Home - Sutherland Shire Environment Centre

Our amazing Sutherland Shire Shorebirds

Will they make it?

First National Park

The Royal National Park is not only a beautiful natural area, it has spectacular scenery, is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, and extraordinary geological features.

The ecological values and unique history of the Royal merit UNESCO World Heritage Listing.

Coal mining underneath Woronora Reservoir - our drinking water

10,700 people signed our hard copy petition asking the NSW government to stop this mining.

Sunny Shire

Sunny Shire provide information about solar energy, batteries, efficiency, electric vehicles and more.

The Sutherland to Cronulla Active Transport link

Help us stop the SCATL backpeddle!

The Sutherland Shire deserves a decent, safe bike pathway too!

SO Shire & Plastic Free Sutherland Shire

Working to protect and enhance the natural environment across the Shire, including our beautiful waterways and beaches. Raising public awareness, encouraging environmentally sustainable businesses, conducting beach cleanups and pollution audits.

Events

A Rainforest Calendar Tour: Royal National Park

Friday 18 November, 7:15am.
Deep dive into nature’s year, or the seasons of the rainforest. We’ll meet the beautiful and fascinating butterflies and birds which express the changing of the seasons in our local rainforests and ponder the relevance of the seasons on a calendar based on astronomical observations made by humans in Europe. This tour, led by bird expert and educator Ricki Coughlan, will be timed with the courtship of Satin Bowerbirds and nesting of the migratory Black-faced Monarch and sedentary Brown Gerygones, Yellow-throated Scrubwrens and Green Catbirds along with the fruiting of the forest and emergence of the beautiful male Wonder Brown butterflies.

End of year picnic 2022!

It’s the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre catch up picnic, Sunday 4 December – please save the date! It’d be so nice to just see people, catch up in person for a change, chat, relax and picnic. Everyone is welcome, especially new members, and your friends.

There are bbq’s, picnic tables, and toilets.

Public Forum: Dr Ian Wright on coal pollution and the Royal National Park

The Royal National Park is an extraordinarily beautiful natural area. It also has a coal mine as a neighbour, an American multinational, Peabody Energy. The mine surface facilities are located at Helensburgh, directly adjacent to a stream that flows into the Royal National Park. Coal sludge waste from that mine has been allowed to escape into the Hacking River, which flows for over 10kms through the length and heart of the Royal National Park.
Come along to this public forum to learn more about what happened, and how effective the cleanup has been. Help advocate for Peabody’s Environment Protection Licence to be changed, and consider what needs to be done to ensure this sort of environmentally destructive pollution never happens again.

About Sutherland Shire Environment Centre

We are an independent, not-for-profit, community organisation actively involved in a wide range of projects aimed at maintaining the natural beauty and character of our Shire, and surrounding waterways and parks. For a small organisation we do a lot, but our Centre is run by volunteers. Sutherland Shire would not have an environment centre, and none of our campaigns or advocacy would be possible without the commitment and care of members of the community.

One current focus includes advocating for koala and wildlife corridors around the Shire. Another campaign seeks to protect our water supply from the coal mining taking place directly underneath Woronora Reservoir: 10,700 people signed our recent petition calling for the mining to be stopped.
Our members from the SO Shire group aim to halt pollution from plastic and microplastics washing up around our beaches and waterways.

Our Sunny Shire and Plastic Free Sutherland Shire groups can provide general advice about solar energy, batteries, and sustainable practices. We support environmental education programs, and put in submissions about issues of environmental concern.

Sutherland Shire Environment Centre supports, and is also an affiliate member of the Sydney Basin Koala Network, the Better Planning Network, the Nature Conservation Council, the Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network (AFTINET), and Climate Action Network Australia (CANA).

If you are interested in finding out more, or helping, please get in touch!

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land, the Dharawal people, who have cared and continue to care for country. We recognise that Aboriginal Sovereignty has never been ceded. It is our goal to build restorative relations between peoples, and we pay our respect to their elders past, present, and emerging.