SERENDIP SAY: Lara residents to play key role in You Yangs masterplan delivery

LARA community members have been granted their wish of a community reference group to guide implementation of a masterplan for the You Yangs and Serendip Sanctuary.

Parks Victoria confirmed at a community meeting in Lara earlier this month that an advisory group would provide input into future steps of the You Yangs Precinct Masterplan, following growing concern at its implications on the animal sanctuary in recent months.

Lara Care Group organised the forum attended by Lara MP Ella George, City of Greater Geelong Windermere Ward councillors Anthony Aitken and Kylie Gryzbek and members of Lara Community Network, which includes the town’s Lions club, chamber of commerce and sporting club.

Attendees said the meeting was at times emotional as community members expressed their frustration with handling of the site since the masterplan’s release in February.

Lara Care Group president Barry White said it was a positive result for Lara to walk away with confirmation the reference group would be formed.

“[Parks] did acknowledge they’d made a mistake in not establishing a stakeholder reference group before they started, which was a requirement under the plan,” he said.

“We expect we’ll play a predominant role in determining where the funds, will be allocated to which projects and when.”

But Mr White said he remained concerned about parts of the strategy, and whether Serendip would receive its fair share of the precinct’s funding pie.

Other community fears have centred around the masterplan’s idea to remove permanent captive breeding from the sanctuary, which was the original purpose of the government buying the site in 1959, and only using captive breeding as part of occasional “targeted species breeding activities”.

“We’re quite anxious, given that the masterplan includes both You Yangs and Serendip; they’re two quite different experiences,” Mr White said.

“Serendip is all about wildlife viewing, whereas the You Yangs is much more about active tourism, nature tourism or recreational tourism.

“We want to make sure that the money doesn’t just go to the You Yangs… we fear that Serendip will be largely stripped of the very thing that’s attracted people to it.

The You Yangs precinct received an $11 million funding commitment from Ms George during her and her party’s successful state election campaign last year, which she said at the time would “protect the special location for generations to come”.

Before that announcement COGG, led by Crs Gryzbek and Aitken, had agreed to raise its concerns about the wildlife removal from and deterioration of Serendip Sanctuary by writing to the state government.

Parks has indicated it will invite a cross-section of community stakeholders to join the group in the coming weeks, who will provide advice to the authority on how to achieve key objectives in the state government’s masterplan.