During the meeting, the group was appalled at the level of hypocrisy of the un-elected Administrators, Julie Eisenbise, Christian Zahra and Rick Brown, who passed Goldsmith’s application in less than a minute, using thousands of dollars of the community’s rates to fund the attack by Councils lawyers on that very community. 

Of course, when questioned, “our” Council’s Lawyer thought that it was entirely reasonable and even though the shire owned the land and would be the recipient of financial gain from the project, had no problem with conflict of interest when helping its tenant to push it through. 

The legal ensemble was also told that the conflicts of interest didn’t just start there. The entire project was based on Councillors in 2018 being incorrectly informed that they would be liable for the rehabilitation of the site, thus instead of voting ‘not’ to continue the quarry, as it was understood to have “run its time”, they changed their minds and voted ‘for’ the continuation to avoid the liability. This of course was determined by an officer of the Earth Resources Regulation Branch to be completely false as only the Quarry operator and work authority holder was liable for the rehabilitation. (The Ombudsman’s Office has been asked to look into this matter).

The sheer scale of the project is now also better understood. With all of the titles for the area being amalgamated, it may now allow the entire hill to be removed. If this proposal is successful there are literally no restrictions on the size of this quarry within this site. The Council, having already been found guilty by DELWP nee DSE of illegally ripping the access road through the ancient, pre-European old growth stands of rare and endangered trees in 2001, now states that their tenant doesn’t even need a permit to remove old growth “wet Forest” from the walls of the hill above the Fish Creek reservoir. All this when they require any ratepayer to pay for a permit to remove a pine tree. Again, when questioned, the South Gippsland Council lawyer had no problem with the obvious double standards. 

It was also disclosed that the Council has been caught trying to push their project through without an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management Plan, (CHMP), saying that it wasn’t required. For those who don’t know, before the ancient forests of Fish Creek were cut down, the site was the only place where you could climb up to gain a view of the countryside from the Tarwin Valley and back to the Prom. As recorded by local historians in 1967, it was thought to be a very significant place of cultural importance to people of both the Gunai-Kurnai and Kulin Nations. 

When this was discovered by Aboriginal Heritage Victoria’s officers, the Council Officers and the developer were all informed that they were in breach of the Act and were ordered to do a CHMP before the project could proceed further. In a breath-taking move of hypocrisy reminiscent of 1950’s white Australian advocates, instead of showing any respect for the traditional land owners and complying to the Act, they simply used their Barrister to be granted the opportunity to cut out a section of the land, thus avoiding the need to show any consideration for the traditional owners.

The VCAT member was told that the community have serious concerns about the catchment of the town’s only water supply being stripped of vegetation. These concerns were backed up with real world historical events and the area shown to be extremely unstable and prone to lands slips. 

In 1934 after Halls cleared the top of the gullies the entire valley slipped into the current reservoir site after an estimated 350mm of rain in December.  In the early 1970’s when the hill on the south east was cleared and was hit by and estimated 279mm, the entire hill surface slipped into and almost destroyed the reservoir sending a wave of displaced water over its bank and down into Battery Creek.  This slip required significant rebuilding and repairs only to be destroyed again by a huge slip from the Hill on the south side in the 1990s. Although there was severe flooding and water over the reservoir bank in the 2011 storm event that destroyed Tidal River, the extensive work to revegetate the site almost certainly prevented similar damage to our water supply and possible loss of life. 

For those who don’t know, SG Water have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars acquiring the land surrounding the reservoir and stabilizing it with earth works, ironically conducted by Goldsmiths, and massive reforestation programs. In a tragic twist of fate, the Fish Creek community unsuccessfully attempted to purchase and protect the catchment in 1959. Long term local Ashton Farrell then purchased the 120 acres of catchment and remnant forest and Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Site of Lavers Hill himself and donated it to the Water Authority for $1. Once again this was unsuccessful as the local government of the time deemed that the Water Authority was not allowed to own catchment. Unwell and unable to manage the site, Ashton was reluctantly forced to entrust it to the original Foster – Shire of South Gippsland, and this is how it fell into the hands of our current Council.

Despite their own experience, huge expense and extensive historical evidence to the contrary, South Gippsland Water and West Gippsland Catchment Management Authorities have decided that they have no problem with the scientifically proven resultant water degradation or increased risk of land slip that will result from this project. South Gippsland Water Authority have in the past identified that a breach of the Battery Creek Reservoir dam wall through collapse or water displacement by a massive landslip is classified as a ‘terminal risk’ event. This means that there is potential for a huge wave of water to engulf the homes of residents living downstream. With this history and the increasing unpredictable nature of our weather, coupled with the known geological instability of the area and the risk of a land slip and terminal flood event, the General Manager of S.G. Water Managing Director, Mr Philippe du Plessis, sgwater@sgwater.com.au has been called upon to reverse this fatally flawed decision and to show the duty of care that his predecessors have shown to protect lives and Fish Creek’s only water supply. We also urge other community members to insist on the same.  

Other community concerns such as a massive increase in trucks going though Fish Creek compared to today’s levels, silica dangers from the dust and horrendous noise pollution levels from trucks sitting on exhaust break were all dismissed by our council and the developer. 

The final outcome of the meeting with VCAT was that they have set a date for a hearing on the 5-8th July 2021 and also a date for Goldsmiths to request that they can ‘get out of ‘the compulsory Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management Plan on the 7th of May 2021.

The appeal process via VCAT is only a small part of how those who are concerned about this proposal, for any or all of the issues raised, can voice their concerns. 

If you can help in anyway please contact the community group at savethehoddleranges@gmail.com

Tim Farrell

Editorial Comment: 

Interesting comparision with Bass Coast Council(lors) supporting the community over the grass tree sand mining affair by supplying advice and resources, and our Council led by administrators from Melbourne sending in teams of lawyers to argue against the community wishes at VCAT.