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The Scenic Hills is a vast tract of gently rolling hills and valleys that cradle the city of Campbellown and provide its scenic backdrop. Running from Denham Court in the north to just past the Australian Botanic Gardens at Mount Annan in the south, the Hills are rich in aboriginal and European history, representing one of the last colonial rural landscapes left in the Cowpastures area. In 1974 Campbelltown City Council took action to protect the area for future generations by making it a Scenic Protection Area. The revised Campbelltown Environmental Plan 2015 maintained this, zoning it Environmental Management with the specific objective of preserving its rural heritage landscape. Unfortunately, because of its location - less than an hour from Sydney's CBD and the same from the Southern Highlands - the Hills have suffered ongoing encroachment from Sydney's growing population.
The Scenic Hills Association was formed on 17 March 2010 when it became clear that the Hills zoning would not be enough to ensure its survival. At its core is a group of landowners and residents who live in or near the Scenic Hills, principally in the suburbs of Varroville, St Andrews, Raby, Kearns, Bow Bowing and Blairmount, but with Friends now extending across the Macarthur area and as far north as Queensland. Read More
This was the Hills from 1974 to 2004. The NSW Government took the uppermost corner for the South West Growth Centre in 2004, and has now taken the middle for a Crown cemetery.
Macarthur MP Mike Freelander expressed his disgust in Federal Parliament at the contempt shown to this community by the Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (CMCT) and other vested intersts in pushing ahead with a cemetery in our Hills against local wishes. He was supported in the media by Campbelltown Council and MPs for Macquarie Fields & Campbelltown: More
Background: The Catholic Cemeteries Trust has forged ahead with its cemetery claiming only a vocal local minority opposes it...really?
The Trust submitted a rezoning application to Campbelltown Council in September 2013 to have the Local Environment Plan 'amended' so it could put a massive 136,000 commercial cemetery on the historic core of the 1810 Varro Ville estate in the the Scenic Hills Protection Area. Council refused to rezone the land, so the CMCT went to the NSW Government and had the decision overturned. The proposed cemetery is prohibited land use in the Hills. Local media was full of protest amidst revelations of a secret land deal, controversy over its need, and an overreaching 'PR' campaign. See 3 pages: Fight for Hills
