By TANIA PHILLIPS
A FIRE at Kingscliff’s Lot 490 on Friday evening has destroyed a stand of endangered orchids and levelled a large area of native grassland between Casuarina Way and the Kingscliff South Beach.
According to Save Our Lot 490 group spokesman Jerry Cornford the fire broke out around 6pm Friday and took firefighters about two hours to bring under control.
Mr Cornford said it is believed the fire destroyed a stand of the endangered ground orchid Deodorum Densiflorum from which only two weeks before, staff from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Mt Annan in Sydney had collected seeds to send to the Millennium Seed Project at Royal Kew Gardens in the UK.
The seeds joined a collection of endangered native species from around the 80 different countries in the world’s largest off-site conservation project.
“Firefighters told local residents that, given the mild conditions on Friday evening, it was almost certain the fire was deliberately lit,” Mr Cornford said.
He said the fire makes it imperative that the State Government and Tweed Shire Council come to immediate agreement on the future of the last stand of native habitat between Fingal and Cabarita.
More than 8,500 Tweed residents have now signed a petition calling on the government to preserve the Crown Land and Coastal Reserve as a wildlife habitat and public native parkland.
“Since Leightons Properties withdrew from a lease to develop a tourist resort on the site in April, the Lands Department had had ample time to do the right thing by the community,” he said.
“Another fire of this nature would be devastating, not only to plants and animals but to the future tourism potential of the Kingscliff and Salt communities.
“The combination of beach and bush is what brings tourists to the Tweed coast he said, and Lot 490 is the last remaining local attraction.”
