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Plea on ancient grass trees

26/11/2020

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PictureBagged grass trees were mostly dead after the hot spell.
By Catherine Watson
 
BASS Coast Shire Council has entered the battle to preserve Grantville’s magnificent grass tree forest by seeking an assurance that mining work orders protect Bass Coast’s distinctive native vegetation and endangered fauna.
 
Community members who visited the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve last weekend were shocked to see more than 250 grass trees, many pre-dating European arrival, had been removed and bagged and were now dying on the edge of a Sand Supplies pit.   

The destruction of the grass trees was raised as an urgent motion at the first meeting of the new council on Wednesday.
 
Councillors voted unanimously in support of a six-part motion moved by Rochelle Halstead, the new councillor for Western Port ward, to try to save the grass trees that have already been removed. 
 
The council support is significant as the community gears up to protect the remnant Western Port coastal forest from an influx of sand mining companies, encouraged by the State Government to secure sand for Melbourne’s urban expansion. Proposed planning provisions would remove the right of communities, farmers and local government to object to sand mining.

"They're ripping the guts out of the country," Cr Michael Whelan said. "We can’t continue to tear down buildings and put them into landfill and then tear up pristine bush to make new buildings. It doesn’t make sense." 

After the meeting, Mayor Brett Tessari said there was a limited amount the council could do in a legal sense.

"We need to continue to communicate with the owners of the sand mine. [Robbie Viglietti] has previously been very community minded. If we can continue to work with him, hopefully we can get a result that works for everyone. But we need the state to step up and lead on this." 

The Gurdies resident Meryl Tobin, who has long campaigned to save the grass tree forest, called for urgent intervention by the Stater Government and the Minister for the Environment, Lily D'Ambrosio.

The Sand Supplies mine sits on a mining lease that carves into the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve. Many of the work orders allowing mining in the Grantville forest corridor date back to the Kennett era and earlier.
 
The forest affected, running from the Adams Creek Nature Conservation Reserve (Lang Lang) to Grantville is the last significant stand of riparian coastal forest in the whole of Western Port and the only coastal forest remaining in the Bass Coast region. 
Sand mine motion
  1. ​That Council act as a matter of urgency to ensure the grass trees removed at the Grantville Sand Quarry site are handled and cared for in an appropriate manner to ensure they are kept healthy and able to be replanted at the earliest possible time.
  2. That Council seek to have on record the details of the rehabilitation bond and work plan held and monitored by the Earth Resources Regulator for the Grantville Sand Quarry and assess whether the work order appropriately protects our region’s distinctive native vegetation and endangered flora. That council seek to include as part of the review any presence of endangered populations of wildlife.
  3. The Earth Resources Regulator confirm the rehabilitation bond being held for the Grantville Sand Quarry is sufficient to ensure full rehabilitation of the site
  4. Request that rehabilitation work to any used and closed sections of the site begin immediately
  5. Council establish through the relevant Victorian State Government Authority what assessments for any Aboriginal or Cultural Heritage Values of the Grantville Sand Quarry site have been undertaken to date and to liaise with the Bunurong Land Council to discuss the significance of the site and what further action is required.
  6. Council seeks to confirm with the Victorian State Government that the ERR has demonstrated that it can effectively discharge its regulatory functions by appropriately balancing its commitment to the Minister for Resources under statements of expectations 2018-20 and the commissioner for better regulations, getting the ground work right to reduce the regulatory burden on operators by facilitating and streamlining approval and regulatory processes giving effect to the objective of the act, that risks to the environment are identified and eliminated as set  out in the Auditor-General’s inquiry into the determination of rehabilitation bonds for the mining in the state. 
Save Western Port’s Coastal Forest spokesman Tim O’Brien said multiple quarries operate under historic sand mining leases in the environmentally-sensitive Grantville forest corridor. Several of the mine operators have plans to expand their operations.
 
“It beggars belief that the State Labor Government seems prepared to put the tourism industry at risk in this important region, the gateway to Phillip Island and its world-famous Penguin Parade, the gateway to the spectacular Bunurong coastline, and an area renowned for its rural amenity and distinctive landscapes.
 
“Worse, that it is prepared to trade the extinction of fragile communities of endangered wildlife and ancient, rare, coastal flora, for carparks and bridges in Melbourne, is a gross failure of public policy.
 
“The question for Environment Minister D'Ambrosio is when is a conservation area actually for conserving, and a biolink corridor actually for protecting, and not just a resource to be ravaged by sand miners?”
 
Mr O’Brien said there should be no further expansion of any of the mines in the fragile forest corridor and a review of all existing work orders in sand mining leases.
 
“Where endangered populations of flora and fauna are identified, the Victorian government must begin a process of extinguishment of leases.
 
“At the end of the day, this mine is operating under a lease. The forest belt the miners are pillaging – the endangered flora and fauna, the ancient grass trees – belong to the people.”

Catherine Watson is a member of Save Western Port's Coastal Forest.
Picture
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