Don’t Slay Our dragon!

Canberra’s very own native lizard, the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon, is on the brink of extinction as the Canberra Airport begins destroying its last remaining quality habitat to construct an unnecessary road.

With a promised review of this project by the outgoing federal Environment Minister underway and a new Federal Environment Minister incoming this May, we have one last chance to increase public pressure and stop this deadly and unnecessary project.

Send an email to the new federal environment minister and the Canberra Airport to call for an immediate end to the deadly and unnecessary construction of the Northern Airport Road.

Email the Federal Environment Minister

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Senator the Hon. Murray Watt 
Minister for the Environment and Water

cc. the Hon. Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

Dear Minister,

I urgently call on you to immediately revoke approval for the Canberra Airport Pty Ltd’s Northern Road development at Canberra Airport to save the critically endangered Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon from extinction.

The Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon is an iconic species unique to the nation’s capital which, as a result of continuing habitat destruction, only survives in three populations across 40 hectares in Canberra’s north. Without your intervention as Minister for the Environment, the Northern Road development at Canberra Airport will destroy the Dragon’s best remaining habitat, making it near impossible for them to survive in the wild - thereby breaking Labor’s outstanding commitment to having no new extinctions occur in this country.

Under Section 144(2) of the EPBC Act, you have the authority to review and revoke the Northern Road’s 2009 approval if new information has come to light. This process was begun by your predecessor, Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP, when new evidence published in 2022 confirmed that the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon is not part of a widespread species but is instead a standalone and thus even more critically endangered species, limited to a handful of sites in and around Canberra Airport. It is highly likely, certain even, that the Northern Road development would not have been approved had this knowledge been available in 2009, given the then environment minister’s approval condition of avoiding any increased risk of extinction to the species.

As the newly appointed Minister for the Environment, you have both the power and the responsibility to ensure the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon is not the first species to go extinct under Labor’s watch by revoking approval for the Northern Road development. I urge you, alongside Aussies across the country, to act with courage where previous ministers have failed to protect our beautiful home and all the amazing creatures we share it with, for generations to come.

Yours sincerely,

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Email Canberra Airport

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Mr Noel McCann
Director of Planning and Government Relations 
Canberra Airport Pty Ltd

Ms Georgina Byron AM
Chief Executive Officer
Snow Foundation

Dear Mr McCann and Ms Byron AM,

I urge you to immediately cease construction of the current Northern Road development at Canberra Airport, which will potentially send the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon into extinction. I ask you not to break the Airport’s promise to Canberrans to halt construction until a nature-positive plan for the species has been developed.

As evidenced by our rapidly growing community campaign currently garnering hundreds of signatures against the construction of the Northern Road, Canberrans don’t want this development to go ahead at the cost of our beloved Dragon and its grassland habitat.

Instead, Canberrans are calling on the Airport and its owners, the Snow Family, to stand with, not against, the community and become a champion of our beloved Dragon. Moving the construction of the road to circumnavigate the Dragon’s habitat, or recognising that the road is not actually needed in the first place, is the simple fix to this dire situation.

Ms Byron AM and Mr McCann, if the Snow Family cares as much about Canberra as they claim to, then why would they actively destroy our beautiful city for no good reason? The heartless and nonsense construction of the Northern Road, especially while it is under review for being extinction-causing by the Federal Minister for the Environment, is ruining the Airport’s and the Snow Family’s reputation here in Canberra. If the Snow Family really cares about our city, then they should stand with their fellow Canberrans in protecting this beautiful place we are lucky enough to call home.

Yours sincerely,

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I’ve emailed the minister & the airport, what next?

Thank you for adding your voice to the campaign to save Canberra’s Grassland Earless Dragon!

If you haven’t already, you can also add your name to our growing petition below against the construction of the Northern Airport Road. We already have over 350 signatures!

After emailing and signing the petition, you can also contact the Minister and Airport over the phone and their social media. These forms of contact take a little more effort than sending an email but they are the best way to ensure the Minister and Airport are getting the message that we don’t want our Dragon slain for a nonsense road.

Give the Minister and Airport a ring

To contact the Minister over the phone, you can call his Parliament office during business hours on (02) 6277 7320 and his electorate office during business hours on (07) 5531 1033.

To contact Canberra Airport over the phone, you can call the Airport’s reception during business hours on (+61 2) 6275 2222 and the Snow Foundation during business hours on 02 6175 3333.

Volunteering opportunities

If you’re interested in volunteering on this campaign, then contact our Campaigner, Aoibhinn Crimmins, at aoibhinn.crimmins@conservationcouncil.org.au about volunteering opportunities. If you indicated you were interested in volunteering in your petition response then Aoibhinn will be getting in touch with you.

As always, donations are vital to the Conservation Council’s ability to deliver campaigns like this, and are able to be made here.

Lastly, keep an eye on this page or stay in-touch via our fortnightly newsletter or our Instagram @conservationact or Facebook @Conservation Council ACT Region for updates on the campaign and ways you can get involved.

Sign the petition

We demand that the Canberra Airport reverse its decision to build the Northern Airport Road and instead work with the community to save Canberra’s Grassland Earless Dragon. We call on the newly appointed federal environment minister to intervene in the unnecessary construction of the Northern Airport Road given the new evidence brought to light in 2022 that the Canberra Dragon is a standalone and thus even more critically endangered species on the brink of extinction.

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How did we get here?

In 2009, the Canberra Airport Group (CAG) requested approval for the construction of its “Northern Road” which at the time made use of Defence’s land to circumnavigate the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon’s habitat patch, as advised by the Grassland Earless Dragon National Recovery Team.

CAG has since argued that construction of the Northern Road is required as an evacuation route, especially for “VIP” passengers like the PM and foreign officials, and to enable increased economic activity at the Airport.
- - However, there is already a dirt road evacuation route where the Northern Road would be constructed.
  - However, with the construction of the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport in Western Sydney, Canberra Airport is no longer up for consideration as a new economic hub for the region.
CAG’s Northern Road request was approved by a delegate of the former Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett in 2009 on the condition that proof be provided to the Department that the road’s construction and operation would not increase the risk of extinction for the Canberra Dragon population.

In January 2020, a fire caught on the southeast corner of the Airport, renewing claims by CAG that the Northern Road needed to be “sorted out” for fire safety. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison then stepped in.

In May 2020, a new and more direct route of the Northern Road straight through the Dragon’s remaining patch of habitat (fig. 1) and thereby requiring less land from Defence was given the final go-ahead by a delegate of former Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
- - Concerningly, no scientific proof was provided that the road’s construction and operation would not increase the risk of extinction for the Canberra Dragon habitat as required by the original 2009 approval.
In September 2022, the Friends of Grasslands community group requested that the road’s approval be revoked by the then Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek based upon new evidence that the Grassland Earless Dragon actually consisted of four separate and thus even more critically endangered species, including one unique to Canberra.

In April 2023, then Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek agreed to review the Northern Road’s approval however no decision was reached before the government went into caretaker mode in March 2025.

In early February 2025, CAG began construction of the deadly and unnecessary direct route of its Northern Road.

In late February 2025, CAG agreed to halt construction on the final 800m of the road that would destroy the most critical habitat for the Canberra Dragon and work on a “nature-positive plan” for the Road as a result of public pressure.

In April 2025, CAG once again began construction of the final 800m of the road that would destroy the most critical habitat for the Canberra Dragon.

Figure 1: the new, more direct route of the Northern Road, given the final go-ahead by a delegate of former Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley in May 2020. This modified route directly intersects the Canberra Dragon’s habitat.

Don’t Slay Our dragon!

Email the Federal Environment Minister

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I’ve emailed the minister & the airport, what next?

Give the Minister and Airport a ring

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How did we get here?