Highway realignment will protect endangered remnant Grandpa’s Scrub
17 February 2023 - The NSW Government has today announced that the Coffs Harbour bypass section of the Pacific Highway will be realigned to avoid destroying the area known as Grandpa’s Scrub, a remnant patch of ancient rare and endangered rainforest that even astounded rainforest experts.
Greens MP Sue Higginson and spokesperson for the environment said “I am so please that the the Government has listed to the community and the experts and made the right call to move the alignment of this bypass to avoid this critically endangered and unique rainforest environment,
“I thank Sam Farraway for having the foresight to recognise that destroying Grandpa’s Scrub was completely unreasonable.
These rare and endangered remnants are more precious than ever now with the increasing threat of climate change and broadscale ecosystem collapse,
“The next thing we need is a commitment that the Grandpa’s Scrub area will be protected from other developments and it will be expanded so that its unique ecology can be sustained into the future. This is an area of outstanding biodiversity value and we must do all that we can to regenerate it,
“We need to see the creek that feeds Grandpa’s Scrub left free from drainage works or other earth moving activities associated with the new realignment to ensure that the are is not indirectly compromised by the highway,
“This win for Grandpa’s Scrub comes down to the hard work and dedication of the local community who have fought against this alignment of the bypass. When I first visited the area, like the rainforest experts, I was truly shocked that the Government was planning to destroy it. Today we have seen sanity prevail and it is a lesson for all future development. We must not allow our planning system to ever contemplate such destruction again, it is unnecessary and completely avoidable” Ms Higginson said.