This petition is regarding current project works to duplicate the Barton Highway, between Hall ACT and Murrumbateman NSW.  The road project is being undertaken by the Barton Highway Upgrade Alliance (BHUA) in consultation with Transport for NSW (TfNSW).

The proposed upgrades to the Barton Highway will have significant negative impacts on the Hall Travelling Stock  Route (TSR) and neighbouring private properties, with plans to

1. Isolate or clear significant Aboriginal Heritage Ring Trees
2. Clear areas of EPBC-listed Critically Endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodland
3. Impacts on a local Sugar Glider population and their habitat trees, which will become isolated in the middle of a dual-carriage highway.

Although the redesigned alignment for the proposed northbound lanes now avoids directly removing the ring and habitat trees as originally proposed the road still undertakes a direct route through the TSR rather than proposed alternate designs such as maintaining the width of the ACT median lane through the Hall TSR area.

We have developed an alternative road alignment that will avoid these negative Heritage and Environmental effects, and is within the Ausroads guidelines which are used as the main framework for road design in Australia and New Zealand.  However, BHUA and TfNSW have indicated that they will not consider this alternative alignment.  

The Ginninderra Catchment Group (GCG), Onerwal Council, Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups (YAN) and Friends of Grasslands (FOG) believe that the cumulative nature of these impacts requires a revised environmental assessment in order to fulfil the relevant Transport NSW policy, Commonwealth and NSW legislated environmental directives. 

We also want a review of our proposed alternative road alignment and greater engagement with work with the stakeholders on current and future stages of the upgrade in NSW such as establishing biodiversity offsets, environmental plantings and other mitigation measures.