A request to the National Capital Authority (NCA) from the ACT Minister for Roads to remove a now unnecessary bypass road around inner Canberra from the National Capital Plan has been declined.
The Minister, Chris Steel advised the NCA that the four-kilometre road, Monash Drive, was no longer required due to the construction of other roads in the area and the impact its development would have on nature reserves.
The road’s potential route was along the western foothills of Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie, from Antill Street to the north and Fairbairn Avenue to the south.
“While we are in Government we will never build Monash Drive and we want to prevent future Territory and Federal Governments from doing so by removing this fictitious road from the map,” Mr Steel said.
He said he had written to the NCA last year requesting an amendment to the National Capital Plan to reflect the corridor as a key environmental and active travel corridor. The NCA refused.
“I call on the Federal Government to overturn this decision and protect the bush capital,” Mr Steel said.
“This is an environmentally damaging, unnecessary, and expensive road and it should never be built.”
He said that if Monash Drive went ahead it could have a significant environmental impact on sensitive ecological elements, including Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland and threatened species like the little eagle and superb parrot.
He said there were also numerous Indigenous heritage sites along the proposed corridor which could be impacted.
Local MLA for the inner north, Rachel Stephen-Smith said residents wanted certainty that the road would no longer be built in the nature reserve behind them.
“The residents of Watson, Hackett, Ainslie, Campbell, and Reid have a strong connection to Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie and value the bush right on their doorstep,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
