The Truth About Glenorie & Galston

Rural lands are defined as a minimum lot size of 5 acres. Anything smaller is zoned residential and as warned by Council Berman in December 2013 once lot sizes are zoned residential Kellyville-like development will occur with lot sizes as small as 350 sq.m. (The south Dural proposal has much smaller lots than Kellyville).

A small group of landowners with strong political links to Hornsby Council want to remove rural zoning in Dural, Galston, Glenorie & Arcadia by lobbying for the


(see The Truth About south Dural)


This Will Destroy The Rural Area And Its Amenity As We Know It

Council is supporting this small group of lobbyists:



On behalf of this small minority group, Council instigated a Rural Lands Planning Issues Survey purportedly to gauge community opinion on the future of Hornsby's rural lands.

Prior to the release of Council's survey in 2014 all residents received anonymous 'Your Area Your Say' brochures prepared by a "Committee of Concerned Residents" encouraging the reader to complete the survey using answers provided in the brochure supporting rezoning. The brochure's author(s) were familiar with all the survey content prior to Council's release of the survey to the community. Here is a copy of this anonymous brochure, click the images to enlarge.

Brochure Page 1 Brochure Page 2
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Many residents thought the brochures were authorised Council publications and treated them accordingly. It was obvious to other residents that the survey had shortcomings, which would affect its reliability as a community opinion instrument.

Three independent expert consultants in survey construction and analysis volunteered to review Council's 'survey'. They were:


They each found the research method and sampling 'deeply flawed' and that the survey should not be used to validate decisions by Hornsby Council on such a significant issue as re-zoning of rural lands. Click here to see what the experts are saying.

These reports were sent to Council in 2015 and to date Council has not responded to them and has ignored the experts' findings.

Investigations following the distribution of the anonymous "Your Say" brochures revealed that Mr Tony Jones arranged for their distribution on behalf of the "Committee For Rezoning Galston". This relatively small group changed their name and Tony Jones became Chairman of Hornsby Rural Area Association (HRAA) which aims to rezone our rural lands for subdivision.

It is interesting that no mention was made of the south Dural rezoning proposal in Council's Rural Lands Survey. The survey failed to include any of the subdivision elements proposed for south Dural such as multi-storey apartment buildings and tiny lot sizes. Not only did Council leave these very important details out of their survey, Council approved the south Dural proposal on its own accord completely disregarding its constituents.


Why Is Council So Supportive Of The Rezoning Proposal in Galston, Glenorie, Dural & Arcadia?

Perhaps the speeches made by the Hon Greg Donnelly MP in the NSW Parliament regarding property developer influence in Council decision-making might provide a clue.

On Friday 10th August 2012 the Liberal Party held a fund raising function in south Dural raising $87,436 for the forthcoming Council election.

"It is no secret that various property developers attended this event. It is also no secret that while not present themselves, some other property developers arranged for people to attend the fund raising event on their behalf."

"Steve Russell played a critical role in organising and conducting the fundraising event."



ref: Donnelly's Property Developers and Political Fundraising Speech
ref: Donnelly's Liberal Party Fundrasing Speech
ref: Statutory return for the 2012-3 reporting period under the Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act 1981


Where is Council at Now?

Council has postponed its agenda to rezone rural lands in Galston and Glenorie and its extension into Dural and Arcadia until the State Government’s North West Sub Region Plan is released this year. In the interim it has chosen much less contentious aspects of its deeply flawed survey to justify amendments to the Development Control Plan (DCP) to :



The latter is detrimental to the natural environment in that there will be further urban encroachment into the bush. It will also allow for incre ased subdivision.

We strongly believe Council are promoting the less contentions aspects as a stepping-stone to a wider rezoning of our rural lands.