Tuart forest kept

HOUSING Minister Kim Hames has made a compromise to preserve the tuart forest in the Ministry of Housing’s Shearwater development.

The compromise follows intense lobbying by Member for Bunbury Ian Osborne to find a better balance between the need for housing development in the Bunbury area and the preservation of the tuart forest.

Dr Hames said the compromise offered to the South West Environment Centre involved an additional twenty hectares of land being reserved to consolidate the environmental corridor from the Preston River to the coast.

The corridor will now total some 160 hectares.

“When consolidated with other land, this will represent an area about the size of Kings Park and has the potential to become a major asset for the Bunbury community,” Dr Hames said.