Hume Highway

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GUEST OBSERVER
It’s no secret that human development frequently comes at a cost to other creatures.
As our urban footprint expands, native habitat contracts. To compensate for this, most Australian governments require developers to invest in biodiversity offsetting, where habitat is created or protected elsewhere to counterbalance the impact of construction. 
Although biodiversity offsetting is frequently used in Australia – and is becoming increasingly popular around the world – we rarely know whether offsets are actually effective. 
That’s why we spent four years monitoring the program designed to offset the environmental losses caused by widening the Hume Highway between Holbrook and Coolac, New South Wales. Our research has found it was completely ineffective. 
Trading trees for boxes
The roadworks required the removal of large, old, hollow-bearing trees, which are critical nesting sites for many animals, including several threatened species. To compensate for these losses, the developer was required to install one nest box for every hollow that was lost – roughly 600 nest boxes were installed.
Many of the boxes were specifically designed for three threatened species: the squirrel glider, the superb parrot and the brown treecreeper. We monitored the offset for four years to see whether local wildlife used the nest boxes.
We found that the nest boxes were rarely used, with just seven records of the squirrel glider, two of the brown treecreeper, and none of the superb parrot. We often saw all three species in large old tree hollows in the area around the boxes we monitored.
Even more worryingly, almost 10% of the boxes collapsed, were stolen or otherwise rendered ineffective just four years after being installed. Perversely, we found that invasive species such as feral bees and black rats frequently occupied the nest boxes.
The offset clearly failed to deliver the environmental outcomes that were promised. Indeed, researchers have been concerned for some time nowthat offsetting can be misused and abused. 
What can be done?
It’s worth noting that research supports using nest boxes as a habitat replacement. However, they may never be effective for species such as the superb parrot. It’s not quite clear why some animals use nest boxes and others don’t, but earlier monitoring projects in the same area found superb parrots consistently avoid them.
Still, concrete steps can – and should – be taken to improve similar offset programs.
First, the one-to-one ratio of nest boxes to tree hollows was inadequate; far more nest boxes needed to be installed to replace the natural hollows that were lost.
There also was no requirement to regularly replace nest boxes as they degrade. It can take a hundred years or more for trees to develop natural hollows suitable for nesting wildlife. To truly offset their removal, thousands of boxes may be required over many decades.
Second, nest boxes clearly cannot compensate for the many other key ecological values of large old trees (such as carbon storage, flowering pulses or foraging habitat). This suggests that more effort is needed at the beginning of a development proposal to avoid damaging environmental assets that are extremely difficult to replace – such as large old trees.
Third, where it is simply impossible to protect key features of the environment during infrastructure development, more holistic strategies should be considered. For example, in the case of the woodlands around the Hume Highway, encouraging natural regeneration can help replace old trees.
Tree planting on farms can also make a significant contribution to biodiversity – and some of these may eventually become hollow-bearing trees. A combination of planting new trees and maintaining adequate artificial hollows while those trees mature might be a better approach.
Being accountable for failure
When an offset program fails, it’s unlikely anyone will be asked to rectify the situation. This is because developers are only required to initiate an offset, and are not responsible for their long-term outcomes.
In the case of the Hume Highway development, the conditions of approval specified that nest boxes were to be installed, but not that they be effective.
Despite the ecological failure of the offset (and over A$200,000 invested), the developer has met these legal obligations.
This distinction between offset compliance and offset effectiveness is a real problem. The Australian government has produced a draft policy of outcomes-based conditions, but using these conditions isn’t mandatory.
The poor results of the Hume Highway offset program are sobering. However, organisations like Roads and Maritime Services are to be commended for ensuring that monitoring was completed and for making the data available for public scrutiny – many agencies do not even do that. 
Indeed, through monitoring and evaluation we can often learn more from failures than successes. There are salutary lessons here, critical to ensuring mistakes are not repeated.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-lindenmayer-4848" target="_blank">David Lindenmayer</a> is professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martine-maron-4087" target="_blank">Martine Maron</a> is ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/megan-c-evans-4271" rel="author">Megan C Evans</a> is postdoctoral Research Fellow, Environmental Policy, The University of Queensland.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/philip-gibbons-4587" target="_blank">Philip Gibbons</a> is senior lecturer, Australian National University.
All are authors for The Conversation.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

The plan to protect wildlife displaced by the Hume Highway has failed

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A Melbourne based investor has paid $6.5 million on a 6.3% yield for a Campbellfield industrial facility with Hume Highway frontage.
Dawkins Occhiuto directors, Chris Jones and Walter Occhiuto brokered the deal.  
Located a short distance from the Metropolitan Ring Road, the 1608 Hume Highway property comprises a total building area of 4,949 square metres covering only 25% of the 16,550 square metre site.
It is leased to multinational tenant, Komatsu, on a seven year term expiring August 2020, at a current passing net rental of circa $411,000 per annum. 
Mr Jones said the Expressions of Interest campaign drew a strong field of local, interstate and off-shore buyers based on the property’s exceptional investment credentials.  
He said, “this property offered an excellent location and exposure right on the highway, a secure lease to a blue chip tenant, buildings and hardstand in very good condition and of high utility, high underlying land value, and significant future development upside with a low site coverage. It was hard to beat." 
“We are seeing strong yield compression, particularly for the best located, modern, industrial facilities with secure lease covenants, and that is likely to continue while industrial yields remain comparatively attractive vis-à-vis retail and office property, and while alternative assets classes are offering lower and/or more volatile return prospects,’’ Mr Jones added. 
The vendor was an interstate syndicator.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Campbellfield Industrial facility fronting the Hume Highway sold for $6.5 million

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Reigning world target crossbow champion Stuart Atkins and his wife Frances are selling their Hume property ahead of a relocation to the UK for their sport.
Those who have made the trip along the Hume Highway, past Yass and Bowning, may be familiar with the hill that sits atop the Hume Highway.
The site is on the market with real estate agents George Southwell and Dominic Johns, of Ray White Rural Canberra and Yass.
“It’s not too often that you get the opportunity to purchase such a landmark, that thousands of people drive past every day,” Southwell said.
“The views are amazing over the Yass Valley to the Brindabellas and beyond, overlooking the centre of our democracy.
“Few people know that a paddock on the property was once a World War 1 rifle range.
“The property has many interesting landforms, it is one of the only opportunities I have heard of to own a dormant volcano.”
<a id="LPlnk379381" href="http://ecomms.raywhite.com/collect/click.aspx?u=jRYOrR8N39R+6hBQZ7yXMt0Z3VIjNMZGSC5S/8OTYRL1I4RIyIuBgjh2KzJffc1Q&amp;rh=ff004b5478c644f4ab818579b2418862fc9da841" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Bowning Hill</a> (pictured above) is 150 acres and the adjoining vacant block, <a id="LPlnk636818" href="http://ecomms.raywhite.com/collect/click.aspx?u=jRYOrR8N39QzG/Nyy8oj1JiKzK4T2JutIYGrUDz5CMLJvErwc0mbzq3lQxcEvdL5H1aezRyDZrsfYN4yg+AYwRfAH5E0IU+rWMh+ZAgTHTfl3x0STFT5sf8/7Shfsibg2oPaknQVQq8=&amp;rh=ff004b5478c644f4ab818579b2418862fc9da841" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Northside</a> (pictured below) is 51 acres, with subdivision consent, subject to final registration. 
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2019/5/9/northside%20.jpg" alt="">
The two lots will be sold to facilitate a relocation overseas for the vendors.
Atkins is returning to Germany this month to defend his world title.
“When we first bought the property in 1997, it was just one big block and we’ve created it into a small farm by making five paddocks,” he said.
“We improved the place with removal of weeds and made it quite accessible for the stock.
“It also has an abundant wildlife population too.
“We have sugar gliders, wombats, lizards, birdlife, kangaroos, rock wallabies and wedge tail eagles living on the hill, with echidnas in the garden digging their nests.”
Ray White marketing agent George Southwell said the likely buyer may be an introductory level farmer or a professional seeking a tree-change weekender.
“The Atkins’ have turned a vacant block into a true small farm and Frances has been leading the charge with fine wool production,” he said.
“Her most recent yield was 16.2 micron, which is an awesome achievement with their smaller line of sheep which are easily managed.
“The property includes a single stand shearing shed with covered room for roughly 100 head, however many uses could be adapted by new owners from an outdoor sports destination, suitable family property or even a great property to retire to.”
The Northside site is a blank canvas of bushland country set off the Hume Highway allowing for ease of access to Canberra in just under an hour and Yass in under ten minutes.
Bowning Hill includes a four bedroom and two bathroom home with dual occupancy potential. 
The owners have hosted the annual “Walk the Bowning Hill” charity fundraiser at their property for the past six years.
“The walk has raised $20,000 over six years,” Mrs Atkins said. 
“Locals love walking the hill, which has 360-degree views and on a clear day you can see the Black Mountain Tower in Canberra.
“The home is a four-bedroom PAAL kit home; with the highest point of the house being three metres off the ground.
“We’ve held some great parties on the big covered three-side deck and in the shearing shed.
“The gardens are all set up: mostly natives and some fruit trees.
“We have a beautiful aspect, with stunning views looking down the Murrumbidgee valley and the Brindabellas, but very secluded and serene.
“For winter there’s a beaut wood heater, and during the summer we use the evaporative cooler.”
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