reject SP34 - describing it as 'dangerous and destructive'
June/July 2020 - Shire of Mundaring and Save Perth Hills each lodge Metropolitan Scheme (MRS) Amendment applications to RE-ZONE Lot 48 Stoneville Rd (‘North Stoneville’) back to rural. Case continues...
July 14 2020 - the WA Planning Commission (WAPC) rejects SP34 - ruling it contravenes 4 State Planning Policies:
- SPP 3.7 Panning in Bushfire Prone Areas (lack of emergency escape, insurmountable bushfire risks, surrounded by and Extreme Bushfire Zone, within ember reach of John Forrest National Park.
- SPP 3.4 Natural Hazards & Disasters (some homes - 350 square metres with one metre separation pose an unacceptable bushfire risk, and surrounding rural roads, (including Stoneville and Roland Roads) unable to cope with 11,000+ extra traffic movement, every day.
- SPP 2.8 Bushland Policy for Perth Metropolitan Region (destruction of wildlife and endangered species' habitats in a nationally recognised bio-diverse region)
- SPP 2.0 Environment and Natural Resources (200+ hectares of 'high to excellent value' forest, natural habitat and bushland would be destroyed)
August 2020 - Satterley appeals to State Administrative Tribunal (SAT).
November 2020 - 2020 Summer of Fires Royal Commission recommends to: 'Avoid development in extreme bushfire zones’.
August 2021 - Save Perth Hills applies under Freedom of Information for Satterley's Submission against rezoning ‘North Stoneville’ to Rural. Satterley's Bushfire Management Plan is heavily redacted. (hidden)
Nov 4 2022 - Satterley announces it is ragging its dangerous and destructive North Stoneville plan back for re-assessment, by the same local community which rejected it in record numbers almost four years ago.
During a State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) hearing on November 4 2022, Satterley revealed it was working on an ‘amended’ plan to be ready for public comment between January and March 2023.
We believe this indicates Satterley is not confident its original plan would win in a Full Hearing at SAT, so it's going back with a ‘modified’ plan to the Community and WA’s Planning Commission to try for a second time, to get it over the line.
Previously, 1,050 public submissions were received, strongly opposing the proposed isolated and firetrap suburban estate.
Our Community is ready to respond in even greater numbers when this new round of submissions opens in 2023.
What can I do?
1. Follow us on Facebook or email us to join our mailing list.
2. Become a member - email us for a membership form.
3. Donate - in the donation tins at Begonia Pets, Artisan Bakery and Stoneville Fresh
or via a bank deposit BSB: 633 000 Account No: 160 715 942
4. Buy a t-shirt at the Mundaring Rotary Markets - Sunday November 13th,
Twilight Markets, Saturday December10th or February 11th.
5. Sign our petition at Stoneville Fresh or at the Kookaburra showing of the Black Cockatoo Crisis on Sun Jan 8th and also at our rally on 5th Feb.
6. Alternatively sign our online petition here - it's the same as the paper petition so please don't sign both.
‘We need your support to help us build our SPH legal fighting fund to banish ‘North Stoneville’ forever. Please, sign up as a member, and donate, if you can. (details below). This campaign is on behalf of all bushfire prone Communities around Australia, and for all Local Governments under pressure to provide housing. We must not build in dangerous bushfire zones, where risks are extreme, insurance unachievable – or unavailable, and where thousands of lives would be placed, knowingly, in the line of fire. We welcome you as a member and we appreciate your support to...
‘Save Perth Hills’
Contact Details
Email: saveperthhillsinc@gmail.com Facebook: Save Perth Hills
PO Box 33, Stoneville, WA 6081