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Pagodas Over Profits: Katoomba Public Meeting Unanimously Calls for NSW Government to reject Commercial Glamping Proposals for Gardens of Stone

A crowd of over fifty concerned citizens last night sent a clear message to the NSW Government: that conservation areas are not resort development zones. At a public meeting held in Katoomba, attendees voted unanimously to demand an immediate halt to the proposed "glamping" resorts within the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wilderness Australia warned today that the Minns Government’s role in a proposed resort program will set a dangerous precedent. If approved, then no site in the NSW National Park estate will be safe from resort development.

“The Minns Government is handing over some of the most globally iconic and rare natural landscapes to a resort developer,” said Keith Muir, Wilderness Australia spokesperson.

LITHGOW, NSW – Wilderness Australia has hit out at the New South Wales Government’s plans to allow private resort developments within the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area, labelling the proposal a betrayal of the region’s internationally significant geoheritage.

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“A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) report has dismissed thousands of objections to three clusters of cabins proposed in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area near Lithgow by claiming the resorts are low impact and not in pagoda landscapes[i]”, Keith Muir of the Gardens of Stone Alliance* said.

A 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.

-Commercial accommodation could blight a park’s glorious pagoda landscapes-

Thursday May 2, 2024

Yesterday the NPWS advertised a 31 day public exhibition of an intention to lease three commercial accommodation sites to Wild Bush Luxury, a subsidiary of Experience Co. The lease proposal is for three sites with six cabins and a common lounge building at each site set in a spectacular rocky pagoda landscape in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area1. 

The surprise backdown that saw NPWS agree to the restart of the public review for two proposed tourism leases in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area must prompt the incoming Minns government to consider whether to proceed with these developments at all.

On Friday 24 March the NPWS notified Bushwalkers NSW that the Gardens of Stone lease notices for Wild Bush Luxury Experience Pty Limited and Trees Adventure Holdings Pty Limited would be readvertised over the coming months.

The Gardens of Stone Alliance (GOSA) is calling on the NSW Government to optimise economic benefits for Lithgow and minimize scenic and ecological impacts by amending ecotourism development plans for the Lost City, a world-class rock formation 10 minutes from Lithgow CBD.