DAL-Enviro groups scathing of new planning policy
Environment groups have given a damning analysis of the state government’s proposed new planning policy.
Environment groups have given a damning analysis of the state government’s proposed new planning policy.
Save Western Port Woodlands, which has been fighting the growing sand mining industry in Grantville’s woodlands for three decades, said they were “stunned” the draft Bass Coast Distinctive Areas and Landscape (DAL) policy “entirely overlooked the biodiversity hotspot”.
SWPW spokesman Gerard Drew said the SPP classified the area for sand mining.
“The draft policy seems to regard a landscape as only a collection of viewing points. It fails to understand the beauty of the landscape comes from complex life and forces that shape them,” Mr Drew said. “The woodlands were noted for the ability of vegetation to hide the ugliness of sand extraction, rather than recognising the web of life within them. The beauty is lost once they are emptied of that complex life.”
He said SWPW would lodge a submission to the draft and hoped the final SPP addressed “the clear conflict between sand extraction and conservation”.
Mr Drew said the woodlands were the largest remnant of native bushland in the region, stretching from Lang Lang to Grantville on the eastern shore of Western Port Bay.
A recent report by the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) showed the corridor was home to a wide range of threatened wildlife including orchids, reptiles, trees, frogs, fungi, birds and animals.
VNPA spokesperson Jordan Crook said the report highlighted the environmental value of the former Holden Proving Ground and the threat posed by continued sand mining throughout the woodlands.
“The failure to recognise the importance of the Western Port Woodlands is a tragedy,” Mr Crook said. “The Gippsland Plain bioregion is one of the most cleared areas in the state and every piece of bushland should be protected and respected. The DAL process seems to have failed before it's even started with such a huge oversight.”
They called on the community to submit a response to the Bass Coast DAL draft policy, “making it clear the environmental and cultural values of the Western Port Woodlands must be recognised and protected with planning controls”.
Government response
The DAL’s draft Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) states Grantville’s sand resources were of “strategic importance”.
“These resources safeguard the economic security and future growth of metropolitan Melbourne, including the delivery of key public infrastructure projects and the construction industry.”
While draft SPP identifies extractive industry interest areas (EIIAs), this did not mean the area would be mined, with any proposed new quarry requiring a planning permit and Earth Resources Regulator works approval process, which “would address any proposed vegetation removal”.
“Remnant native vegetation is scarce in the declared area, so proponents of new industries (including extraction) should be encouraged to locate in areas of lesser environmental significance,” the policy states, adding mines should adhere to best practice to avoid impacts.
Mr Drew said this was a “motherhood statement” and “sounded nice” but actually offering no protection to the woodlands.
“Sand mining may be a temporary land use but it just happens to permanently destroy the land it’s on,” he said.
