"It is appalling that the former Commonwealth Adamstown Rifle Range Land (lot 2/827809) has not yet been transfered to the NSW National Parks Service" The President of the Parks and Playgrounds Movement, Doug Lithgow said today.

"It is gratifying however to see important bushland areas on Sydney Harbour being handed back to the people of NSW"

The Adamstown land was promised by the Commonwealth to be transfered to the NSW National Parks Service more than two years ago in a rezoning deal between the Newcastle City Council, the Commonwealth and the Parks Service.

The land was said to be compensatory habitat land for the RTA Charlestown bypass.

The bypass habitat has been razed and long gone but the compensation has not yet arrived.

The Adamstown land is currently being cleared for subdivision, but the 25ha bushland at the southern end of the property is still not transfered to the Parks Service.

It takes less than a week for the Land Titles Office to register the transfer of a block of land and a title search of the land on Friday confirmed that the Commonwealth is the still the proprietor and there are no unregistered dealings.

Its time our State and Federal Members and the Newcastle Council got their respective fingers out and transfered this land immediately for addition to the Glenrock State Recreation Area.

The conservation and management of the old Adamstown rifle range area has been of great concern to the Parks and Playgrounds Movement and the Newcastle community since the early fifties.

The whole of the land has been zoned 6(a) Openspace but never managed for the public.

Part of the land has been rezoned for residential use as part of the deal.

This issue has been a running sore for too long and it should be finalised forthwith.

In 1948 the whole rifle range property including the 25ha bushland was declared part of Newcastle’s Greenbelt by the then Planning Authority (The Northumberland County Council).