PARK WATCH Article December 2024 |

Grassy Plains Network’s Adrian Marshall celebrates two important wins

We won – twice! Pacific National has withdrawn their proposal for a giant grassland-smashing rail freight hub at Little River, between Melbourne and Geelong.

And the icing on the cake? Environment Victoria recognised the determination and hard work of the Grassy Plains Network (GPN) and the Little River Action Group (LRAG) with a Campaign Impact Award.

LRAG spearheaded the powerful community campaign to safeguard the verdant gateway to the You Yangs Regional Park. GPN and VNPA bolstered their efforts with evidence-based submissions on the numerous ecological disasters the proposal would unleash.

It was a case of big business dictating de facto government policy for private gain. This distorted the very concept of green wedges and threatened to obliterate significant areas of Critically Endangered grassland.

The plan posed long-term risks to the Ramsar wetlands downstream and would have devastated the amenity of Little River. This region, nestled between the Brisbane Ranges and Port Phillip Bay, is a natural treasure trove.

The Ramsar-listed wetlands and the rich marine web of life along the western shoreline of the bay are home to more bird species than Kakadu. Here, one can still find stunning grasslands and orchid-rich heathlands. It’s where you’d likely find the biggest population of endangered Fat-tailed Dunnarts in Victoria. It’s where a Growling Grass Frog might hop to your doorstep. It’s where the potentially magnificent Western Grassland Reserve is taking shape.   

Yet, a troubling policy blindness prevails. These largely treeless, flat landscapes are seen only as convenient sites for sprawling infrastructure: solar farms, massive batteries, gas pipelines, freight hubs, youth detention centres and quarries.

Important stuff, no argument there, but we must remove the bureaucratic blinders to truly see this landscape with open eyes. Rocky grazing land is grassland home to endangered plants and animals. An unassuming roadside ditch can be a paradise for frogs. A tree line of non-indigenous sugar gums can provide refuge for microbats that skim silently over the paddocks at night.

Last year, along the railway line that runs alongside where Pacific National was poised to disrupt nature’s delicate balance, something of note emerged. A rare moth, Neritodes verrucata, unseen since 1917, was spotted and documented on iNaturalist.

We should know by now these landscapes are too precious to lose to a dark streak of development fusing Melbourne and Geelong.

Policy makers, take another look. This region must not be sacrificed on the altar of dumb thought bubbles.  Our elected representatives must strengthen these natural values instead of eroding them.