The area has been the home of the older male koala Cathie Bravo for a number of years as well as other native species.

Resident Kellie Taylor described the land clearing as mass devastation.

"It was quite eerie yesterday afternoon after the machinery stopped," she said.

"Usually around the last couple of hours of daylight we hear a great amount of bird life and bird song.

But for the first time in fifteen years, I actually was deafened by the silence on no birds."

The land clearing began this week on the site near the Lake Cathie Woolworths carpark.

With works completed by the Jojeni group, forty per cent of the site will be cleared to make way for a residential subdivision.

But from the perspective of local resident and volunteer at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital Susan Monkley, the developers have been going above and beyond to ensure the koala's safety.

"To be honest, I really wish the other developers would take the lead of this one and do more," she said.

"I think it could have been much worse."

The Jojeni group have established an exclusion zone around Cathie Bravo's tree and will only be removing koala food trees that are in poor condition.

For every tree that is removed, another three koala food trees will be planted.

In addition, the developer has hired an arborist, an additional ecologist to be onsite and will be removing invasive weed species such as lantana which can be harmful to koalas.

"There's a little part of me that hopes that by doing all this... making the hundred and twenty odd koala food trees that are on the site a bit more accessible and hopefully able to grow a bit more healthily that we might see some more koalas move in," Ms Monkley said.

Hiring an arborist and additional ecologist isn't a requirement under state legislation but Jojeni group representative Jason Bignell said that the developers wanted to make sure Cathie Bravo was as comfortable as possible through the process despite the additional cost.

"That's what we wanted to do to make sure that the site was taken care of correctly.

"We'd love for him to stay in that tree."

In the past, the development group donated 65 acres of koala habitat to Dooragan National Park.

Mr Bignell said that Jojeni group are committed to regenerating another 55 acres within the Camden Haven area for koala habitat.

"They understand that it's not a matter of rip, tear and bust, and drag every dollar out of the community you possibly can.

"They really care about what they do."

The same can't be said for other development groups, according to Ms Monkley who wishes an accumulative view was taken

"Would we all love that no development occurs?

Yeah but that's actually not going to happen in these circumstances and I think they have done a really good job."

"I think that both the state and the federal government have failed over consecutive governments to really recognize the risk to our endangered species and to put in place legislation and requirements that actually protect them."

Residents like Ms Taylor however want developments to stop altogether.

"There's way too much already. And this last piece of bushland in the middle of our community is virtually the lungs of the community and it's very precious.

"It's all very well designating regeneration but none of us that are alive now will be alive to see the growth of that regeneration."