News update, Feb 9, 2025
Following an onsite meeting between Russ and the council, the requirement for clearing was reduced to slashing a two-metre strip around the perimeter of the bushland. Russ says the work has been done and he’s satisfied with the outcome. The council will inspect the site to ensure its standards have been met.
Following an onsite meeting between Russ and the council, the requirement for clearing was reduced to slashing a two-metre strip around the perimeter of the bushland. Russ says the work has been done and he’s satisfied with the outcome. The council will inspect the site to ensure its standards have been met.
Russ Williams: "This is virgin, virgin, virgin native bush.’”
By Catherine Watson
YOU might pick Russ Williams for an ageing rocker but you would never guess that he spent most of his working life as a real estate agent.
Nor would you pick him for a typical greenie, but the long-time Coronet Bay resident is ready to defend his patch of bush against what he sees as an over-reaction of bureaucracy.
A week ago he received a fire prevention notice from the council ordering him to clear the undergrowth in the bushland on his small beef farm.
“I couldn't sleep that night,” Russ says. “I’ve never had this before, not in 50 years.”
YOU might pick Russ Williams for an ageing rocker but you would never guess that he spent most of his working life as a real estate agent.
Nor would you pick him for a typical greenie, but the long-time Coronet Bay resident is ready to defend his patch of bush against what he sees as an over-reaction of bureaucracy.
A week ago he received a fire prevention notice from the council ordering him to clear the undergrowth in the bushland on his small beef farm.
“I couldn't sleep that night,” Russ says. “I’ve never had this before, not in 50 years.”
He called the council and spoke to a bloke. “I said to him, ‘You know what virgin bush is, mate? Well I've got virgin, virgin, virgin native bush.’”
The bush was there when he bought the place 40 or 50 years ago, he can’t remember exactly when. Some time in the late `70s.
As a real estate agent he knew the lay of the land around the Waterline area and he thought it was the best bit of farmland in the district – he still does. Around 150 acres of good pasture and, what he loved most, this patch of woodland. He points out his favourite tree, and ancient swamp gum. The family would camp in here in the early days.
The bush was there when he bought the place 40 or 50 years ago, he can’t remember exactly when. Some time in the late `70s.
As a real estate agent he knew the lay of the land around the Waterline area and he thought it was the best bit of farmland in the district – he still does. Around 150 acres of good pasture and, what he loved most, this patch of woodland. He points out his favourite tree, and ancient swamp gum. The family would camp in here in the early days.
Over the years he’s planted more trees and extended the bushland. He’s developed a deep interest in the animals that call it home, everything from kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and echidnas to snakes, lizards, possums and countless bird species.
If he finds an echidna stranded on a road on a hot summer day he rescues it and brings it home to his bushland to give it a new home and add vigour to the local echidna gene pool. A mob of 30 or 40 roos hang out in his paddocks and shelter in the woodland.
“All these new estates are popping up,” he says. “The roos have got to go somewhere. If you look on the map, there's really not much bushland left in Coronet Bay any more. And this is part of a link that goes all the way down there to the Bass River.”
So the fire notice came as a shock. It ordered him to cut all grass, weeds and undergrowth on the fence line to a maximum height of 100mm in a strip 20 metres wide by about 800 metres long. He did the arithmetic and it added up to about 1.6 hectares.
If he finds an echidna stranded on a road on a hot summer day he rescues it and brings it home to his bushland to give it a new home and add vigour to the local echidna gene pool. A mob of 30 or 40 roos hang out in his paddocks and shelter in the woodland.
“All these new estates are popping up,” he says. “The roos have got to go somewhere. If you look on the map, there's really not much bushland left in Coronet Bay any more. And this is part of a link that goes all the way down there to the Bass River.”
So the fire notice came as a shock. It ordered him to cut all grass, weeds and undergrowth on the fence line to a maximum height of 100mm in a strip 20 metres wide by about 800 metres long. He did the arithmetic and it added up to about 1.6 hectares.
Map showing the strip to be mown or slashed. The bushland to the left of Russ's bushland is owned by the developer of the new estate on Paperbark Drive and there is no fire order on this.
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He called in a contractor who told him there was no way he could slash it given the wombat holes, fallen branches and logs that are left as habitat for lizards, birds and insects.
Ironically the fire notice recognises the habitat value and expressly forbids Russ to remove any vegetation other than “grass, bracken and weeds” without a permit. Russ figures he’d have to do it with a brushcutter, which would be a massive job. He says slashing the bracken would not only reduce the habitat value of the bush but make it more of a fire risk. “You’d just have dead bracken instead of live bracken.” And he says it fails to take account of the fire breaks that already surround the bushland. He indicates the neighbour’s house, a good 50 metres from the boundary fence. While there are trees on the property there is no understorey and the grass is manicured like a bowling green. |
A question of balance The president of the South Gippsland Conservation Society, Ed Thexton, says a balance needed to be struck between neighbours with very different ideas of land management. "Putting an arbitrary line like 20 metres makes it quite difficult. Ten or five or even one metre might be sufficient. "It's important that they get together to discuss the situation, and include the local CFA brigade in the discussion. “There’s a balance to be struck, and the council are actually pretty reasonable. I would hope an accommodation can be reached between the two.” |
Russ and his neighbour have very different ideas on land management
“Is that what they want me to do?” Russ asks. “Because I'm not going to become an environmental vandal.
“This bush has been here for 50 years and there's been no danger. It’s surrounded by clearings. The neighbour’s place is clear, there are new houses here, my house there, and paddocks over there. If there was a fire to start, it'd be burnt out before the fire truck left the shed.”
“This bush has been here for 50 years and there's been no danger. It’s surrounded by clearings. The neighbour’s place is clear, there are new houses here, my house there, and paddocks over there. If there was a fire to start, it'd be burnt out before the fire truck left the shed.”
Editor: Comments on this story are now closed (and have been removed) as they were personal and potentially defamatory.