By Corey Everitt
The pressure is mounting against proposed sand mining on the shore of Western Port Bay with the leading environmental organisation declaring it ‘inappropriate’ while a new report has revealed increasing dangers of erosion and flooding on the Lang Lang coast.
The Western Port Biosphere Foundation made their submission to the consultation regarding the draft proposal for the ‘Strategic Extractive Resource Areas’ (SERA) that seeks to rezone large parts of Lang Lang to accommodate sand mining.
Proposed to be three areas subsumed under a State Resource Overlay for quarrying, the specific area west of South Gippsland/Bass Highway has become a target of strong opposition due to its proximity to the shore and to a local tourism business.
Biosphere CEO Mel Barker said this overlay area is ‘inappropriate’ for Western Port Bay, which is internationally recognised under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and is part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Species protected under State, Federal and even International law reside on the coast, Barker said if the proposal succeeds in this area it is ‘highly likely’ to be referred to the Federal Government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
The Gazette has previously reported on the Lang Lang Foreshore Caravan Park, which rests close to this proposed area. The volunteer committee for the foreshore said it would ‘decimate’ the business, Barker noted this potential impact on tourism.
Bass MP Jordan Crugnale revealed that the Save Western Port Woodlands Group and Bass Coast Shire Council have expressed criticism of this specific area in their submissions.
“There have been a number of very considered submissions to remove the SERA from the Western Port side of the highway from residents, the Foreshore Committee and Caravan Park operators which has rightly garnered support from a number of established organisations and groups including the Western Port Biosphere Foundation, Save Western Port Woodlands Group and Bass Coast Shire Council, and we await Cardinia Shire Council’s formal submission also.
“This area in the Cardinia Shire Green Wedge Management plan is designated a Coastal Precinct for its environmental values, Cultural Heritage, proximity to Ramsar Wetlands and Western Port.”
Cardinia Shire Council has not made a submission yet but has indicated concerns in a separate correspondence.
Recently, it was revealed that this area of the bay is subject to increasing inundation. The Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action held a meeting with boatshed owners of the Lang Lang Foreshore who were informed of a recent report into the flooding and erosion of the area.
As reported by the Herald Sun, consultancy BMT suggested the findings showed flooding of the area – which is close to this overlay – could be happening ‘several times a year by 2060’.
“Sea level rise modelling indicates that this area is likely to be inundated. It is currently experiencing significant coastal erosion,” Barker said in the submission.
The biosphere joined demands for the financial windfall from the expansion of quarrying to flow back in town, calling for a royalty system placed on sand mining.
Precisely, Barker suggested the funds recovered could go to boosting oversight of the mining itself as well as pay for the development of biolinks.
The Lang Lang District Business and Community Group raised a similar suggestion of a ‘scheme’ to recover revenue from mining to flow back into ‘improving Lang Lang and district infrastructure’.
Crugnale said she has always supported a proposal for a community fund, stating Lang Lang has seen ‘no real benefit’ yet from sand mining.
“From the outset I have suggested the establishment of a community benefit fund as the Lang Lang community have this massive state resource literally in their backyard and have no real benefit,” Crugnale said.
“This is where this draft SERA has been the mechanism for community members to voice their priorities, ideas, concerns and needs from infrastructure, road safety, conversation, town vision right through to legacy and quarry rehabilitation.”
Barker also raised the biolinks – purpose-built, interconnecting corridors of habitat – that flow across Lang Lang and are planned to be expanded in the near future.
Barker says biolinks should be ‘enshrined’ in the overlays so that any new or expanded mining ‘cannot encroach’ on them.
The council has conducted extensive planning on biolinks, in Lang Lang a ‘priority biolink corridor’ spans the old rail line and the Lang Lang River – both are in close proximity to the proposed overlays and to existing sand mines.
‘Future biolink corridors’ are planned through Bass Highway and Jetty Lane, both are borders of the proposed quarrying overlay west of the highway.
“As far back as 1996 the Victorian Government identified the need to develop biolinks from Lang Lang to Grantville in its Regional Sand Extraction Strategy, but this has not occurred, resulting in further fragmentation of habitats,” Barker explained.
Biolinks are managed by the council, Crugnale said, she is ‘supportive’ of this work today as she was when a councillor for Bass Coast Shire.
