WAYNE Doyle wants Bega Valley Shire's Environmental Zones cast into the annals of history, just as they were on the Far North Coast.
Mr Doyle’s entire life has been split between farming the Bega Valley and working for a woodchip company, Pentarch.
But his family’s association with the area goes far beyond that. His mother was born just up the coast at Tathra, and her mother was born at Tathra in the 1800s.
His father came from Lakes Entrance, about 240 kilometres away, and Wayne himself was born at Pambula Hospital in 1954.
Mr Doyle has a 110-hectare property, "Narraboyn", at Narrabarba and the 23ha "Edenvale", at Nethercote.
He runs Angus cattle and sells through Bega saleyards with regular clients who look out for his offerings in February or March each year.
Some of his cattle end up down in South Gippsland, around Leongatha, while others are bought by locals.
All of his land was, before 2013, zoned Rural A1, which meant he could erect a three-sided shed, stockyards or clear a fenceline without making any particular application to council.
But now, with the E Zone designation on much of his land, he must apply for a development approval to even erect stockyards.
Luckily he has a home on "Edenvale", otherwise he would now not be allowed to build one.
The original homestead on “Narraboyn” was destroyed by a bushfire in 1952 that swept down from the mountains and jumped Twofold Bay, and then the new home was also destroyed by fire in 1979-80.
Despite the previous dwellings, under E Zone rules, "Narraboyn" is not big enough to get permission to rebuild if he chose to.
Mr Doyle said now 78 per cent of the Bega Valley Shire is either national park or state forest and the remaining 22pc includes Crown Land, parks and racecourses and E zones now cover about 24pc of privately owned land.
“I think that’s more protected land than any other shire in the state,” said Mr Doyle.
In 2006 Mr Doyle went through a divorce and had his land valued for the Federal Magistrate’s Court in Canberra.
In 2016 he had it valued again, for taxation purposes, and the value had dropped by 40 per cent, with the valuer dedicating a page of his report to explaining how declaration of E Zones in 2013 had eroded its value.
Allowed activities in the E Zones is restrictive, in E2 areas some landholders say they can’t even slash their own paddocks to control weeds. “And E2 surrounds the whole of Eden,” said Mr Doyle.
MARK Hetherington, who has for the past seven years had managed Boydtown Caravan Park and a small beef herd for Sydney property developer Bruce Lyon, reckons between fishing and farming he’s always had a job.
At the moment he’s running about 150 Angus, with a smattering of crossbreds, on about 800ha of country that skirts Twofold Bay.
The country is not great, but should council push ahead with declaring E Zones on much of the land – currently before the Department of Planning and Environment – he says it will quickly be taken over by bracken fern and black wattle.
