"People come for the cheap housing and fall in love with the bush and wildlife." Residents speak up about plans by Hanson Construction Materials to widen their quiet country road for sand trucks.
By Jan Grimes
WE CAME to the Adams Estate in our 20s and I’m 71 now. There were a couple of washed out tracks going through the tea tree and the gums. I’ve always been a bush person and I love animals. I remember climbing a tree and telling my mother “This is where the house is going to go”.
We bought here, number one, because it was all we could afford. Because it was so rough it was very cheap. We paid $3500. Adams Estate was classed as an inappropriate subdivision. Lots had to be consolidated so they could take the sewerage. We had to buy four blocks and that gave us three-quarters of an acre.
We built the house ourselves. Bluestone and slate and all the hard stuff. We lived without electricity for many, many years. We’re still on our own water supply.
WE CAME to the Adams Estate in our 20s and I’m 71 now. There were a couple of washed out tracks going through the tea tree and the gums. I’ve always been a bush person and I love animals. I remember climbing a tree and telling my mother “This is where the house is going to go”.
We bought here, number one, because it was all we could afford. Because it was so rough it was very cheap. We paid $3500. Adams Estate was classed as an inappropriate subdivision. Lots had to be consolidated so they could take the sewerage. We had to buy four blocks and that gave us three-quarters of an acre.
We built the house ourselves. Bluestone and slate and all the hard stuff. We lived without electricity for many, many years. We’re still on our own water supply.
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People move here for the cheap housing but they fall in love with the bush and the wildlife. When we were first here it was nothing to see a koala in our front yard. The lace monitors used to come down to our house, which is at the lower end of the estate. They’re still around. It’s such an incredible sanctuary for wildlife. I still see new birds almost every year.
Later we bought another bit of land going down the hill towards Stanley Road because we wanted to make sure that bush remained. At the time we were thinking maybe our kids could live there in the future and we could share resources. There are three generations of us here now. My kids Ringo and Anita were born there. Now Ringo and his partner Ianthe have their two boys, Indra and Maki. They’re all bush kids. In the 1990s the sand mines started expanding around Grantville. We all opposed the original application for the sand mine at the end of Stanley Road. How could they possibly think of going through a residential estate? Some of the residents went to VCAT over it. There were meetings, gatherings, letters back and forwards with the authorities. It went on for years. We all got burnt out by the battle. |
Hanson Construction Materials, part of the giant multinational Heidelberg Materials, plans to widen Stanley Road for sand trucks to service two new quarries at the end of the road. The company has applied for a permit to remove 1.7 hectares of significant vegetation from Stanley Road, including 36 large trees. DEECA says the removal will degrade high-quality remnant areas of native vegetation and habitat for threatened species including Powerful Owls, Lace Monitors, Gang Gang Cockatoos, Strzelecki gums and critically endangered orchids. The full planning documents and objections are at Bass Coast Shire Council. The council had received 46 objections by Thursday. Submissions are open until February when councillors will decide whether the clearing can proceed. |
Then it all went quiet. Decades went past. I started to think it was never going to happen. Now it’s started all over again. I went up the end of McGrady Road the other day and saw where they’ve started clearing. I hadn’t been there for years. Houses have just been bulldozed. There are endangered orchids there and all the animals.
Every day when I drive up Stanley Road I look at the beautiful canopy of trees, I see the wallabies and kangaroos crossing, and the odd echidna and wombat. I look at it and try to prepare myself for the devastation that’s going to be there when the trees are gone. What’s it going to be like? Like a graveyard, with everything gone.
It was a good turnout at the rally on Friday. I was happy that people turned up to show how they feel. That made me feel good to see that there are kindred spirits who care about the bush and the animals. There were people in their 40s who were born there, and their children.
Some people say you’ll never stop the sand mining companies. They’re too big. But we’ve got to try. We’ve got a chance of winning if we all stick together and we’ve got a lot of support. We all love the bush and want to preserve it. We keep on keeping on!
Every day when I drive up Stanley Road I look at the beautiful canopy of trees, I see the wallabies and kangaroos crossing, and the odd echidna and wombat. I look at it and try to prepare myself for the devastation that’s going to be there when the trees are gone. What’s it going to be like? Like a graveyard, with everything gone.
It was a good turnout at the rally on Friday. I was happy that people turned up to show how they feel. That made me feel good to see that there are kindred spirits who care about the bush and the animals. There were people in their 40s who were born there, and their children.
Some people say you’ll never stop the sand mining companies. They’re too big. But we’ve got to try. We’ve got a chance of winning if we all stick together and we’ve got a lot of support. We all love the bush and want to preserve it. We keep on keeping on!
