Merri Creek needs your help NOW!

Merri Creek ACTION ALERT

We need your help on this issue, which is the biggest problem we have ever faced.

Badly planned urban expansion threatens fauna and flora

Victoria's Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, has released the final North Growth Corridor Plan to extend Melbourne's suburbs 15km from Craigieburn north to Wallan. The package includes yet more expansion of the urban growth boundary into the green wedges and around Wallan, and fast-tracked Precinct Structure Plans to facilitate development of large slabs of developer-owned land at Lockerbie, Lockerbie North and Merrifield West.

However the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, which is supposed to prescribe the conservation measures for threatened species and communities, has not been released.

Our alternative has been ignored

The Friends of Merri Creek have been advocating for many years for a conservation reserve network across the upper Merri catchment that would protect and sustain the wildlife, native wildflower grasslands, ancient River Red Gums, wetlands and waterways corridors. It seems that our proposals, and comments on the draft Growth Corridor Plan, have been ignored by the State Government and the 'planners' at the Growth Areas Authority (whose role is to facilitate urban growth, not conservation).

You can help by writing now

We urge you to write a letter to metropolitan and/or local newspapers, your local (State) MPs, and the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, expressing your concerns at the lack of conservation provisions in the growth plan.

Letter writing hints:

You could refer to some the bad aspects of the plan:

·         The Growling Grass Frog (GGF) conservation corridor along the Merri will be narrowed to only 50m wide and straddled by the town centre of Lockerbie. This is likely to lead to the loss of the most important populations of this endangered species in the Merri catchment, according to researcher Dr Geoff Heard.

·         No new conservation reserves are shown on the growth corridor plan.

·         There is no sign of a promised extensive grassy woodland (i.e. Red Gum) reserve.

·         A token east-west "potential biodiversity link (to be further investigated)" extends across only part of the growth corridor and is not even continuous, being interrupted by quarry zones.

·         A dense grid of new freeways and 6-and 4-lane arterial roads, with no new rail line, will lock in unsustainable car dependence for residents and workers in the new suburbs.

·         Large areas within the extended urban growth boundary around Wallan are quite unsuitable for urban development, being flood-prone (the former Hernes Swamp), or steep land with highly erodible soils.

·         Between the draft and final corridor plans, even more land has been moved from green wedge or rural conservation zonings to residential or urban, in an apparent effort to maximise developer profits.

Please write ASAP.

Regards,

Ray Radford,

Secretary, Friends of Merri Creek