One of the last critically endangered woodlands in Sydney's south faces the chop within days to provide temporary parking space for WestConnex machinery, opponents say.
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The bulk of the 1.87 hectares of remnant forest fringing the M5 motorway and Canterbury Golf Club may fall under bulldozers as soon as Wednesday.
The woodland is part of just 7 per cent of the original Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark forest that remains, according to the Office of Environment Heritage.
The bioregion - which is distinct for its clay soils rather than the Sydney sandstone feature that dominate that part of NSW - is known to shelter powerful owls and grey-headed flying foxes, among other threatened or vulnerable species.
The Beverley Grove site itself is home to a range of fauna present at only a couple of sites, such as the prickly-leaved paperbark and white feather honeymyrtle.
Peter Stevens, a member of the Wolli Creek Preservation Society, said the area was supposed to have been shielded from future development when the nearby M5 motorway was built.
"When the first M5 went through it was protected because it was such an important remnant," Mr Stevens said. "Now with the changes to the offset arrangements, they've found a way around it."
The site will be used for storage of equipment and for one of the WestConnex portals, he said: "It will be temporary...but when they restore it, they will never be able to restore the community [of species]."
A spokeswoman for Sydney Motorway Corporation said it was "necessary to clear a parcel of land" to deliver the new M5 section of WestConnex.
"This was fully acknowledged in the New M5 Environmental Impact Statement and is being addressed appropriately in line with the conditions of approval," she said. "Every attempt has been made to minimise the impact to the Cooks River Castlereagh Ironbark Forest and the New M5 will not impact the Wolli Creek bushland."
The corporation is developing a biodiversity offset package that will pay to preserve existing mature trees elsewhere. It was working to limit the impact on the community and environment wherever possible, which is why two-thirds of WestConnex is being built underground, she said.
Jeff Angel, director of the Total Environment Centre, said remnant bush such as those in the Wolli Creek "is unbelievably scarce" as Sydney sprawls.
"This is extinction by government decree, using the major projects offsets policy," Mr Angel said, adding that the Baird government's new biodiversity conservation laws will open the way for similar destruction to proceed "across the state".
The offsets for the Wolli Creek are on the Central Coast, and are "nowhere near like-for-like, whether it's for species or location", he said.
Fairfax Media sought comment from Roads and Maritime Services, and from the planning and environment ministers, Rob Stokes and Mark Speakman, respectively.
Penny Sharpe, Labor's environment spokeswoman, said the Baird Government "prefers to unleash the bulldozers and the chainsaws", instead of finding ways to conserve precious native ecology.
"The Minister for the Environment should be bringing every piece of pressure to bear on his colleagues to fight for the survival of critically endangered plants and animals across Sydney," Ms Sharpe said. "Instead he is yet again, missing in action."
Mehreen Faruqi, Greens environment spokeswoman, said the destruction of rare woodland for a WestConnex worksite was "extremely concerning".
"After 1.5 hectares of bushland is cleared, virtually all of this endangered ecological community will be gone," Dr Faruqi said. "Protecting bushland in another area will never bring back this last remnant of forest."
An exclusive Herald-ReachTEL poll conducted last week found just 12 per cent of NSW voters believe the WestConnex motorway project will be a bad outcome for Sydney.
