Ministers: Give the wildlife of Western Port Woodlands a future - Victorian National Parks AssociationVictorian National Parks Association

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Dear Ministers Kilkenny and Dimopoulos,

I write to you concerning the Western Port Woodlands (WPW) – a rare, precious and imminently threatened ecosystem.

The WPW is the last major forest in the shires of Bass Coast and South Gippsland. It is home to rare and threatened wildlife like Southern Brown Bandicoots, Powerful Owls and Lace Monitors.

In 2019, the Victorian Government declared Bass Coast a Distinctive Area and Landscape (DAL) under the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Ministers and MPs assured the community the DAL process would help resolve a decades-old conflict between protecting the rare and precious biodiversity, or expanding sand extraction in the woodlands.

The community trusted in the DAL process, with more than 550 submissions in 2022 calling for protection of the Western Port Woodlands.

During public hearings in March and April 2023, community and conservation groups demonstrated the environmental and biodiversity values of the woodlands. They put forward a strong case to apply planning overlays to protect these values on both public and private land.

The planning minister’s own ecology expert, James Garden, recommended that the Bass Coast Statement of Planning Policy should:

•	explicitly recognise the unique, significant and intrinsic biodiversity value of the Western Port Woodlands corridor as a whole, irrespective of land tenure, and the potential for cumulative, permanent impacts associated with extractive industries in the region.
•	acknowledge the direct conflict between current and future mining operations and the conservation of biodiversity in the region and provide a clear strategy to address this matter. This should include development of biodiversity conservation objectives for the Western Port Woodlands corridor that are independent of land tenure or use, and consider all areas of high value habitat and critical wildlife corridors that link these areas.

A conclave of ecologists reporting to the panel unanimously supported these recommendations, adding ‘Collectively the Western Port Woodlands are of national significance and are irreplaceable’.

The escalating conflict between sand mining operations and the biodiversity values is highlighted in the 2021 Victorian National Parks Association report Western Port Woodlands – wildlife corridor or sand pit?

In the midst of widely documented ecosystem decline in Victoria, we call on you to honour the evidence and the will of the community, and increase protections by accepting the following recommendations for the Bass Coast DAL: 
•	Apply Environmental Significance Overlays over the Western Port Woodlands, irrespective of land tenure.
•	Release the Standing Advisory Committee’s report on the Bass Coast DAL to keep the DAL process open and transparent.
•	Commission the necessary survey work to identify the values and native vegetation connectivity of the Western Port Woodlands across public and private land, to establish a permanent wildlife corridor/biolink.

We also call on you to meet with the local community and conservation groups to better understand the on-ground impact of sand mining on this rare ecosystem and the wildlife that inhabit it.

Yours sincerely,

The Western Port Woodlands is pure magic.

Snuffly Southern Brown Bandicoots and mighty Lace Monitors fossick among the grasses, wildflowers and orchids.

These patches of bushland are a haven for threatened plants and animals. They ‘re also at risk from industrial mining and inappropriate development.

In 2019 the Bass Coast was declared a ‘Distinctive Area and Landscape’. This doesn’t mean it’s safe, but it does mean a chance to change how this natural wonder is looked after into the future. Those decisions are being made right now.

Call on the environment and planning ministers to take some clear steps to protect this wildlife corridor from industrial sand mining.

There is a better future for the bandicoots, Powerful Owls, rare orchids, reptiles and fungi. Together we’re going to make it happen.

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Learn more about the woodlands.

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