The expansion of a controversial rock quarry that will clear 52 hectares of koala habitat north of Newcastle has been approved by the Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
The minister had been under significant community pressure to step in and stop the Brandy Hill project in Port Stephens, after it was approved by the New South Wales Government in July.
The grassroots campaign attracted support from celebrities such as Olivia Newton-John, Celeste Barber, Jimmy Barnes and Magda Szubanski.
The NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean had even backed away from his own government's decision, calling on Ms Ley to closely review the project.
But on Tuesday Ms Ley gave the quarry expansion its final approval, on the condition that it include a 74-hectare koala habitat corridor.
"We commissioned an independent expert and he did an up-to-date survey and found between one and two koalas and concluded that the quality of the vegetation was such that this wasn't core breeding habitat, that koalas would tend to move through it and not in huge numbers," she said.
"However, and all credit to the quarry, they have offered 74 hectares of a corridor in the southern part of the footprint, which they will vegetate with preferred trees for koalas and provide real connectivity for populations moving across the area.
"This is actually a good conservation outcome for koalas."
The quarry expansion by Hanson Construction will create 20 jobs and see production double to 1.5 million tonnes of rock a year, in order to supply the burgeoning demand for construction materials in Sydney.
"I would have ruled a line under that, and still said no to the expansion if I had been convinced in any way that the local population of koalas would be threatened," Ms Ley said.
Locals 'shocked and upset'
In June a NSW parliamentary inquiry found that 5,000 koalas had died in the summer bushfires and warned that koalas could be extinct in NSW within 30 years unless habitat was urgently protected from development.
It was a finding local residents had hoped would convince Ms Ley to step in and stop the development.
"I really thought we would have won this one, because we really need to start winning these campaigns, because we don't have time left to play with anymore," said local resident, Chantal Parslow-Redman.
"It's incredibly frustrating given the groundswell of our campaign, the amount of people that we've had come onboard and support us — and still to get this decision, I'm really quite shocked and upset."
In September the Save Port Stephens Koalas campaign commissioned its own report by University of Newcastle ecologists.
It found that the area contained breeding koalas and concluded that the project would sever a vital habitat corridor for the local koala population.
Ms Parslow Redman said she had seen breeding koalas at the site and dismissed plans for an additional 74-hectare corridor to be revegetated.
"It's something that needs to be planted, so the fact is we're looking at between 15 to 20 years until a tree grows," she said.
"It's the trees there on site at the moment that we know are active koala feed trees and habitat trees, they're the trees that need to be retained."
'Death warrant for koalas'
The local State Labor MP for Port Stephens and Shadow Environment Minister Kate Washington said the community will be devastated with Ms Ley's decision.
She said the campaign was not overstating the importance of the 52 hectares that will be lost.
"We've relied on the experts that have a really close knowledge of our local Port Stephens koala population, the University of Newcastle experts have talked to us about what they have seen and how important this area is, particularly for breeding koalas," she said.
"And if decisions aren't being made to favour koalas over rock at this point in time after the drought and the bushfires that we've had then there's something seriously wrong."
Ms Ley's approval is understood to be the final hurdle for the quarry expansion, but Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she will look at whether it can be overturned.
"We'll be looking at all the appeal options and making sure than every Australian knows that this Government has just signed the death warrant for koalas, an endangered species and a species that needs to be protected," she said.
"The fight is certainly not over."
