- please add your voices to green wedge, public lands and urban planning backlash groups to oppose this environmental catastrophe & please forward to your lists of interested citizenss
THE imminent bulldozing of the heritage-listed bushland and wetland dam on the Westerfield property in the Mornington Peninsula green wedge adds another name to a disturbing list of heritage icons damaged or threatened by residential, commercial or freeway development (''Freeway builders admit damage to wetlands area'', The Age, 8/7). This list includes Lonsdale House, Equity Chambers and the Windsor Hotel.
It’s reassuring to learn from Tim Colebatch (No room for NIMBY Syndrome, The Age 6/4) that we have abundant affordable housing on Melbourne’s fringe. No doubt we’d have more, closer to public transport and services, if large developers were not land banking and if overseas investors were not speculating in our housing markets.
A devastating blow has just been dealt to Coomoora Woodland Flora & Fauna Reserve and environmental conservation in metropolitan Melbourne by the State Government. The Minister responsible for administering the Environmental Effects Act 1978, Justin Madden has decided that no Environmental Effects Statement (EES) is required for the Dingley Arterial Project. The Minister’s decision gives VicRoads the green light to proceed with its plans to remove a substantial area of native vegetation in Coomoora Woodland Flora and Fauna Reserve in Keysborough; one of the few nature reserves in the City of Greater Dandenong, and one of the last remaining areas of native bushland in the south-eastern metropolitan region of Melbourne.
Joyce and Simon Welsh, owners of the historic Westerfield property in the Green Wedge south of Frankston were notified last week that 2.656 ha of the pristine remnant bushland on their property will be acquired by the Victorian Government this Thursday 10/12 to make way for the Frankston Bypass. Westerfield is on Robinsons Road, Fig 7g on the attached Biosis map.
Even as Justin Madden was making his hypocritical announcement last month about no more urban growth (Minister alters view on sprawl, The Age 3/12), his Development Facilitation Taskforce was recommending that if Cardinia