Pittwater Online News

October 1 - 31, 2026: Issue 659

Council to investigate Protecting Vital Ingleside wildlife corridor near Mona Vale Rd. fauna bridge

Swamp Wallaby crossing Mona Vale Rd East on the fauna bridge. Photo supplied

The Northern Beaches Council has announced it has agreed to progress a proposal to strengthen the long-term protection of the Ingleside wildlife corridor, including seeking the transfer of identified State-owned land to Council and to rezone it for environmental conservation.

The land is part of a corridor that links Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Katandra Bushland Sanctuary and Ingleside Chase Reserve, while also connecting habitat to Irrawong Reserve and Warriewood Wetlands.

A preliminary council assessment found the area contains largely intact native bushland in good condition and provides important habitat connectivity. The Ingleside corridor contains habitat that supports, or has the potential to support, more than 30 threatened species from the local area. Native vegetation within the corridor also includes areas of coastal upland swamp, an endangered ecological community.

Mayor Sue Heins said protecting the corridor would help safeguard valuable bushland and support wildlife movement across the area.

“This is a rare opportunity to strengthen protection for an important wildlife corridor and preserve habitat that supports threatened species.

“Keeping this bushland connected is also vital to the continued success of the fauna overpass and underpasses delivered as part of the Mona Vale Road East upgrade,” Mayor Heins said.

Fauna overpass on Mona Vale Road East looking towards Ingleside Chase Reserve Photo D Palmer

Under the proposal, the council stated it would formally express interest in identified land parcels being transferred to the council from the NSW Office of Strategic Lands (OSL) and seek agreement to apply a C2 Environmental Conservation zone under council’s Local Environmental Plan.

A C2 zoning would provide a higher level of environmental protection than the currently proposed C3 Environmental Management zone by prohibiting dwelling houses and other uses that could affect the corridor’s environmental values.

“Council ownership could provide greater certainty for the corridor’s long-term protection and enable active management including bushland regeneration, weed control and hazard reduction,” Mayor Heins said.

“We’d like to acknowledge Pittwater Natural Heritage Association for its diligence in promoting the benefits and importance of the Ingleside Wildlife Corridor.

“Before any decision is made, Council would undertake detailed due diligence so the community can be confident the environmental benefits, risks and long-term costs have been carefully considered.”

The investigations would examine terms of land transfer, whole-of-life financial impacts, funding requirements, bushfire management obligations, contamination and geotechnical risks. A further report would be presented to the council before any land transfer is finalised, the council stated.

If the land is transferred to the council, it will require reclassification in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993. Should the land be transferred to Council, it is intended that it would become Community Land and be categorised as Natural Area - Bushland, meaning that it will not be able to be sold but will be retained for conservation and sustainable community use.

Prior to the October 2026 council meeting two members of PNHA spoke in support of saving the wildlife corridor.

Jacqui Marlow:

I want to speak about why preserving bushland connectivity is essential for the new wildlife overpass and Mona Vale Road East and protecting what the community community values.
According to the council's state of well-being 2026 report, living in a beautiful natural environment surrounded by bushland and wildlife ranked as equal first amongst 16 attributes contributing to community well-being.
This demonstrates just how much community value the community values the natural environment and the wildlife that makes the northern beaches such a special place to live. Protecting bushland is about protecting habitat and wildlife corridors that allow native animals and plants to survive and thrive. The northern beaches is home to hundreds of native species, so regional biodiversity corridors are very important.
If you look at this map that's on page 178 of the agenda, you can see from the north where there is Ku-ring-gai National Park down through Katandra Bushland, then through Ingleside Chase and down to Narrabeen Lagoon catchment, there is a corridor of high biodiverse land.
This area of connected bushland forms an important regional biodiversity corridor. It allows animals and plants to spread through the landscapes, maintain healthy populations, and recolonise areas when local populations have disappeared. Without these connections, bushlands become pockets of isolation, and the populations sin these pockets will become increasingly vulnerable and genetic diversity can decline and species will eventually become locally extinct.
The importance of these corridors is particularly evident on the northern beaches where roads and urban development have progressively fragmented the natural landscape. A major habitat connection between the Narrabeen Lagoon catchment and the Manly Dam catchment has been broken by the Warringah Road upgrade near the [northern beaches] hospital.
This fragmentation makes remaining corridors even more valuable. We cannot afford to lose any more bushland that links our natural areas.
The wildlife overpass must remain connected to surrounding bushland.
A wildlife overpass can't be considered in isolation from the surrounding landscape. An overpass surrounded or disconnected with through cleared habitat will have limited value.
The overpass must be connected to substantial areas of native vegetation reserves to to restore a functioning wildlife corridor.

David Palmer:

Thank you. Jacqui and I are both members of Pittwater Natural Heritage Association and our association been campaigning on this matter for quite some years.
We're pleased to know that the council has been listening and is taking action.
That is why we ask you to support the recommendation in the staff report so that staff can continue to work towards preservation of this environmentally valuable land.
The land we're concerned about is located adjacent to the Mona Vale Road East for Bridge and Underpass in Ingleside and the environmental significance of this land was recognised in 2016 when a plan for residential subdivision in Ingleside was released.
The land was classified in the release document as environmental protection. The intention being that it be conserved for a fauna corridor and managed for conservation.
This decision was based on thorough research and led to transport for New South Wales decision to build a fauna crossing or a couple of fauna crossings on Mona Vale Road East. So now we have our Fauna crossings.
We've got an overpass and underpass, but the bush land needed to support them has an uncertain future because, despite of the recognition of the environmental value of the land, we find that in the new LEP, it is planned to be zoned C3, which allows the construction of houses.
But if the land is zone C3 in the new LEP, would it be suitable for housing?
Well, we say no. And this is because the land's in a bushfire area; it has no water or sewer services, the roads are narrow and are unsuitable for egress during bushfire events, and the lands in the upper catchment of two local creeks, Mullet Creek and Narrabeen Creek, as bushland, contributes to flood mitigation water quality protection and the downstream environmental health in the Warriewood Valley.
The C3 zoning would enable uses that would harm the environmental functions required to support long-term viability of Ingleside Chase Reserve and the functioning of the fauna crossings on Mona Vale Road East.
We ask you to support the recommendation in the report to council and most importantly we believe that the recommendation outlines a prudent responsible approach which does which does not commit council to accepting the land on unfavourable terms.

Item 11.6: 'Investigate Options for Protection of Ingleside Wildlife Corridor' was passed unanimously.

Eastern Pygmy possum near the fauna bridge on Mona Vale Road East. Photo David Palmer

The bridge was installed in August 2023. Next day the road was open and later the bridge was planted with native plants.

The bridge lies between bushland lots owned by NSW State Government. A permanent fauna corridor through this must be established.

See February 2026 report: The fauna bridge on Mona Vale Road East – will it be a bridge to nowhere?

March 2026: Council - local politicians back Ingleside fauna corridor land campaign: Update March 2026

Background

In 2014 Pittwater Natural Heritage Association, Wildlife Roadkill Prevention Association (Northern Beaches) and Katandra Bushland Sanctuary Trust began campaigning to connect threatened bushland reserves in the Pittwater area in a bid to help stop the decline of our native fauna.

According to information gathered by local wildlife volunteers in 2015 – 2016 over 53 wallabies died on Mona Vale Road between Terrey Hills and Mona Vale. Although Wallabies were counted as an indicator species, many other native species have also died on Mona Vale Road, including possums and echidnas. These distressing statistics sparked members of these community groups into calling for action to reduce roadkill on this road.

In May 2016, when the National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Adjustment of Areas) Bill 2016 was passed on Tuesday, May 31st, 2016 part of the speeches during the Reading of this Bill focused on the necessity to make provision for a fauna bridge or bridges.

In September 2017, after years of lobbying NSW Roads and Maritime Services to get more fauna underpasses and overpasses included in the upgrade of Mona Vale Road East, Jacqui Marlow, Marita Macrae and David Palmer of Pittwater Natural Heritage Association were told at a meeting with NSW Roads and Maritime Services that the fauna crossings they had been campaigning for were now included in the final plans for the eastern section of the road upgrade.

This completed the suite of fauna road crossings that have been planned for the upgraded Mona Vale Road between Mona Vale and Terrey Hills. This included both sides of the road being fenced along its entire length to guide native animals to the crossing sites.

In March 2018 the officially announcement confirming the MVR West Upgrade fauna bridge was made.

There were actually 4 fauna passes - 2 for East and 2 for West - 2 x bridges and 2 x underpass, as stated in 2018. This is the result of work by PNHA and WRPA in concert with the great staff at Transport for NSW/RMS over a few years - they commenced talks about this soon after the project was announced - along with support and backing from former Pittwater MP Rob Stokes.