Monthly update from Friends of the Bluff
Calling your Bluff.. .
I cannot remember one instance in the past ten years where some development proposal was cancelled in favour of the vegetation it had planned to replace. Not a one. Not a sub-division, housing project, golf course, resort development, building extension, car park expansion, road widening, cycle track, footpath, board walk or rubbish bin emplacement. In every scenario, the bush just had to go .But each time; the vegetation was destroyed with “a minimal impact on the environment using best practice standards”. And sometimes when it was the vegetation’s fault for being “degraded” it was simply bulldozed. It makes no difference, in the past ten years Barwon Heads has lost a lot of plant life in the name of the social and economic benefit of the town.
And every proposal has a number of options with the preferred option always being the one that does the most damage. The other options are dismissed with whiny excuses –…” it’s too expensive, it’s too hard, there’s not enough vegetation to remove…”
Strangely one of the options is never to preserve the integrity of the extant vegetation at all costs. There is always a suite of reasons concocted as to why a proposal should go ahead but no-one can ever find one valid reason why the vegetation should not be decimated.
Makes you kind of long for the 80’s - Who would have thought that an era of bad music, cars, fashion, hair and football shorts was also an era of environmental enlightenment? Against the backdrop of this cultural desert – the 80’s seem like a philosophical oasis compared to the bureaucratic chicanery and jiggery-pokery of current land management practice.
Barwon Coast proposes to drill a 3 metre wide trail across the dunes on the ocean side of 13th Beach Rd from 30W to the surf life saving club. The proposed trail is 2kms long and will have look outs, boardwalks, retaining walls, pedestrian refuges, access points, seating and signs. Oh yeah, and it will also require the destruction of 2 kms of vegetation. In environmental terms this is one of the most flawed, ill-conceived and down right stupid ideas ever to be inveigled out of the carpet bag of pie-eyed schemes.
I recognise the need to create safe passage along 13th Beach Rd for all users and believe this can be achieved with some creative engineering, education and traffic management. The proposed trail however is steeped in the populist notion of providing a happy coastal experience for visitors. And so the integrity of this remnant dune habitat is to be compromised so we can all get a better view.
Barwon Coast claims that the “social and economic benefits are obvious”. There is no need to qualify, demonstrate or prove in any way the validity of that statement, it is apparently enough to know that it is obvious.
And it is also obvious that the obvious benefits to habitat and wildlife in not disturbing the dune vegetation is not……..er…….obvious.
The City of Greater Geelong Biodiversity Plan rates the proposed trail site as having state conservation significance. Less than 4% of this vegetation type remains in the Otway plains bioregion. The majority of this vegetation is under enormous pressure from fragmentation, weed invasions, intrusion, disturbance and other factors that affect its biodiversity and indeed survival. Loss of biodiversity is a major environmental problem.
There are 4 species along the trail route listed as having state significance and officially recognised as being rare – Acacia retinoides, Austrofestuca littoralis, Zygophyllum billiardieri and Lotus australis – while a number of other species are of regional significance and all species are locally vulnerable. Barwon Coast’s own commissioned flora survey completed in November 2006 assesses the vegetation as being of very high conservation significance.
At what time do alarm bells start ringing? And at what stage does impacting on this vegetation become a clever idea?
This trail will remove sand, alter the structure of the dune, further fragment the vegetation, increase intrusion, weeds, litter, pest animals, disturbance and dog faeces, as well as replace important habitat with 2 kms of treated pine and shell grit, irrevocably altering the character and the nature of the area.
The notion of off-setting any vegetation loss by living up to ones obligations of vegetation management elsewhere in the reserve is simply an exercise in absolution. Barwon Coast has taken its own flora survey, glossed over the significance of the vegetation community and the rarity of individual species and gone straight to the section that dictates how many pieces of silver must be paid to accommodate an off-set as penance. To claim that the destruction of significant vegetation is world best practice is pure snake oil. I am surprised that this proposal doesn’t also claim relief from haemorrhoids, rheumy discomfort and dyspepsia.
Despite the convenience of exchanging one vegetation unit for another, the bottom line is we lose a hectare of irreplaceable dune flora. Remnant vegetation faces an ever-increasing array of issues and 2 kms of footpath offers no solution. The flora and fauna deserves protection from the panhandlers who spruik this populist dross.
As it stands at the moment we have the opportunity to retain and enhance our dune vegetation, re-vegetate the proposed off-set site in Stephens Parade as well as devise strategies to ensure the safety of all users to the area. It is not too hard and it is not too expensive. We have the science, knowledge, methods and technology. What we seem to lack is vision, commitment and leadership.
Friends of the Bluff is not just trying to protect what is there, we are trying to protect what is left.
Our first working bee for 2007 will be held on Sunday May 20th at 10:00am. Meet in the Bluff car park. Any queries ring Jon on 52542626.
Jon Duthie