Three environment groups have asked the Baird government to reconsider the status of the Gardens of Stone, near Lithgow.
A new report by the groups shows “that the best of the Blue Mountains lies unprotected outside the World Heritage Area”.
The report, commissioned by the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, the Colong Foundation for Wilderness and the Lithgow Environment Group, was released on the weekend. It takes stock of the cultural and natural assets of some 39,000 hectares of the Gardens of Stone region.
“What the report found is that this area in many ways surpasses what we find in the World Heritage area, and yet, these 39,000 hectares are not managed for conservation, they are currently unprotected state forest,” Keith Muir, director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, said.
The report found there is pagoda rock formations of international significance; ancient Aboriginal rock art; rich biodiversity; nationally endangered swamp environments and endangered plant and animal species.
“The public forests of the Gardens of Stone region are of very little value to primary industries, but of immeasurable conservation value,” Mr Muir said.
The groups would like to see the Baird government move the land it already owns from one portfolio to another.
“We want the the Gardens of Stone to be moved from state forest to National Parks and Wildlife ... and made a state conservation area.”
“We have watched this region for decades, and seen the devastating impact of the [coal] mines. Waterfalls have stopped flowing, swamps have dried up and died, cliff faces have collapsed and rivers have been poisoned – all because of the mines tunneling under these ancient landscapes,” said Mr Muir.