Shocked by the enormity of land clearing for the $390 million Mt Ousley interchange upgrade, residents have banded together in a group called Save Our Trees.

“It’s a social media group of about 40 local residents who discuss the local issues, and try and use that group to represent a collective community view into the project,” said Ian Rosier, a founding member who lives near Bass Park, within 100 metres of Mt Ousley Rd.

The interchange at the foot of Mt Ousley will replace the existing intersection of the Princes Motorway and Mount Ousley Road. Consultation began almost a decade ago and Ian – a software developer who works from home – has been involved from the start, providing suggestions on and off. But when bunting went up last October, and he discovered the tree clearing would be much more extensive than expected, everything changed.

Residents started calling construction contractor Fulton Hogan’s hotline, asking: ‘What’s that bunting for?”

“They said, ‘Yeah, well, all of that area's going to be cut, obviously.' And we're like, ‘What the hell?’”

Then, last October, Ian went to a public meeting “which just confirmed our worst fears”.

Over a dozen hectares to be felled

Ian describes the project’s Review of Environmental Factors (REF) as a 1500-page “stitch-up”.

“The end result is that 12.7 hectares of trees are just going to be clear felled. And what that represents in this green belt, adjacent to the interchange, is really 90% of the vegetation there is just deleted off the face of the planet.

“I feel devastated and a huge sense of loss and disempowerment – as a resident, I'm very emotional about it.”

Ian watched an early round of tree felling, sharing footage on YouTube. “It's just heartbreaking. These machines just come down the street and they just eat the trees. These mature trees, which are 60 years old or more in some cases, they just cut him down with his giant machines, drag it up the street, throw it in the mulcher, and it's gone.”

Benefits of leafy suburbs

Numerous studies show the health benefits of trees in suburbia, including a 2019 UOW report revealing adults in leafy neighbourhoods have a lower risk of developing psychological distress. Study co-author Associate Professor Xiaoqi Feng said, “Walks through green space have been shown to reduce blood pressure, improve mental acuity, boost memory recall and reduce feelings of anxiety.”

Ian now has his own list of leafy benefits, including protection from dust, pollution, wind, heat and noise.

"It's shelter when you get under the shade, either riding a bike or walking. It’s protection from the effect of car lights and street lights on the Mt Ousley Road.”

Trees suppress weeds and keep litter out, as motorists driving down the pass dump KFC or McDonald’s rubbish, he said. “We're forever picking those up. But it stays on the road when the trees are there.

“When the trees are mature, as they were, it's a place of nature with birds, reptiles, possums.”

Now the vegetation barrier is gone, Ian said: “We've got a lot more dust and dirt on our windows and patio and solar panels. We hear a lot more noise, we see a lot more lights.”

Ian said the tree felling is affecting locals’ mental health.

“Mental health around this is quite serious. Almost everyone on our group, we care about the trees, we nurture them, we pick up rubbish. We've got a nice park here where we share occasions, and we feel like all of that has been disrupted.

“We can't understand by what authority in this day and age with climate change, and other things, how this has been allowed to happen.”

Call to revegetate local areas

Mt Ousley is a state road, so Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is responsible for the interchange project, not Wollongong City Council.

However, Ian said, as council has a tree canopy cover target of 35 percent, he's mystified as to why the project doesn’t include a commitment to no net tree loss in the local community.

“You would at least expect to have some sort of an offset,” he said, also acknowledging there’s no one-for-one solution.

“A seedling is nothing like a mature tree. The replacement value is something you might get in 30-plus years.

“It was an important green belt … we should be pushing to have it replaced.”

Precedent for offsets

In 2019, when Endeavour Energy flagged 1300 street trees growing close to powerlines as candidates for removal, it ran an offset program with Greening Australia.

At the time, a spokesperson told 2515 Coast News (as the Flame was known then) that offsets proposed to Wollongong City Council and property owners would include:

• for residents: one-for-one offset based on a semi-mature tree (45-litre pot or about 1.5m tall) or more tube stock
• for council: either one tree removed for 10 tube stock, one tree removed for two semi-mature trees or a community garden in plantings in schools.

The spokesperson also said Endeavour had trialled the program in 2018, removing 767 trees and replanting 27,000 new ones, as well as a new community garden in Dapto.

Transport for NSW responds

Responding to questions, including how many seedlings will be planted for each tree cut down, a TfNSW spokesperson issued a statement, which can be read in full here, saying: "The Mount Ousley interchange project team has measures in place to ensure only necessary vegetation is removed during work, and to minimise any environmental impacts.

"Transport and Fulton Hogan will revegetate as soon as possible.

"Fulton Hogan will be responsible for landscaping maintenance for a period of 18 months from construction completion. Transport and other relevant land owners will then be responsible for maintaining vegetation in their respective areas.”

Tree removal has been controversial since major construction began in late 2024. In addition to its project webpage, TfNSW has a Vegetation Removal Factsheet, which explains "about 7.5 hectares of native vegetation, about 5 hectares of roadside and urban plantings, and about one hectare of weed dominated vegetation" must be removed for safety and efficiency, with mitigation measures including installing nest boxes.

The project will take four years to complete, weather permitting.

Who will care for the trees?

After revegetation, Ian Rosier would like an ongoing program of maintenance until the trees mature. Right now, he’d like better project communication, ongoing engagement and more council involvement.

“I don't think they've ever acknowledged, in all of their environmental statements, the actual people who live here in the community …

“There's quite a few people selling, but it's obviously a tricky thing to do now that it's taking place.”

Bridge counts as a win

The community has had some success. As an active transport advocate, Ian was glad TfNSW restored plans for a pedestrian and cyclist bridge over Mt Ousley Road. 

“Only the recent resurrection of the bridge, that’s the active transport path, is something I would call a proper consultation with the community, which has been a good process,” he said.

This shared path was in the 2016 plan but dropped in March 2024, sparking a ‘Build Our Bridge’ campaign. The bridge is now on its way back, with TfNSW calling for feedback on a preliminary design last month.

Ian counts this as a win, but said, “Everything else falls on deaf ears.

“We've talked to [Cunningham MP] Alison Byrnes, we've talked to [Keira MP] Ryan Park. “We've been heard a number of times, but there’s really not much change.”

Other groups support concerns

Landcare Illawarra chair Emma Rooksby said the group was worried about a lack of weed control in the project area, with weeds spreading into nearby gardens. Healthy Cities Australia CEO Kelly Andrews said the organisation echoes residents’ concerns about active transport infrastructure, including a lack of shade and exposure to air pollution near the project. For example, the shared path between TAFE and UOW will now be unshaded and beside seven lanes of traffic.

While the Fairy Meadow-based health promotion charity recognises the current interchange is unsafe, and praises TfNSW’s “incredible work” in getting the bridge back to the planning table, ultimately Healthy Cities would like to see transport planning prioritising people, not vehicles.

“The project is symbolic of a failed policy of over-investment in roads at the expense of mass transit and active transport infrastructure," Kelly said.

"NSW spends just 0.2% of its transport budget on active travel, 100 times less than the 20% recommended by the United Nations.

“Motor vehicle congestion cannot be solved by continuing to expand road infrastructure. Traffic engineers have observed that adding additional road infrastructure creates induced demand, encouraging more cars onto the road and leading to increased congestion.

“Yet while hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on the interchange at Mount Ousley, critical rail freight infrastructure that could take the pressure of our roads, such as the Maldon-Dombarton Railway Line, continues to languish, and travel times by rail between Wollongong and Sydney have not improved since the age of steam."

Read more

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