After pressure from conservationists, Canberra Airport Group has agreed to ‘hold off’ work on a section of the Northern Airport Road on land inhabited by the rare Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon. 

The Canberra Airport Group said it had agreed to suspend the work due to the higher conservation values of the area and while it develops a ‘nature-positive’ plan.

Conservationists have previously sought assurances from the federal government that work on the road would not increase the risk of extinction for the critically endangered dragon population but argue that it has not been demonstrated that these assurances can be met.

When work commenced this month on sections of the road that pass through the dragon’s habitat, Friends of Grasslands and the Conservation Council ACT Region called on federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek to immediately intervene.

Canberra Airport is home to one of just three Dragon populations known to remain in three small locations on a 40-ha area in the Majura and Jerrabomberra valleys. In 2022, Minister Plibersek identified the reptile as one of 110 endangered species nationally to be recovered under her proposed Threatened Species Action Plan.

The Conservation Council says it is ‘deeply concerned’ that the halt is a delaying tactic by the Airport Group to satisfy the current federal environment minister before the government goes into caretaker mode before the election, and pressure needs to continue to reverse the approval of this road.