Flora and Fauna Guidelines

A Flora and Fauna Assessment Report is required to be submitted with:

  • any application to prepare a Local Environment Plan (LEP) under Part 3
  • any development application under Part 4
  • or any application for any activity under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) if the proposed plan, development or activity is likely to affect native vegetation and/or fauna habitat.

Fauna habitat typically includes native vegetation, dead trees, hollow-bearing trees, caves, bush rock and rocky outcrops, wetlands, streams, lakes, ponds and dams.

Some chapters of the Wyong Shire Council Development Control Plan 2005 also require specific ecological assessment reports, such as Chapter 13 - Interim Conservation Areas and Chapter 30 - Wetlands.

In 1999, Wyong Shire Council prepared the pdf format Flora and Fauna Guidelines for Development (2.45 MB) . These guidelines detail how surveys should be conducted. Surveys must be undertaken by appropriately experienced and competent experts in their respective field.

Council acknowledges that these Guidelines are out of date, however, is of the view that they do provide valuable assistance and they are therefore made available. Council is likely to adopt the new Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water’s Threatened Species Survey and Assessment Guidelines, which will be published in the near future.

Council’s Survey Guidelines provide a simplified assessment in the form of a checklist for ‘minor development’. The pdf format Checklist for minor development (84.33 KB) may only be used if the definition of minor development is met and the development can easily be shown to have a negligible effect on native vegetation or fauna habitat.

If any threatened species, population or ecological communities are likely to occur in the study area, then applicant’s need to have regard for s5A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, which details seven factors that need to be considered to assess whether a development is likely to significantly affect the threatened species, populations or ecological communities, or their habitats. This assessment can be guided by the Department of Environment and Climate Change publication, Threatened Species Assessment Guidelines – The Assessment of Significance, 2007.

See the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water’s website for threatened species profiles.

Where suitable habitat occurs in a study area for Squirrel Gliders, a habitat assessment must be conducted and included in the Flora and Fauna Report.  Refer to Appendix 1 of the 'doc format Squirrel Glider Conservation Management Plan : Wyong Shire (1.22 MB) for a template for the habitat assessment.  Where suitable habitat occurs in a study area for threatened terrestrial orchids, surveys must be conducted in accordance with the pdf format Interim Survey Guidelines for Ground Orchids in Wyong Shire (805.05 KB).