To the Minister for the Environment WA, Hon. Reece Whitby and the WA Premier Roger Cook:

I wish to Appeal the decision to grant a Clearing Permit for a surf park which will result in the destruction of endangered Banksia Woodland and vital foraging habitat for our endangered Black-cockatoos, as well as the death and displacement of countless animals.

The Perth Surf Park is a commercial venture with little to no public benefit. The proposed clearing of a public asset will cause permanent and serious environmental harm to nature and is at serious variance with a number of WA Clearing Principles. This proposal is ‘Clearly Unacceptable’.

It is not too late. Please Premier step in and do what's right. Please move the surf park to a more suitable location - on land that has already been developed. Stop the waves of destruction!

There is also the issue of the huge amount of water this project will use each year where Perth has water shortages, and the government must build a third desalination plant.

The clearing will have “significant residual impacts” on the environment, as identified by multiple state regulatory bodies, including:

• The loss of Banksia Woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain Threatened Ecologically Community (3.16 hectares)
• Loss of critical foraging habitat for Carnaby’s Cockatoo and Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (2.08 ha)
• Loss of a Conservation Category Wetland (1.48 ha)
• Loss of native vegetation that provides locally significant habitat for quenda
• Loss of potential suitable habitat for the Grand Spider-orchid (Caladenia huegelii), a critically endangered flora species
• The potential for indirect hydrological impacts to nearby Conservation Category Wetland vegetation and surrounding Banksia Woodlands..

Furthermore, the offsets proposed are completely inadequate to compensate for the significant and cumulative environmental impacts of the proposal. There will be a net loss of an endangered banksia woodland, a conservation category wetland and foraging habitat for the black cockatoos. Even if attempts to restore banksia woodland nearby are successful, it will take 10-15 years before food sources for the birds become available – sending local populations of Cockatoos to starvation levels.

PREMIER - Please REVOKE this clearing permit.  The cost is too great. Instead, follow the Approved Conservation Advice under Australia’s peak environmental legislation (EPBC Act): restore and protect this banksia woodland to prevent its further loss of extent and condition. 

Banksia woodland is far more valuable and beneficial to the public, than this environmentally destructive recreational venture. Please conserve this woodland, for our animals, our plants, and for our own mental and physical well-being. The future is entrusted to you. We implore you to choose nature.