The body charged with managing South Australia's native vegetation could be investigated by parliament. The state opposition has attacked the way authorities have managed the allegedly unauthorised clearance of native forest in the Adelaide Hills.
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00:00 This once green patch of private land in Mount Lofty will one day house a developer couple's
00:07 dream home, but the neighbours think it's a nightmare.
00:12 We don't refer to it as clearing anymore, we refer to it as the quarry, as do a lot
00:16 of the locals around the area here, because it just resembles a quarry now.
00:20 The Native Vegetation Council visited the site in December 2021 and found more than
00:26 half a hectare of mess-mate, stringy bark forest had allegedly been cleared, five times
00:32 the area approved.
00:35 An enforcement notice was issued last October, ten months after the site visit, but the former
00:43 Environment Minister says it shouldn't have taken so long.
00:46 I'm going to refer this matter to the Environment, Resources and Development Standing Committee
00:52 of Parliament to have a serious bipartisan independent investigation.
00:58 The enforcement notice prevents further clearing of native vegetation, but neighbours have
01:03 raised complaints with authorities that more land has since been cleared.
01:08 This image shows the property in 2015 when works began.
01:12 This was the site a month after the Native Vegetation Council visited in December 2021,
01:19 and this was four months ago.
01:21 It's quite devastating when you operate a tourism business next door that looks straight
01:25 into this space to just see it diminishing.
01:28 The Native Vegetation Council rejected the neighbours' complaints, saying it hasn't
01:33 detected any native scrub clearance at the site since December 2021.
01:39 The current Environment Minister has told Parliament that any recent land clearing has
01:44 been of non-native species.
01:47 Property owners Stephen and Tiffany Connor didn't respond to requests for comment, but
01:52 they've previously told the ABC they're working with authorities and intend to revegetate
01:58 the land.
01:59 Their ten-year plan to rehabilitate the site was recently approved by the Native Vegetation
02:04 Council.
02:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]