Friends against ‘sanitised’ foreshore

FRIENDS of Lake Wendouree Natural Environment group will soon mark their third anniversary.

Holding a small COVID-compliant meeting of members at a foreshore pavilion on Tuesday, 17 August at 6pm, they’ll celebrate the lake ecosystem in its current state.

Member Judith Bailey said the Friends formed in 2018 to advocate for the area’s wildlife, which they say will be impacted by the installation of 220 proposed State-funded lights along the entire Moneghetti Track.

“More lighting changes those critical hours that wildlife becomes more active, changing the length of their day and night,” she said.

“If you extend dusk and dawn, you’re changing the biological clock of animals, their movement, interaction and breeding. It’s selfish to do that on the foreshore where we have an abundance of wildlife.

“Where are their rights? Infrastructure is encroaching on the natural environment. The foreshore has almost become sanitised.”

Ms Bailey said 1800 people responded to a community survey in recent years about recreational lake use, with 80 per cent of those submissions supporting the lights.

“But this translates to less than 1.27 per cent of the total population at that time,” she said.

“Ninety-four-point-six per cent of lake users use it in the day. The other 5.4 per cent after dusk and before dawn; a tiny amount of the population.

“Lights will also impact the broader environment people appreciate, like the wonderful changes in natural lighting at sunrise and sunset.”

The Friends include lake precinct residents, and representatives of environmental committees like Ballarat Astronomical Society, the Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat, Friends of the Canadian Corridor, Birdlife Ballarat, and the International Dark Sky Association.

They encourage other locals to meet in their own groups of up to 10 people in other locations around the foreshore on the 17th, in support of the cause.