Thank you to everyone who made a submission aginst this damaging proposal. The proposal to build serviced cabins for tourism in pristine parts of the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area near Lithgow risks damage to its internationally renowned pagoda landscapes and will set a dangerous precedent. A lease notice was on exhibition till June 26 and indicated that cabins by Wild Bush Luxury are to be located along ridgelines to “best leverage the aspect and vantage points.”
Over 300 people lodged objections through this website. Another hundred or so others made their objections known directly to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
The NSW Minister for the Environment should not issue a lease to the company whose very name Wild Bush Luxury Experience is an oxymoron. You can’t have a luxury accommodation experience in wild bushland. The development of such accommodation destroys the experience of wild bush. This “magical” company name is also a good indicator of what is wrong with this lease proposal.
Surely the Minister will not be satisfied with a lease for three cabin developments being compatible with the reserve’s core heritage value, its pagoda landscapes. A lease issue to WBLE would trash the Sustainability Criteria for Visitor Use and Tourism and by precedent renders them useless as pristine pagoda landscapes would be compromised by this lease issue. Building cabins among internationally significant pagoda landscapes is not design with nature, it is damaging development.
