After 55 years, Margaret hangs up her PICS hat

Phillip Island would not look as it does today but for the leadership and commitment of Margaret Hancock, who has retired this year after 55 years with the Phillip Island Conservation Society (PICS).

PICS members – who are all volunteers and in January will hold a series of 55th anniversary celebrations – are fierce campaigners for the preservation of the environment, and Margaret has been a driving force for five decades.

Margaret – now 92 and living in Cowes – was a foundation PICS member when it was formed in May 1968, taking over as president in 1982, serving in that role for 30 years.

During these years she took part in more than 60 planning issues, including mediation sessions, written submissions, and VCAT, as detailed in an article in the Advertiser in 2012.

Margaret was involved in the Phillip Island Stand Alone campaign, which fought to have the Shire of Phillip Island reinstated, stating amalgamation was not in the island’s best interests.

Margaret helped thwart the development proposed at Saltwater Creek in Ventnor in 1988.

“This was an outstanding success for everyone,” she recalled in 2012.

“What they wanted to develop was a sort of Patterson Lakes development, with a marina and housing complex, complete with a capacity for ocean going liners to be moored, and a pedestrian bridge or a tunnel.

“The whole thing was farcical.”

Public reaction to that concept, Margaret explained, was “absolutely wonderful”.

“It had everything including television cameras and media crews.”

This achievement, and the buy-back of the Summerland Estate, is rated in Margaret’s mind as being among the most notable.

“PICS could see development coming at Summerlands and we knew it would be disastrous for the penguins and the wildlife,” she said.

“We supported the closure of the road at night (by the Phillip Island Council) from Mandeville Road to the Nobbies and back because of the number of penguin road kills nightly.

“As volunteers, we would go out on the road at night and do counting surveys of the traffic and animal sightings in the area.”

The proposal by the state government, under Labor and led by Joan Kirner, to buy back the Summerland Estate was one, however, that took Margaret totally by surprise.

“I didn’t think it would ever eventuate.

“But full credit goes to the government of the day and to those that have followed, in seeing this issue through,” she commented.

One of the greatest achievements she said is the implementation by local government of Amendment 88.

“It sets the town boundaries and it now applies throughout the whole of the Bass Coast Shire. We lobbied hard for this and put a lot of effort into it,” she told the Advertiser.

“It is important we retain settlement boundaries and to allow the Phillip Island Nature Parks to proceed with the good work they are doing especially in the property protection of the Rhyll Inlet.

“It needs to be kept as a peaceful place in our natural environment.”

Foundation

Margaret’s active involvement began by chance when she was still living in Ballarat, but was a regular holiday maker here.

“When I first joined the conservation group in 1968, there was a lot happening on the island. I remember reading an article in the Herald newspaper about an aspiring Phillip Island Shire councillor who was proposing the planting of palm trees all along the Tourist Road, from Newhaven to the Cowes jetty.

“That got me really incensed and spurred me into action.”

This proposal, as well as those being put forward for the subdivisions of land, and in particular for the development of a marina at Rhyll, resonated with many others as well.

“It resulted in a public meeting being convened by an enthusiastic and diligent conservationist, local resident Ken Pound, on a cold and blustery night in the St Philip’s Parish Hall in Cowes.

“I came to the island especially to attend the meeting.”

The 33 people who attended voted to form a conservation committee and adopt a constitution.

This was the start of a concerted effort by members of PICS to add their voice and clout to issues that mattered on Phillip Island.

PICS first big campaign was to raise funds to purchase the land associated with the marina proposal, with the purchase now known as Conservation Hill.

In maintaining the balance between progress and the natural environment, Margaret sees the role of the conservation society as being one of an educator.

“We try to educate those involved in development planning to the big picture – to take into consideration the natural environment they are working with,” she said.

Furthermore she advised locals to “not be intimidated by VCAT”.

“VCAT and panel members are often more interested in what individuals and community organisations have to say than expert witnesses and lawyers. They are experienced."

While she accepted progress has to happen, Margaret said she was realistic in her outlook for the future of the island, particularly in light of the state government’s declaration of Bass Coast as a Distinctive Areas and Landscapes, which locks in the island’s town boundaries.

“It is all going to hinge on holding these boundaries, and for the community to accept that intensive development should take place within the boundaries.

“It is important the boundaries stay firm and we try to make these new developments better places in which to live.

“It is important that we all continue to work together to conserve Phillip Island into the future. I hope the island will learn to balance the demands of tourism and the natural attraction, as it seems we can’t have one without the other.”