Draft Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp Management Plan July 2018| Port Stephens Council RAYMOND TERRACE FLYING-FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT PLAN | JULY 2018 Prepared by Hunter Councils Environment Division for Port Stephens Council Contact Details: Hunter Councils Environment Division PO Box 3137 THORNTON NSW 2322 Phone: 02 4978 4020 Fax: 02 4966 0588 Email: [email protected] © Hunter Councils 2017 (Strategic Services Australia as legal agent) Suggested Bibliographic Citation: Port Stephens Council (2017) Raymond Terrace Flying Fox Camp Management Plan July 2018, Raymond Terrace Disclaimer This document has been compiled in good faith, exercising all due care and attention. Strategic Services Australia does not accept responsibility for inaccurate or incomplete information. The basis of the document has been developed from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage “Flying-fox Camp Management Plan Template 2016”. The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) has compiled this template in good faith, exercising all due care and attention. No representation is made about the accuracy, completeness or suitability of the information in this publication for any particular purpose. OEH shall not be liable for any damage which may occur to any person or organisation taking action or not on the basis of this publication. Readers should seek appropriate advice when applying the information to their specific needs. All content in this publication is owned by OEH and is protected by Crown Copyright, unless credited otherwise. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), subject to the exemptions contained in the licence. The legal code for the licence is available at Creative Commons. OEH asserts the right to be attributed as author of the original material in the following manner: © State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2016. 2 RAYMOND TERRACE FLYING-FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT PLAN | JULY 2018 Acknowledgements Les Seddon – Port Stephens Council Carlie McClung - Port Stephens Council Charlene Wellard - Port Stephens Council Alan Keown – GIS Consultant Peggy Eby – Ecologist Narawan Williams – Ecologist Eva Twarkowski – Hunter Councils Environment Division Ellen Saxon – Hunter Councils Environment Division Bradley Nolan – Hunter Councils Environment Division We acknowledge the broader input received from Local Council Officers undertaking similar Flying Fox Camp Management Plans (CMPs) in the Hunter Region, as their efforts may have influenced the creation of this Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp Management Plan. We acknowledge input by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, and consultants Ecosure, in developing the template on which this Camp Management Plan was based. Peggy Eby also provided advice which was included in the template. Version History Version Date Author Details Draft (v6) June 2017 Hunter Councils First release to Council for review Revised Draft (v7) July 2017 Les Seddon Revised draft for Council workshop Final draft (v8) November Les Seddon Revised draft for consultation following internal 2017 Council workshop. Exhibition Draft July 2018 Les Seddon Final draft for exhibition 3 RAYMOND TERRACE FLYING-FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT PLAN | JULY 2018 Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 7 1 Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 8 2 Context ............................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Local Context ............................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Ecological Values of Flying Foxes, the Camp and Surrounding Areas ................................... 17 2.3 Legislative and Regulatory Context ......................................................................................... 30 2.4 Regional Context ...................................................................................................................... 33 3 Community Engagement ............................................................................................................... 38 3.1 Stakeholders / Interest Groups ................................................................................................ 38 3.2 Engagement Methods .............................................................................................................. 39 3.3 Community Feedback on Management Options ..................................................................... 41 4 Management Opportunities ........................................................................................................... 47 4.1 Site-specific analysis of camp management options ............................................................... 47 4.2 Planned Management Approach ............................................................................................. 53 5 Assessment of Impacts to Flying Foxes ........................................................................................ 57 5.1 Flying-fox habitat to be affected ............................................................................................... 57 5.2 Assessment of Impacts to Other Threatened Species or Communities .................................. 57 6 Evaluation and Review .................................................................................................................. 58 7 Plan administration ........................................................................................................................ 59 7.1 Monitoring of the camp............................................................................................................. 59 7.2 Reporting .................................................................................................................................. 59 7.3 Funding commitment ................................................................................................................ 59 8 References and additional resources ............................................................................................ 60 Appendices Appendix 1 National Flying-fox Population and Statistics ..................................................................... 66 Appendix 2 Vegetation Assessment ..................................................................................................... 68 Appendix 3 Animal and Human Health ................................................................................................. 70 Appendix 4 Key Legislation ................................................................................................................... 74 Appendix 5 Media Coverage ................................................................................................................. 80 Appendix 6 Survey Responses ............................................................................................................. 84 Appendix 7 Management Options ......................................................................................................... 89 Appendix 8 Management Guidelines .................................................................................................... 97 4 RAYMOND TERRACE FLYING-FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT PLAN | JULY 2018 Table of Figures Figure 1 Port Stephens Local Government Area .................................................................................... 9 Figure 2 Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp location and historical extent ......................................... 10 Figure 3 Historical extent of camp occupancy ...................................................................................... 11 Figure 4: Graph of Flying-fox census results for the Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp (source: CSIRO National Flying-fox census) ...................................................................................................... 14 Figure 5: Flying-fox population across both Newbury Park and Ross Walbridge Reserve since June 2015 ...................................................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 6: Grey-headed flying-fox indicative species distribution, adapted from OEH 2015a ............... 17 Figure 7: Little red flying-fox indicative species distribution, adapted from OEH 2015a ...................... 18 Figure 8: Vegetation types at the Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp and surrounds......................... 21 Figure 9: Potential overflow habitat surrounding the Raymond Terrace Flying-fox Camp ................... 27 Figure 10: Known Flying-fox Camps throughout the Hunter & Central Coast region ........................... 33 Figure 12: Flying Fox Engage zones to map responses ...................................................................... 41 List of Tables Table 1: Flying-fox population data (source: CSIRO National Flying-fox census)................................ 13 Table 2: Threatened species