by Gabriella Vukman
With the official hearing coming up in July, locals accompanied by the Yarra Ranges Council have changed tactics in their rallying to prevent the 400,000 cubic metres worth of clean fill from being deposited in the Lysterfield Valley.
After contesting that the clean fill deposit would be a ‘normal farming practice,’ it was established at the preliminary hearing on March 27 that a planning permit is required for the clean fill to be deposited at the Lysterfield site.
Later, at the compulsory conference on May 17, a mediated agreement was not achieved, moving the case straight to the hearing in July.
President of Knox Environment Society Richard Faragher said, “At the moment we are trying to firm up some expert witnesses. We’ve got expert Mary Cole, who is going to talk about the dumping of the soil.”
“We are also engaging doctor Graeme Lorimer to do our ecological survey. These two people will be our two expert witnesses,” Mr Faragher said.
“We will have to fundraise in order to afford the ecological survey. There will potentially be a fundraising page soon.”
The hearing is scheduled to commence on July 8 and run until July 16.
Mr Faragher said, “We are expecting the people who want to dump the soil to come out with their legal team and expert witnesses and argue strongly for being able to dump the soil.”
“We are going to push very hard that no soil should go onto that site whatsoever, it’s not something that that area should undergo,” Mr Faragher said.
“We’ll get support from the Yarra Ranges council and we are hoping Melbourne water comes to the party as well although they have been very disappointing so far.”
Mr Faragher noted that roughly 200 metres away from the Lysterfield site lies the Monbulk Creek which contains the last population of platypus in the entire area.
“This entire area is controlled by Melbourne Water who have done a lot of work near the Creek but as per usual, the utility has come armed with complete apathy and are unwilling to support their community whatsoever,” Mr Faragher said.
With the lodgement of the original application to deposit the waste in 2023, the Knox Environment Society among other groups has been sending submissions to the Yarra Ranges Council ever since.
Mr Faragher said, “You’re going to have 400,000 cubic metres of soil go into a valley in Lysterfield which is up to 200 truck movements a day along Lysterfield road.”
“It’s also the damage done as they drive up to the site and then they are filling in a valley up to a 5 metre depth with soil and this is an area that is significant heritage wise. The result will be the smothering of a wonderful valley,” Mr Faragher said.
“We don’t know what the flow-on effects will be. They will tell you that it is all hunky dory but you don’t want to get ten years down the track and go ‘oh the platypus have all died, it must have been that soil dumping.’ It’s just too late then.”
Since 1981, the Lysterfield Valley has been protected by the Australian National Trust as certified Green Wedge, agricultural and scenic land close to Melbourne.
President of the Dandenong Branch of the National Trust of Australia, Carolyn Ebdon said, “We’ve been interested in the Lysterfield landscape for a long time. It was classified by the national trust in 1981 so it has always had that protection over it to try to maintain it as a scenic landscape close to melbourne.”
“It’s a significant landscape. It is designated as a significant landscape in the planning scheme as well. The fact that land owners try to get around things like this by going to VCAT is quite disappointing because often, VCAT don’t have that local knowledge and they just see it from a distant perspective and often ‘ok’ things that really shouldn’t be ‘okey’ed.’”
“It is a worry if it is going to VCAT but we are hopeful that common sense will prevail and that the VCAT tribunal will realise the significance of this landscape and protect it. It is necessary to protect it for biodiversity and wildlife habitat. The platypus in monbulk creek would be under threat. It is a really serious application,” Ms Ebdon said.
The Dandenong Branch of the National Trust of Australia was established almost 30 years ago and protects properties and landscapes around the Dandenongs region.
Ms Ebdon said, “The Lysterfield site is green wedge and is a significant landscape but there are always continuing threats to this landscape.”
“Landowners just keep going ahead and applying for permits to do all sorts of things which are so inappropriate and they somehow get away with it.”
“We just hope we can keep looking after these special places for future generations to enjoy,” Ms Ebdon said.
