Around 150 people attended a meeting to learn about the threat of sand mining to Bass Coast's
last coastal forest.
By Catherine Watson
HUNDREDS of Bass Coast residents have signed a petition calling on the State Government to place a moratorium on further sand mining approvals in the forest corridor between Lang Lang and Grantville.
More than 120 signed after a public meeting at Corinella on May 22. The petition has been circulating in the community since then and a further 646 people had signed an e-petition on the Victorian Parliamentary site by Friday morning.
The public meeting was organised by the Save Western Port Woodlands community group. Spokesman Tim O’Brien said the attendance far exceeded the group’s expectations.
HUNDREDS of Bass Coast residents have signed a petition calling on the State Government to place a moratorium on further sand mining approvals in the forest corridor between Lang Lang and Grantville.
More than 120 signed after a public meeting at Corinella on May 22. The petition has been circulating in the community since then and a further 646 people had signed an e-petition on the Victorian Parliamentary site by Friday morning.
The public meeting was organised by the Save Western Port Woodlands community group. Spokesman Tim O’Brien said the attendance far exceeded the group’s expectations.
“It sends a powerful message to the State Government – Bass Coast people will fight to save the places they love.”
Six mines are already operating within the forest corridor and work is starting on another in Stanley Road, Grantville.
Six mines are already operating within the forest corridor and work is starting on another in Stanley Road, Grantville.
| That’s just the start, with 19 existing work authorities for sand mining within the corridor and a further seven under application. More than 40 per cent is highlighted as an ‘Extractive Industry Interest Area’ for sand mining. The meeting featured the launch of the Save Western Port Wetlands video, which mapped the area of woodlands at risk. There were audible gasps from the audience as they saw footage of the massive sand quarries that have been carved out within forested areas, often hidden behind a thin strip of vegetation alongside the South Gippsland and Bass highways. |  |
Fourteen speakers – residents, members of the SWPW group and representatives of allied environmental groups – covered different aspects of the impacts of sand mining on the environment and the community.
Mr O’Brien said preserving Bass Coast’s last significant forest has become even more crucial with estimates that around 3 billion mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs died in Australia’s 2019-20 bushfires.
The forest corridor along the eastern side of Western Port is home to threatened species including southern brown bandicoots, lace monitors, white-footed dunnarts, powerful owls, swift parrots, growling grass frogs and flora such as finger fungus, grass trees and orchids.
The meeting passed two resolutions unanimously:
Mr O’Brien said preserving Bass Coast’s last significant forest has become even more crucial with estimates that around 3 billion mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs died in Australia’s 2019-20 bushfires.
The forest corridor along the eastern side of Western Port is home to threatened species including southern brown bandicoots, lace monitors, white-footed dunnarts, powerful owls, swift parrots, growling grass frogs and flora such as finger fungus, grass trees and orchids.
The meeting passed two resolutions unanimously:
- This meeting requests the State Government to ensure permanent protection of the last significant stand of mature forest in the Western Port and Bass Coast region, home to threatened species and part of the character of this community.
- This meeting requests the State Government to place an immediate moratorium on sand mining work authorities to ensure no further expansion of mines operating in this fragile forest corridor until permanent protection of the forests and their connectivity is established.
| Gerard Drew, from the South Gippsland Conservation Society, said a government report made the audacious claim that South Gippsland’s proximity to Melbourne makes sand mining in our region “more sustainable” because it reduces trucking distances, despite the government’s own figures indicating there is no shortage of suitable sand on degraded farmland. Bass Coast Deputy Mayor Michael Whelan said the prospect of felling much of Bass Coast’s last forest for sand for Melbourne’s Big Build went against everything the council was fighting for under its Biolinks Plan and its Climate Action Plan. |  Tim O'Brien (Save Western Port Woodlands), left, and Gerard Drew (South Gippsland Conservation Society) with baby Murray. |
The final speaker, Lauren Burns, a member of the SWPW group, drew warm applause from the audience as she carried her 25-day-old daughter Murray Sunset onto the stage.
Lauren spoke of the solace of nature during last year’s COVID crisis and her hopes that her daughter would grow up to know a world that still had wild places like the Bass Coast woodlands.
A custom-made band, the Southern Brown Bandibeats, opened the meeting with a set and sent the audience home with their haunting campaign song, On a Grantville Shore.
Catherine Watson is a member of Save Western Port Woodlands.
Lauren spoke of the solace of nature during last year’s COVID crisis and her hopes that her daughter would grow up to know a world that still had wild places like the Bass Coast woodlands.
A custom-made band, the Southern Brown Bandibeats, opened the meeting with a set and sent the audience home with their haunting campaign song, On a Grantville Shore.
Catherine Watson is a member of Save Western Port Woodlands.