Sydney's Natural World - NEW PUBLICATION!

Long-time STEP member John Martyn has produced a remarkable new book entitled Sydney's Natural World, his second title published by STEP after the Field Guide to the Bushland of the Upper Lane Cove Valley and the production of walking maps of the Lane Cove Valley and Middle Harbour Valley. Sydney's Natural World was officially launched by Dr Tim Entwisle, of the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, on 17 November 2007, and is now available.

STEP Walks and Talks 2008

Program at its conclusion We advise that our final walk for 2008 is scheduled for Sunday, 2 November. Bill Jones will lead the Nature Track at Valley of the Waters, Wentworth Falls. The stunning diversity of the Blue Mountains is well demonstrated on this walk, in passing through open forests of eucalypts, banksias, wattles and tea-trees into damp gullies with rainforest species. For more information, please visit our Walks and Talks page.
		Valley of the Waters (at left) - view from Queen Victoria Lookout across Jamison Valley.

University of Technology Sydney (Ku-ring-gai Campus)
STEP has been involved in the future and conservation of urban bushland at the UTS Lindfield campus for nearly twenty years. STEP's concern at this time relates to a UTS application to rezone the campus at Lindfield for residential development. This issue has been in the public domain for several years and STEP's involvement has intensified of late.

Please click here to view our new pages dedicated to this battle. Within, STEP also addresses the serious threat of the recent Part 3A amendment to the Environment Planning and Assessment Act (1979).

Blue Gum High Forest, St Ives - SAVED!
In August 2005 the Commonwealth Minister for Environment and Heritage listed the Blue Gum High Forest and the Turpentine Ironbark Forest in the Sydney Basin as critically endangered.

Concerned groups, including STEP, formed a coalition, the Blue Gum High Forest Group, to try to preserve this endangered ecological community for perpetuity. At heart was the proposed development of 1.06 ha of privately-owned land adjoining Dalrymple Hay Nature Reserve in St Ives.

STEP and the Blue Gum High Forest Group is pleased to announce that the campaign to save this valuable bushland has been successful, with confirmation in December 2007 that the final lot of land has been purchased by Ku-ring-gai Council.

President's Report 2007
Read about STEP's achievements in 2007 and outlook for 2008.

F3-M2 Road Link and Rezoning of the B2-B3 Corridor
With the announcement of a tunnel under Pennant Hills Road being the preferred way of connecting the F3 to the M2 and M7, and the rezoning of much of the old surface reservation (B2-B3 Corridor) through the Lane Cove Valley, that particular threat to bushland has disappeared.

There is currently no pressure for another radial route to the CBD that the Lane Cove Valley corridor would have provided. Instead, however, a campaign has begun for an alternative western freeway joining the F3 north of the Hawkesbury with the M7 at Dean Park. STEP's response (April 2007) to the inquiry into the process that recommended the Pennant Hills Road Tunnel is available here.

STEP Matters, September 2008 (480 kb) - NEW!
To access previously published editions of STEP's bimonthly newsletter, click here.