Flynn, Joel, Monique, Robyn and Jaykob, staff members and members of family who rely on Mountain View Nursery. Photo: Robyn Lush.
Six years ago, Robyn Lush opened a plant nursery just south of Moruya. It has taken more than four years to get her development application (DA) approved. The approval has come with conditions that Ms Lush views as unduly onerous.
Ms Lush was born in Moruya and grew up there before moving away to study.
On her return to Moruya, she worked in her ex-partner’s landscaping business.
“What used to disappoint me about landscaping in this area was the lack of variety of plants,” she said. “I have always loved plants and propagation and when we separated I went into large-scale propagation.”
Mountain View Nursery sells everything from tube stock to advanced trees. It propagates and sells thousands of plants each year. The nursery does both retail and wholesale business. It had a $92,000 contract to green the Sydney Airport motorway.
One sticking point with the DA lodged in December 2020 was that Eurobodalla Shire Council said Mountain View Nursery did not meet the definition of a plant nursery and was a garden centre. Ms Lush’s property is zoned RU4. Plant nurseries are permissible with council consent on RU4-zoned land, but not garden centres.
Ms Lush said she and her town planner supplied council with a dossier of evidence to prove that Mountain View Nursery was a plant nursery and asked council staff to visit to see it for themselves.
Mountain View Nursery propagates and sells a wide variety of plants which it sells retail and wholesale. Photo: Robyn Lush.
The DA was declined in April 2024.
That month she met a council staff member who told her to submit a fresh DA. He said he would pre-review it to ensure it would go through.
Again, things stalled. Meanwhile council issued a Development Control Order in October 2024.
“They put a control order on the business saying we weren’t a plant nursery and therefore couldn’t have a retail plant nursery in the area and if we did, we would be fined $1 million,” Ms Lush said. “Since then, we have existed by being online and shipping the plants around the state and the ACT.”
Ms Lush engaged town planners to help write the DAs. She also engaged Sydney-based McLaren Traffic Engineering, one of Australia’s leading traffic and parking experts.
Twice over an 18-month period, she sent emails to the mayor, councillors and council’s general manager asking for intervention.
In February 2025 Ms Lush discussed the situation with Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland. He suggested that she spoke at council’s monthly public access meeting.
“The evening before I was to present at the February meeting, I got a call from the meeting convener to say I wasn’t allowed to speak because it was an active legal matter,” she said. “I was told because of confidentiality clauses it can’t be discussed in public.”
Mountain View Nursery had a $92,000 contract to green the Sydney Airport motorway. Photo: Robyn Lush.
The DA was approved in June 2025.
“It is accepted we are a plant nursery, but the conditions are unacceptable,” Ms Lush said. “They want every single condition – there are 15 pages of them – certified by a qualified engineer and for each one to be approved again by the development department.
“They are trapping me,” Ms Lush said. “It just isn’t a fair system.”
Ms Lush previously had eight employees. Now she only has two and must do all the administration work herself.
“It isn’t just me missing out. It is the whole community,” she said. “They don’t have the same range of plants or the advice.”
In a statement a council spokesperson said the original DA contained insufficient detail about the propagation and growing of plants on-site whereas the approved DA included details about propagation methods and the process of ‘growing on’ young plants to larger specimens for on-selling to the public.
The spokesperson said the DA was approved subject to the conditions of consent which remained in place to ensure the development operated under the agreed terms, safely and within the law, and provided consideration for neighbouring properties and the environment. Traffic would likely increase as a result of the business’ operation. A sealed driveway was appropriate to reduce dust and noise impacting neighbours.
The spokesperson said the DA process had involved multiple rounds of public consultation, technical review and consideration of community submissions.
