Prominent nature photographer Ken Duncan has slammed a proposed development on the Central Coast, saying it puts at risk a sacred area that contains the "grandmother tree".
Mr Duncan has joined opposition to Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council's plan to rezone land on Woy Woy Road at Kariong.
The plan involves rezoning 5.7 hectares from environmental conservation to low density residential. The site's remaining 7.1 hectares would stay as environmental conservation land.
Plans for the site, which the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel will consider, state that the residential development would be "an extension to the existing urban footprint of Kariong".
Mr Duncan said the development would be near this "amazing tree that is hundreds of years old". He was concerned that the plans would affect the water catchment that supplies the tree and surrounding "sacred land".
"I've been spending time with Aboriginal people all my life. I work in outback communities. We're listening to the voices of people who want change," Mr Duncan said.
He said land councils "don't necessarily represent the traditional owners".
Darkinjung land council chairperson Barry Duncan the land council's site at Kariong was part of "just compensation for what happened to Aboriginal people since 1788".
"It's for us to decide what that land is being used for," he said.
He added that "the grandmother tree is a fictitious thing used for tourism".
The tree is listed online as a tourist attraction that's part of the "hieroglyphic walking track" at Kariong. It's also linked to land that a former state government declared an "Aboriginal place".
The area also contains the "Gosford Glyphs" - about 300 hieroglyphs engraved on rocks within Brisbane Water National Park that some have claimed are Egyptian.
Some claim the carvings were done by Egyptians who sailed to Australia about 5000 years ago, but academics say they are fake. The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has stated they were carved around the 1980s.
Barry Duncan said there were "arguments for and against the glyphs".
That aside, he said Darkinjung was "the largest landowner on the Central Coast", apart from the city council. The land council's boundaries stretch from Catherine Hill Bay in the north, Hawkesbury River to the south and the Watagan Mountains to the west.
Barry Duncan said the land council claimed vacant crown land through the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
"We have over 3800 hectares of land. What generally happens is we get handed back land and it's turned into conservation zones, which defeats the purpose of what we can achieve as Aboriginal people in the areas of self determination and economic sustainability," he said.
"Our members have chosen those lands we wish to develop. The lands we have chosen are not culturally significant and they're close and accessible to services."
Activist Jake Cassar, a bushcraft teacher and environmentalist, campaigned for years to extend the national park on land that adjoins the Darkinjung site.
Mr Cassar is concerned about the prospect of environmental land being rezoned for development.
"I understand there will be an environmental impact wherever there's humans, but where there's endangered species, cultural heritage and koala habitat, someone needs to do something," he said.
